Posted on 06/29/2024 11:00:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Oklahoma schools will be required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments to all grade school children.
Effective immediately, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters sent a memo to schools saying that grades five through 12 are required to refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for their “substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.”
Walters said the new curriculum is to ensure that “historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.”
“It’s crystal clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters said.
“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone. Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.”
However, critics argue the new rule is “trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Walters of “abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children,” arguing that it is “Christian Nationalism.”
Interfaith Alliance claimed that Walter’s memo is “religious coercion” and that the new rule projects a “dangerous, intimidating efforts to force a Christian nationalist agenda into our schools, our courts and our government.”
Walter’s decision comes after the state’s Supreme Court blocked an effort to establish the first publicly funded religious charter school in the U.S.
Walters called the ruling “one of the worst” decisions the Oklahoma Supreme Court has made.
“What the court did was rule against the parents of Oklahoma who have demanded more choices for their kids. We have a great opportunity to make sure that parents have the most options of any parents in the country here in Oklahoma, by giving them the ability to go to a public school, charter schools, private schools, this would have been the most unique charter school in the country,” Walters said.
What’s to stop Muslims for example, from demanding that the Koran be taught in public schools?
I go for CHURCH instead. PAGING PARENTS!
Oh, never mind.
the founders actually intended the bible to be the basis for a common culture for the USA.
BTW, the state supreme snort will soon strike this down just as they did the first christian charger school.
If the queer-an is taught, it should be to expose things like islam started as a religion, but morphed into political and military, and the subversive truths like it is fine for muslims to lie and even deny being muslims to further their cause.
Sure. Show me where the founding fathers referenced the Koran, or the principals espoused in the Koran, as part of our nation’s foundation.
The Koran has ZERO historical significance to our founding documents.
Steps in the right direction.
Add to that teaching the Constitution and we're on our way up to our destiny as a nation.
Well, the Ten Commandments have as much juice in Islam as they do in Christianity.
I think the whole thing is ridiculous. I went to Sunday school to learn about Moses. I went to public school to learn to read and write and cogitate.
I don’t need a union mouthpiece teaching my religion to my kids or grandkids.
Islam is hostile and incompatible with Christianity and the West. Just like Marxism. Islam is less religion and more a street gang that preaches violence to non-members. Muslims can’t possibly assimilate into the greater American culture.
Islam is overwhelming western Europe. America will soon, at best, be an island of civilization in a barbaric muslim world.
Our Bill of Rights isn’t a suicide pact.
Eff islam.
Did you read past the first sentence?
“What’s to stop Muslims for example, from demanding that the Koran be taught in public schools?”
They are NOT teaching the Bible. They are referring to its influence on the founding fathers.
We are a culturally Christian nation so the young needs to see where our culture came from.
Don’t expect gov’t schools to present the Bible seriously or accurately.
“What’s to stop Muslims for example, from demanding that the Koran be taught in public schools?”
They’re our (disgusting) guests in a country founded on the Bible. They can assimilate or go to a place that treats them better.
“I went to public school to learn to read and write and cogitate.”
I did, too. And we sang hymns from the little song book in Music classes. (I still have one.) And we had prayer. And we were “let go” every Friday for Religious Instruction.
The Koran has ZERO historical significance to our founding documents.
With the exception of obama, Presidents on down all take thieir oath of office with their left hand on the Bible, and their right hand raised.
(obama is a muzzie and therfore took the oath on the Koran. Shamed into a redo on the Bible later...what a jackoff..).
there is zero chance this stands up to court scrutiny
I'm a little troubled as well, but it looks like they're trying to get around that by teaching it as history and not religion.
Have you been to Tulsa lately? Too little too late.
I was raised without religion in a non-religious home, but the house had the collection of three generations of book lover, some 5,000 books. When I was thirteen, my mother handed me a copy of the KJV Bible and told me to read it because it was perhaps the most influential books ever written as well as beautifully written. I read it with pleasure, enjoyed the stories, the poetic writing, and the poetry. I also admired the ancient Jews and Christians for understanding how to create a working livable society.
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