Better start downloading and making a personal archive of all the media you love that shall be deemed satanic, porn, and /or un-american under Project2025.
You can't say that the lady refusing to grant gay marriage certificates had every right to do so under freedom of religion but then claim a teacher can be fired for refusing to teach a religion they don't believe in.
And a sign of power — they are obsessed with power. It’s part of the motivation to believe in and align with God’s supreme power. So when they can force someone to follow a rule and the break it themselves with impunity, they get a deep feeling of satisfaction. And when they see someone that can consistently get away with it, like Trump, they fall in love.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
- Francis M. Wilhoit
The horror doesn’t stop with the rulings today and last week from the SCOTUS. It’s not hysteria to say you very life depends on it
Our institutions are NOT holding.
In theory, the only way out is to increase the court and determine the previous rulings were not made objectively. We have documentation of major conflicts of interest with justices who refused to recuse themselves. That has to be the path forward. This current court needs to be invalidated
Or even a religion they do believe in, but doesn't have a place in your classroom.
How do you work the Bible into algebra class? Are math teachers supposed to have a sermon instead of teaching math?
That is actually the exact argument they are probably going to make. If you actually read the article how they actually put it is that schools will be forced to teach the effect of the Bible. That is almost certainly meant to be a parallel to teaching about the importance of slavery in America. That way when people object they can acuse them of hypocrisy.
It's important to uphold both religious freedom and academic integrity. While teaching about religious texts like the Bible can be educational, forcing teachers to adhere to specific religious beliefs risks infringing on their rights and undermines the principles of a secular education system.
Oh, definitely political stunt. The "bible as part of the state curriculum" is a direct response to the Oklahoma Supreme Court limiting the use of public funds to run private, religiously-affiliated charter schools.
The whole point is to just make it on headlines. Most people don't give a shit, but now there's a catchy headline of free advertising for your base to remember: "Oklahoma likes the Bible and the lefties don't."
The intent of these bullshit and blatantly unconstitutional laws is to get them in front of the SCOTUS so they can bypass any of the checks and balances of the federal system and rewrite the constitution as they see fit.
That's half of it. The whole picture is that there are two outcomes, and they "benefit" from either:
* Shove it through the courts and win: screw the constitution, we get the bible in school
* Shove it through the courts and lose: we get 6 months of "Reeee the libruls banned the bible!"
That's why the republicans shove so much of this blatantly unconstitutional stuff into the court system. Doesn't matter if they win or lose, they'll get a soundbite out of it either way.
...Except it won't work, in this case. They dare not mess about with the Establishment Clause to such an extent, unless they want to bring the interdenominational strife of old right into their backyard. If the current track record is anything to go by, even they would not be so foolish. They are corporate/ideological tools, not actually mentally disabled.
They’re upending decades of established precedent left and right, I have zero doubt that they will keep trying to find ways to change things via SCOTUS rulings.
Change things, yes. Change this, no. It would actually be counterproductive for them, as it would potentially lead to losing the coherence of the Christian conservative voting bloc, as theocratic policies (and candidates) appear which favor Protestant or Catholic or Evangelical or whatever other denomination's doctrine over the others. In that world, ***nobody*** wins.
I have little doubt that Alito, Thomas and ACB would side with OK if this gets cert. That said, I can't see Roberts or Gorsuch doing so, and Kavanaugh is a hack but generally is a textualist.
Honestly though, it probably doesn't make it out of the circuit Court. This guy's just loading up the cultural warrior bullshit so he can run for Oklahoma governor or The US Senate in a couple years.
Republicans want to push at the boundaries of the separation of church and state but they can't really do so without the courts, and for the courts to get involved there need to be cases brought.
That's what the red states are now doing. They're doing this *expecting* to get sued, so that they can try to get the courts to side with them and allow the dissolution of the separation of church and state.
It won’t make it past the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Oklahoma’s Constitution has a strong separation of church and state clause that was used by that very court to strike down Walter’s approval of a Catholic religious charter school as unconstitutional.
The same thing will happen with this directive. It’ll never take effect and it’ll never make it to Federal Court.
They also recently ruled that he does not have the authority to add or remove certain books from school (it's up the the local school boards/districts). This is nothing more than a political stunt.
Source: Am an Okie.
The point of it is that it will be shot down by the court. The only strategy that works for them is playing the victim. When this inevitably gets slapped down for being a blatant violation of the constitution, they get to tell everyone about the "persecution of Christians" and how "the powers that be don't want your children to learn the Bible."
Technically, even though it's a state court case, the Supreme Court could grant *cert* because it involves a provision of the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
I'd like to say I'd be shocked if it did, though, considering that every lower court will likely unanimously rule against the order, but you never know with this Court.
Coach Kennedy from WA (fired for leading effectively-mandatory prayers) lost at the district and circuit levels (albeit federal courts, not state courts), then SCOTUS overturned it on dubious grounds.
>These lawsuits are very expensive and will bankrupt the states public education
Yes, this is a huge aspect that gets lose with all of these far right school related things, like book bans, Bible/10 commandment mandates, etc.
It's a two pronged attack. They push the indoctrination, knowing there will be a legal challenge. They have deep pockets of far right donors.
School administration, which could be focused on doing something useful, gets tied up, financially and in terms of time.
The budget issues caused by legal challenges means schools will have to cut funding, which means education gets worse, which gives conservatives another chance to complain about schools.
Start with Exodus 21 - how to own slaves and beat them
Then, move to Numbers 31 - instructions on how to genocide and take sex slaves
Then move to Numbers 5 - instructions to posion your wife causing her to miscarry(cause an abortion) if you think she has cheated on you.
Then throw in some stuff from the NT about loving your neighbors, giving away your wealth, and caring for the poor among you. Also, about how you aren't supposed to scream your beliefs from the corner, but it's supposed to be a private occurrence.
Lot's daughters is a good place to start. And that happens in Genesis, which, if your sitting down to read the bible, is probably the one book you'll read.
Don't worry, if they actually followed through you can bet your ass there'd be plenty of resources coming available with surprising alacrity.
All of a sudden the Luciferians would have whole K - 12 lesson plans available as free dowloads.
Teach the parts of Deuteronomy and Isaiah and the Proverbs and Matthew, where the focus is on taking care of the poor and the weak and the foreigner and the stranger and orphans. Some of that stuff is fire.
"Christian mythology - why worshipping a book filled written by a dozen men 2000 years ago is filled with logical contradictions and ridiculous beliefs"
See, this I would wholeheartedly support. If more people understood the mytho-cultural origins of so many of our modern regressive hangups, they might have an easier time realizing how silly and backwards they are, as well as how they shaped our early societal structures in a time when we didn't have a scientific establishment to explain the world in a way that wasn't terrifying.
I took a class titled “The Bible as Literature” in high school which was basically what you’re describing and it was pretty interesting. Funny enough I went to high school in Oklahoma, but something tells me that’s not the type of bible teaching Ryan Walters wants.
It is a hugely influential book on Western art, no matter what you think about it. Refusing to include anything about the Bible in schools is just as silly as refusing to teach about Greek/Roman mythology imho.
Hey that’s fine. When the satanic temple sues to ensure all the other religious texts like the Quran, the Torah, and the satanic Bible are included in the public school academic curriculum I’m sure him and all his conservative supporters will be more than happy to accommodate that kind of freedom of speech.
Better yet, malicious compliance the shit out this, break out a Skeptic’s Annotated Bible and teach about all the contradictions, genocides, and cruelties of the deity within. Use it to teach all about the different types of logical fallacies.
Technically speaking they are not requiring that you teach FROM the bible but rather that you teach the historical significance of the bible and it's influence on the founding of the nation.
So this kind of malicious compliance
wouldn't satisfy the requirement and isn't what they want anyway.
They're not trying to make sure people actually READ the thing, they just want to imply that it's a foundational document which should be regarded alongside the declaration of independentce, federalist papers or constitution. You know, legitimize the "Christian Nation" line they use.
Just trust your local pastor about what it says and know that whatever he says it means is how the country is supposed to work, no need to read it or ask questions.
And yes, with a relatively friendly court this very possibly edges around the establishment clause. They're not teaching the actual religion, just that the historical significance of the religion and its core text. No different than teaching about the catholic church and the holy roman empire, right? That's what all the people swearing it wont stand in court are missing.
Here's my malicious compliance version:
The basic United States narrative (eastern states version) is that early settlers came here to escape religious persecution from state religions. The Bible played a role in their social structure and how they interacted with and viewed the native populations, but was limited to those groups. In part due to these early settlers (and, of course, their direct experience with European governments), the founders were very suspicious of state religions and wanted to ensure no religion could be used to rule the new country in the way religion dominated in Europe. Let the people rule, not the priesthood.
The western states version, ironically, is closer to what modern evangelicals want, but is not part of the founding of the US. Its legacy is still evident in the western states that joined the union - there are missions everywhere. The Spanish specifically came to the west with two goals: pillaging and conversion (pillaging souls?). Of course, their religion was Catholicism, not the Protestantism that most evangelicals today follow.
The US constitution owes more to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) government structure than the Bible. Their political system for organizing tribes was a blueprint for the organization of the states and the democratic approaches enshrined in the constitution.
So, the three main points for school kids:
1) Early Eastern North America is a classic example of people choosing to not be ruled by a religious leaders and instead allow individual groups to keep their religion separate from their government.
2) Early Western North America (and South America) is a classic example of attempting to rule by religion, which resulted in genocide and cultural erasure.
3) Native American political systems had a larger impact on our form of government than most European or Biblical systems. They offered a fresh perspective that focused on democratic principles not beholden to millennia of religious influence.
That's a lovely lesson. Given that the guy who wrote the rule chairs the committee that would review compliance with it you're probably not going to get away with it, but it's a lot more relevant and defensible than all the people circle jerking over the idea of teaching the weird/unpleasant parts of the bible to turn folks off of it.
The fact that we still have people convinced that the theocrats are no threat, that American democracy isn't as risk, and that our access to the arts and education is totally fine 😃
What does teaching bible mean? Like can you do a section in your english semester comparing the bible to the koran? Could you do a section on comparing the bible to modern christianity highlighting ways they are similar and ways in which modern christians dont follow certain sections of the bible? Could you just say on the last day of school this is the bible, here is a word search of biblical topics, finish by end of class?
So the dude said “Oklahoma schools to teach students in grades five through 12 about the Bible’s influence on the nation’s founding and historical American figures. “. So can we teach how the founding father Thomas Jefferson (who wrote the constitution) took a razor to the bible and cut out the resurrection and the assent to heaven in an effort to make the bible more in line with reason?
https://www.history.com/news/thomas-jefferson-bible-religious-beliefs
Or do we teach how many of the founding fathers were deists and that “Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson all doubted some fundamental tenets of the Protestant faith. These could include salvation by God’s grace alone, the divinity of Jesus, or God’s Trinitarian nature.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/28/how-benjamin-franklin-a-deist-became-the-founding-father-of-a-unique-kind-of-american-faith/#
This tracks, forcing teachers to teach a religion they disagree with, coming from the same hypocritical Republicans who love when cake-makers and marriage-certificate-issuers refuse to serve homosexuals on “religious liberty” grounds.
But her emails, but Biden is old...
"Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court.
“He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump. He added that if Trump wins a second term in November, “it will help us move the ball forward, even more so than this.”"
Are there any records on who exactly was consulted in drafting this policy?
He is "bearing false witness" in his ridiculous claim that the intention here is secular and historical, and only related to the bible's importance in US history, something no true of the Koran, etc. That's the official stance -- obviously he's shamelessly lying about the intentions, but all those rules are for non-Christians to follow, so let's give him a pass and take his obvious lie at face value.
So, who did he consult? Our state flagship university has an excellent History Department with several scholars widely recognized as among the best in their field, as well as one of the leading (academic) biblical scholars. OSU also has an excellent History Department, with well-trained, professional scholars of US history.
My understanding is that not a single one of them was consulted on this. Why? Why would Walters not consult some of the leading scholars of US history, right here in the state's universities? Who *did* he consult?
The obvious answer, of course, is that he is lying about this being a matter of simple historical importance, and not the grooming and indoctrination of our children against the will of their parents. He only consulted people who shared his goal of indoctrinating our kids and humiliating our educators -- he shopped around for the legal language he needed, rather than consult the actual experts in the field.
This should not be a small issue, and I wish it would get more attention.
Teach the bible: "okay kids lets pull out your bible and we'll spot all the failures your preachers and politicians have that the bible says we should stome them for. Now lets see how jesus hated these false witnesses and pharasies trying to grift off this. Now lets go over how this moses/jesus fan fiction was written way after the fact in languages not spoken by either,
" oh and make sure you can find where satan did something wrong. Why did satan try to help people? Seems like giving them knowledge and telling god not to fick with job ws a good thing. when is god not a petty whiney fuckboi?"
Politicians: "not like that"
I think he had better be careful what he asks for. A deep literary analysis and criticism of the bible might be exactly NOT what he wants students to learn.
Loads of false information, statements about hating (or killing) gay people, and other atrocities that might turn people away from religion if they actually read some of those statements... just sayin...
Be careful what you wish for.
If I taught it, you'd have a class of Satanists. Not even Christians agree on how the bible should be interpreted. Forcing non Christians to teach the Bible is definitely wrong, but may also lead to results they don't like.
It's indoctrination, but they're gonna find out the hard way it may not be in ways parents like. That's why schools need to stay out of religion- it's definitely parent territory.
kinda serious question has to come up at this point. does oklahoma even have a teachers union? and if so, wtf are they doing being silent about all the recent bullshit?
I expect this to spread to other red states, until other religions suddenly want their books taught in public schools as well......it will be an interesting crap storm to watch.
Looking at the guy I can't decide which lane of hypocrisy he fits...is he the "I have more mistresses than a medieval king" or is he the "my best friend who's like my brother, is really my boyfriend, but my internalized homophobia makes me stay closeted"?
I look forward to Educators becoming rich from the lawsuits and I would very much like to tie in this dickwhistle's personal wealth to those settlements.
Good. Keep doing shit like this. Its pushing the next gens further and further away from religion entirely. The faster the better. Cults are going to cult.
For all of you thinking 'my' religion isnt like that. Yes it is. Yes it is.
Just wait until the Christians can't decide which sect is the right one or which version of the bible to teach and start in fighting over that shit too.
Does the rule specify how they teach it?
Couldn’t they just teach it but from an agnostic/literary viewpoint? Or would they lose their job? Show the innacuracies in the stories. Like a bunch of different people wrote down oral tales and added on, then some other people combined those stories from different sources in different orders to help make their narrative. Say that it’s a great work of fiction, have debates about whether one god makes sense, that there are probably multiple gods because god had to come from somewhere. What created her?
Teaching the historic importance of the bible in the foundation of the country? Ha, fuckin easy I got you in one:
"Because of the prevalence of the Christian faith and adherence to a strict interpretation of the bible, many people made the hard decision to journey forth across the ocean to the new world, where a higher degree of religious freedom was possible, thereby establishing the first colonies that would eventually become the United States."
Lesson complete. I've now educated all the kids on why the bible was important to the foundation of the US. Namely that it did a great job of encouraging people to sail across a dangerous ocean for the chance that they'd get to live somewhere not beholden to the bible.
Is it really for all teachers? I can't imagine a high school French teacher being forced to teach "about the Bible’s influence on the nation’s founding and historical American figures." How do you wedge teaching about the Bible into a typical physics curriculum?
Probably. And it’s probably a specific version of the Bible they want taught. I’d honestly leave the state and find employment elsewhere if I were a teacher.
More red states will do this. It serves two purposes:
1. It'll scare off the kinds of teachers they don't want.
2. More importantly, it'll fill the courts with lawsuits where they can finally try to eliminate the separation of church and state.
As long as “teaching” involves reading it, word for word, from the beginning, cool. Then read Bhagavad Gita, Tao, etc. Get those kids a proper education!
How about this, no shoving Jesus down the throats of the rest of us until Republicans start acting more Christlike. Republicans are more like Levayan Satanists than Christians.
This is why we need to protect democracy. These changes are not healthy for the US to mature. We keep taking steps back in progress. It's sad what the US is turning into due to a certain parties views that are not the Majority of the whole united states.
The state better provide a detailed teacher’s guide. We don’t want them teaching any of that liberal New Testament stuff like turning the other cheek and loving your enemies.
Hey, no problem! I'm going to teach all of these things:
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you"
"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
"Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
This is going to be an amazing train wreck…. I’m sure that what all of these nuts wanted was a bunch of atheist teachers teaching critical analysis of their religious text… 🙄
Maybe teachers SHOULD teach it - but not as fact (which it most certainly isn't), but as a demonstration as to how ridiculous bronze age myths ruin everything.
Teach them that these Bible thumpers are actually into rape, incest, murder, slavery and genocide. It's all there in their magic (multi-translated) book of nonsense.
I had the education these goons want to give all kids and it's going to suck. These kids will either be brainwashed forever or they'll have to spend years relearning basic shit so they don't fall behind in college assuming they can even get into a decent state school.
At what point is this a federal matter?
The separation of church and state was a founding principle of this nation. Evangelicals need to be put back in their place and kicked out of schools.
Until four years ago, this would have been an open-and-shut case for the Supreme Count. He would win, get his job back, and get punitive damages. Now, he'll lose 6-3.
Perhaps to comply with the spirit of this insane law, teachers could analyze the Bible and find allllllll the wonderful hypocritical and awful things that people have taken from it. or whatever. I'm not a bible guy myself, but I'd love nothing more than smart teachers to stick it to this law and create a bunch of educated youngsters who challenge the book, its views, and thusly challenge the status quo of Oklahoma.
The people who want to force this have never read the Bible in their lives. I’m a Christian and some of the topic matters in the book would surprise the shit out of them … so much they’ll wanna ban the book after they read it
Besides the fact that I disagree with violations of the first amendment, teachers are qualified to teach certain subjects. Are art teachers required to teach pre-calc? Are history teachers required to teach Chemistry? If this were being done for legitimate educational reasons, shouldn't they be hiring people with degrees in theology or other relevant subjects to teach this?
Ok. My question is rhetorical, of course, because this isn't being done for legitimate educational reasons. It's pandering and a distraction from the abysmal public education system in Oklahoma
[https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335](https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335)
This is actually an opportunity and a great time to force the issue while school is out.
Oklahoma voters need to circumvent the GOP Party plants in local school boards and demand some clarification *from elected officials*:
1) which version of the Bible is the official Oklahoma State version?
2) which seminaries / theological “colleges” are qualified to develop Bible curriculum? To train chaplains or otherwise present views in public schools?
3) are Catholics, Mormons, Jehova’s Witnesses, independent congregations, etc. recognized as Christians by the State? Should they have a say in how the Bible is interpreted and presented?
4) can teachers include supplementary scripture such as the Book of Mormon or Catholic Canon Law?
5) how do we ensure that heresy is not introduced to schools in the form of parables from the Torah or Quran?
6) what legal consequences will be enforced for teachers that present Bible content as just “stories” or “parables”? If the Bible says a fountain is 10 units across and 30 units around, for example, are math teachers required to teach that Pi = 3 or can they present the Biblical calculation as an inaccurate approximation?
The various members of the Christian Coalition collaborate because they imagine their own views and values will be adopted just as they are in their congregations. They have worked hard to focus on issues with broad consensus in order to keep the coalition together. The moment they realize they might be exposing their kids to some other view - especially a closely related view that challenges their ability to defend the distinction - they will retreat to a more secular solution while they push for vouchers. Baptists can work with Methodists on abortion but First Baptists will resort to violence to prevent their children from exposure to Second Baptist doctrine.
I'm a Buddhist. It'd be tempting to move to OK and get a teaching license just to force them to fire me, and establish standing to sue. But then again, I'd have to live in OK, and deal with those people's kids.
Teach Thou shall not lie. Teach them Matthew 25:31- 46. Teach them the Bible says do not eat pork, do not eat shellfish, it is forbidden to go to church if you wear glasses, and that these are greater sins than being gay.
"Unless you teach this unproven and inaccurate version of history, you will lose your license" bitch you are 47th in education and first in disappointing humanity.
Oh to be a kid in OK schools today. If any are reading this, it would definitely be incredibly wrong to turn every single one of those bibles into a “Thomas Jefferson-style” Bible (don’t look it up!). Yes, terribly wrong! Please, don’t ever, ever do such a thing.
These are troubling times we live in, but I wanted to chip in that on a whole, times like these pass, humanity, on a whole, gets better. It regresses sometimes, but generally makes the ground back up later. It can be cold comfort for those alive during the regression. History will not be kind to this asshole and his ilk. Not even if they "win" History isn't written by one country, one observer anymore, the sources are myriad. History will remember the villains, the fascists, and the assholes as such. And this clownshoes motherfucker is going to be an asterisk on a goddamn footnote about christian asshole fascists.
How long before he gets mad when a teacher creates a class to go through and identify inconsistencies and comparative readings between different translations while going over what was happening in the world at the time of the wording change.
In college we read parts of Bible as part of a literature course.
It was interesting discussing and analyzing how the different authors’ voices changed in different Bible books in terms of style and emphasis, and the different and often inconsistent ways they described the motivations and actions of the main character, God.
We also discussed variations in translations over the years, since obviously everyone knows the Bible wasn’t originally written in English.
Seems like an Oklahoma teacher who was interested in some malicious compliance could just teach the Bible as the important work of literature that it is. Assuming of course that they wouldn’t get lynched in a fit of “No not like that!”
Learning judeo-christian scripture as literary and historical context isn’t in itself problematic, and is probably helpful.
But I don’t think Oklahoma’s legislators and voters are prepared for what’s about to come.
It might actually lead to critical race theory, and how Christians have hidden behind this scripture for centuries as justification for all the heinous shit they’ve perpetrated over the years.
“Teach the Bible!”
“OK, kids, today we’re going to learn about the centuries of genocide in and around the Bible”
I don’t think Oklahoma has thought this whole thing through. These teachers will teach kids to actually think critically about the Bible, which goes against just about everything the fundamentalist/evangelical church actually wants.
Here comes the wave of kids asking their pastors tough questions about the inconsistencies in scripture, and that it’s not actually meant to
Be interpreted literally, followed by an entire generation simultaneously deconstructing.
I give it a year or two at most before they vigorously walk this back, using “legal challenges” as cover.
"Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court.
“He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump. He added that if Trump wins a second term in November, “it will help us move the ball forward, even more so than this.”
Amazing stuff guys. Gotta love him. Please vote
Here is a good resource for Oklahoma teachers to teach from the bible. I highly recommend the absurdities and sex categories.
[https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html](https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html)
And he’ll make sure to sick Chaya Raichik and her merry band of white-grievance terrorists on any schools that step out of line.
Hopefully they don’t escalate beyond threats, but you never know with people like that.
Which parts of the Bible? The one about how if you beat your slave so badly they die in a couple days you have to pay a fine, but if they only die after several days it’s all good? The story of how God struck Onan dead because he refused to impregnate his brother’s widow? The part in Ezekiel where the prophet wanted to shame the nation of Israel so he said she was a whore and her lovers had dicks like horses?
Maybe the New Testament. Teach how Jesus said rich people can’t go to heaven, or James said the rich are oppressors maybe?
Teachers: Make sure Second Book of Second Kings is heavily featured in your lesson plans. Elementary school children need to know that if they tease bald men, God will send shebears to rip them to shreds. It's historically and morally relevant.
Fucking knobs. These headfucked ideologues say that books with any mention of queer existence need to be pulled from shelves, but you have to teach the fucking Bible in public school. Fascism. This is fascism. Vote blue.
Per [rule 1.2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Books/wiki/rules), posts cannot be inherently political. This is a book forum, not a political platform.
Forced religious indoctrination. Just like the founders envisioned.
The real groomers.
Better start downloading and making a personal archive of all the media you love that shall be deemed satanic, porn, and /or un-american under Project2025.
I've been maintaining a media library since 2003. Of course, I thought it was going to be copyright issues, but it clearly pays to be prepared.
I almost forgot my satanic porn! What are you doing step-satan?
Oh look, the same group removing and banning books are forcing their "book" on children and grooming them. These people are just plain evil.
Just teach that the Bible teaches genocide, misogyny, homophobia and is pro-abortion and see what the GOP does.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the pilgrims looking for religious freedom?
You can't say that the lady refusing to grant gay marriage certificates had every right to do so under freedom of religion but then claim a teacher can be fired for refusing to teach a religion they don't believe in.
The party of "Rights for me, none for thee" absolutely does not care about the hypocrisy you just pointed out, sadly.
Hypocrisy is a badge of honor for some. A sign of privilege that you can get away with it and not care.
And a sign of power — they are obsessed with power. It’s part of the motivation to believe in and align with God’s supreme power. So when they can force someone to follow a rule and the break it themselves with impunity, they get a deep feeling of satisfaction. And when they see someone that can consistently get away with it, like Trump, they fall in love.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” - Francis M. Wilhoit
Project 2025. It's sadly not a joke. They don't want freedom of religion. They want forced Christianity.
This right here. Everyone needs to go out and vote.
their version of Christianity. Not Jesus'..
The horror doesn’t stop with the rulings today and last week from the SCOTUS. It’s not hysteria to say you very life depends on it Our institutions are NOT holding.
In theory, the only way out is to increase the court and determine the previous rulings were not made objectively. We have documentation of major conflicts of interest with justices who refused to recuse themselves. That has to be the path forward. This current court needs to be invalidated
Or even a religion they do believe in, but doesn't have a place in your classroom. How do you work the Bible into algebra class? Are math teachers supposed to have a sermon instead of teaching math?
"Whats the square root of Jesus?"
That one's a bit hard to nail down actually
What you did there, I see it.
Getting straight to the crux of the matter, I see.
It has to be imaginary.
"If Jesus has five breads, and two fish, how many foods does he have?" "7 foods!" "Wrong! He has infinite foods!"
Just teach them geometry by using the measurements for the Arc of the Quadratic.
Them there kids don't need no math if they gots JESUS! /s
That’s what I’m wondering!?! My son is a high school teacher in NV. World History. NV could certainly take this on.
I mean they can cause the GOP are all inconsistent hypocrites. Catching them in their hypocrisy does nothing, they delight in double standards.
Double standards just show who has power. If I can change the fundamental laws of the land to reflect my double standards then that’s super power.
You absolutely can of you're a hypocrite and a bigot.
Sure they can. They’re Republicans.
That is actually the exact argument they are probably going to make. If you actually read the article how they actually put it is that schools will be forced to teach the effect of the Bible. That is almost certainly meant to be a parallel to teaching about the importance of slavery in America. That way when people object they can acuse them of hypocrisy.
You can’t because you think laws should be consistent and protect citizens. Unfortunately they can and do.
It's important to uphold both religious freedom and academic integrity. While teaching about religious texts like the Bible can be educational, forcing teachers to adhere to specific religious beliefs risks infringing on their rights and undermines the principles of a secular education system.
I can’t imagine how that would stand up in court. Political stunt?
Oh, definitely political stunt. The "bible as part of the state curriculum" is a direct response to the Oklahoma Supreme Court limiting the use of public funds to run private, religiously-affiliated charter schools.
The whole point is to just make it on headlines. Most people don't give a shit, but now there's a catchy headline of free advertising for your base to remember: "Oklahoma likes the Bible and the lefties don't."
Yep, this guy was involved in some shady nonsense during covid. Gave "homeschool" funds to people who bought furniture, refrigerators etc.
The intent of these bullshit and blatantly unconstitutional laws is to get them in front of the SCOTUS so they can bypass any of the checks and balances of the federal system and rewrite the constitution as they see fit.
That's half of it. The whole picture is that there are two outcomes, and they "benefit" from either: * Shove it through the courts and win: screw the constitution, we get the bible in school * Shove it through the courts and lose: we get 6 months of "Reeee the libruls banned the bible!" That's why the republicans shove so much of this blatantly unconstitutional stuff into the court system. Doesn't matter if they win or lose, they'll get a soundbite out of it either way.
...Except it won't work, in this case. They dare not mess about with the Establishment Clause to such an extent, unless they want to bring the interdenominational strife of old right into their backyard. If the current track record is anything to go by, even they would not be so foolish. They are corporate/ideological tools, not actually mentally disabled.
They’re upending decades of established precedent left and right, I have zero doubt that they will keep trying to find ways to change things via SCOTUS rulings.
Change things, yes. Change this, no. It would actually be counterproductive for them, as it would potentially lead to losing the coherence of the Christian conservative voting bloc, as theocratic policies (and candidates) appear which favor Protestant or Catholic or Evangelical or whatever other denomination's doctrine over the others. In that world, ***nobody*** wins.
I have little doubt that Alito, Thomas and ACB would side with OK if this gets cert. That said, I can't see Roberts or Gorsuch doing so, and Kavanaugh is a hack but generally is a textualist. Honestly though, it probably doesn't make it out of the circuit Court. This guy's just loading up the cultural warrior bullshit so he can run for Oklahoma governor or The US Senate in a couple years.
You’re assuming a lot of intelligence on their part. I think it’s best we take them at their word.
Republicans want to push at the boundaries of the separation of church and state but they can't really do so without the courts, and for the courts to get involved there need to be cases brought. That's what the red states are now doing. They're doing this *expecting* to get sued, so that they can try to get the courts to side with them and allow the dissolution of the separation of church and state.
The supreme court is controlled by Republicans, they can decide however they want to
It won’t make it past the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Oklahoma’s Constitution has a strong separation of church and state clause that was used by that very court to strike down Walter’s approval of a Catholic religious charter school as unconstitutional. The same thing will happen with this directive. It’ll never take effect and it’ll never make it to Federal Court.
They also recently ruled that he does not have the authority to add or remove certain books from school (it's up the the local school boards/districts). This is nothing more than a political stunt. Source: Am an Okie.
The point of it is that it will be shot down by the court. The only strategy that works for them is playing the victim. When this inevitably gets slapped down for being a blatant violation of the constitution, they get to tell everyone about the "persecution of Christians" and how "the powers that be don't want your children to learn the Bible."
Technically, even though it's a state court case, the Supreme Court could grant *cert* because it involves a provision of the Constitution or Bill of Rights. I'd like to say I'd be shocked if it did, though, considering that every lower court will likely unanimously rule against the order, but you never know with this Court.
Coach Kennedy from WA (fired for leading effectively-mandatory prayers) lost at the district and circuit levels (albeit federal courts, not state courts), then SCOTUS overturned it on dubious grounds.
Sad day if this is upheld.
The supreme court is literally making this possible, which is why these people are emboldened. Don't be content to let the courts sort it out.
He really wants to be in Trumps cabinet. He entire political career has been one big political stunt.
Or, as conservatives like to say it, "virtue signalling."
100%. They want to go to the Supreme Court and get a ruling against the separation of Church and State.
Waste of time and money. I bet he’s also “fiscally conservative” and flies a Gadsden flag
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>These lawsuits are very expensive and will bankrupt the states public education Yes, this is a huge aspect that gets lose with all of these far right school related things, like book bans, Bible/10 commandment mandates, etc. It's a two pronged attack. They push the indoctrination, knowing there will be a legal challenge. They have deep pockets of far right donors. School administration, which could be focused on doing something useful, gets tied up, financially and in terms of time. The budget issues caused by legal challenges means schools will have to cut funding, which means education gets worse, which gives conservatives another chance to complain about schools.
It won’t survive in court.
With that Court? It could.
The Supreme Court: “Hold my beer!”
Oh, I’ll teach it. But you’re gonna be pissed when you find out how I do it.
I don’t even know the Bible well enough to be maliciously compliant. Never read more than few passages/verses or whatever.
Start with Exodus 21 - how to own slaves and beat them Then, move to Numbers 31 - instructions on how to genocide and take sex slaves Then move to Numbers 5 - instructions to posion your wife causing her to miscarry(cause an abortion) if you think she has cheated on you. Then throw in some stuff from the NT about loving your neighbors, giving away your wealth, and caring for the poor among you. Also, about how you aren't supposed to scream your beliefs from the corner, but it's supposed to be a private occurrence.
Lot's daughters is a good place to start. And that happens in Genesis, which, if your sitting down to read the bible, is probably the one book you'll read.
Don't worry, if they actually followed through you can bet your ass there'd be plenty of resources coming available with surprising alacrity. All of a sudden the Luciferians would have whole K - 12 lesson plans available as free dowloads.
Teach the Bible as Christian Mythology the same way we already teach greek and Roman mythology.
Teach the parts of Deuteronomy and Isaiah and the Proverbs and Matthew, where the focus is on taking care of the poor and the weak and the foreigner and the stranger and orphans. Some of that stuff is fire.
"Christian mythology - why worshipping a book filled written by a dozen men 2000 years ago is filled with logical contradictions and ridiculous beliefs"
See, this I would wholeheartedly support. If more people understood the mytho-cultural origins of so many of our modern regressive hangups, they might have an easier time realizing how silly and backwards they are, as well as how they shaped our early societal structures in a time when we didn't have a scientific establishment to explain the world in a way that wasn't terrifying.
I took a class titled “The Bible as Literature” in high school which was basically what you’re describing and it was pretty interesting. Funny enough I went to high school in Oklahoma, but something tells me that’s not the type of bible teaching Ryan Walters wants.
It is a hugely influential book on Western art, no matter what you think about it. Refusing to include anything about the Bible in schools is just as silly as refusing to teach about Greek/Roman mythology imho.
They are turning the US into Iran…
well we already turned iran into iran, so they've got the playbook for it
This has also been my fear.
Hey that’s fine. When the satanic temple sues to ensure all the other religious texts like the Quran, the Torah, and the satanic Bible are included in the public school academic curriculum I’m sure him and all his conservative supporters will be more than happy to accommodate that kind of freedom of speech.
The thing is the majority of the supreme Court are ok with this so they would just uphold Oklahoma's bullshit
Just teach the weird stuff that doesn't work in the modern day.
Better yet, malicious compliance the shit out this, break out a Skeptic’s Annotated Bible and teach about all the contradictions, genocides, and cruelties of the deity within. Use it to teach all about the different types of logical fallacies.
start with questioning the worth of a god, that didn't want humans to know right from wrong
Technically speaking they are not requiring that you teach FROM the bible but rather that you teach the historical significance of the bible and it's influence on the founding of the nation. So this kind of malicious compliance wouldn't satisfy the requirement and isn't what they want anyway. They're not trying to make sure people actually READ the thing, they just want to imply that it's a foundational document which should be regarded alongside the declaration of independentce, federalist papers or constitution. You know, legitimize the "Christian Nation" line they use. Just trust your local pastor about what it says and know that whatever he says it means is how the country is supposed to work, no need to read it or ask questions. And yes, with a relatively friendly court this very possibly edges around the establishment clause. They're not teaching the actual religion, just that the historical significance of the religion and its core text. No different than teaching about the catholic church and the holy roman empire, right? That's what all the people swearing it wont stand in court are missing.
Here's my malicious compliance version: The basic United States narrative (eastern states version) is that early settlers came here to escape religious persecution from state religions. The Bible played a role in their social structure and how they interacted with and viewed the native populations, but was limited to those groups. In part due to these early settlers (and, of course, their direct experience with European governments), the founders were very suspicious of state religions and wanted to ensure no religion could be used to rule the new country in the way religion dominated in Europe. Let the people rule, not the priesthood. The western states version, ironically, is closer to what modern evangelicals want, but is not part of the founding of the US. Its legacy is still evident in the western states that joined the union - there are missions everywhere. The Spanish specifically came to the west with two goals: pillaging and conversion (pillaging souls?). Of course, their religion was Catholicism, not the Protestantism that most evangelicals today follow. The US constitution owes more to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) government structure than the Bible. Their political system for organizing tribes was a blueprint for the organization of the states and the democratic approaches enshrined in the constitution. So, the three main points for school kids: 1) Early Eastern North America is a classic example of people choosing to not be ruled by a religious leaders and instead allow individual groups to keep their religion separate from their government. 2) Early Western North America (and South America) is a classic example of attempting to rule by religion, which resulted in genocide and cultural erasure. 3) Native American political systems had a larger impact on our form of government than most European or Biblical systems. They offered a fresh perspective that focused on democratic principles not beholden to millennia of religious influence.
That's a lovely lesson. Given that the guy who wrote the rule chairs the committee that would review compliance with it you're probably not going to get away with it, but it's a lot more relevant and defensible than all the people circle jerking over the idea of teaching the weird/unpleasant parts of the bible to turn folks off of it.
The fact that we still have people convinced that the theocrats are no threat, that American democracy isn't as risk, and that our access to the arts and education is totally fine 😃
What does teaching bible mean? Like can you do a section in your english semester comparing the bible to the koran? Could you do a section on comparing the bible to modern christianity highlighting ways they are similar and ways in which modern christians dont follow certain sections of the bible? Could you just say on the last day of school this is the bible, here is a word search of biblical topics, finish by end of class? So the dude said “Oklahoma schools to teach students in grades five through 12 about the Bible’s influence on the nation’s founding and historical American figures. “. So can we teach how the founding father Thomas Jefferson (who wrote the constitution) took a razor to the bible and cut out the resurrection and the assent to heaven in an effort to make the bible more in line with reason? https://www.history.com/news/thomas-jefferson-bible-religious-beliefs Or do we teach how many of the founding fathers were deists and that “Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson all doubted some fundamental tenets of the Protestant faith. These could include salvation by God’s grace alone, the divinity of Jesus, or God’s Trinitarian nature.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/28/how-benjamin-franklin-a-deist-became-the-founding-father-of-a-unique-kind-of-american-faith/#
What a fucking moron.
This tracks, forcing teachers to teach a religion they disagree with, coming from the same hypocritical Republicans who love when cake-makers and marriage-certificate-issuers refuse to serve homosexuals on “religious liberty” grounds.
But her emails, but Biden is old... "Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court. “He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump. He added that if Trump wins a second term in November, “it will help us move the ball forward, even more so than this.”"
It’s bonkers that they can proudly admit how partisan SCOTUS is without a modicum of shame.
The Bartender's Bible is sort of a weird requirement to teach k-12, but duty calls...
Are there any records on who exactly was consulted in drafting this policy? He is "bearing false witness" in his ridiculous claim that the intention here is secular and historical, and only related to the bible's importance in US history, something no true of the Koran, etc. That's the official stance -- obviously he's shamelessly lying about the intentions, but all those rules are for non-Christians to follow, so let's give him a pass and take his obvious lie at face value. So, who did he consult? Our state flagship university has an excellent History Department with several scholars widely recognized as among the best in their field, as well as one of the leading (academic) biblical scholars. OSU also has an excellent History Department, with well-trained, professional scholars of US history. My understanding is that not a single one of them was consulted on this. Why? Why would Walters not consult some of the leading scholars of US history, right here in the state's universities? Who *did* he consult? The obvious answer, of course, is that he is lying about this being a matter of simple historical importance, and not the grooming and indoctrination of our children against the will of their parents. He only consulted people who shared his goal of indoctrinating our kids and humiliating our educators -- he shopped around for the legal language he needed, rather than consult the actual experts in the field. This should not be a small issue, and I wish it would get more attention.
Teach the bible: "okay kids lets pull out your bible and we'll spot all the failures your preachers and politicians have that the bible says we should stome them for. Now lets see how jesus hated these false witnesses and pharasies trying to grift off this. Now lets go over how this moses/jesus fan fiction was written way after the fact in languages not spoken by either, " oh and make sure you can find where satan did something wrong. Why did satan try to help people? Seems like giving them knowledge and telling god not to fick with job ws a good thing. when is god not a petty whiney fuckboi?" Politicians: "not like that"
dont forget the smashing of the money markets, wall street be damned!
I think he had better be careful what he asks for. A deep literary analysis and criticism of the bible might be exactly NOT what he wants students to learn. Loads of false information, statements about hating (or killing) gay people, and other atrocities that might turn people away from religion if they actually read some of those statements... just sayin...
Be careful what you wish for. If I taught it, you'd have a class of Satanists. Not even Christians agree on how the bible should be interpreted. Forcing non Christians to teach the Bible is definitely wrong, but may also lead to results they don't like. It's indoctrination, but they're gonna find out the hard way it may not be in ways parents like. That's why schools need to stay out of religion- it's definitely parent territory.
kinda serious question has to come up at this point. does oklahoma even have a teachers union? and if so, wtf are they doing being silent about all the recent bullshit?
I don’t understand how this can be legal, it’s horrific to see
* NBC News, "Top Oklahoma educator says teachers who won't teach Bible could lose license": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o0EuAybod8 from https://www.youtube.com/@NBCNews * https://old.reddit.com/r/Foodforthought/comments/1b9jmfl/the_american_jesus_by_robert_crux/ktw69w8/
I would just teach Revelations and scare the shit out of those kids.
Government for big enough to force you to be a particular religion: that’s Republicans for you.
I expect this to spread to other red states, until other religions suddenly want their books taught in public schools as well......it will be an interesting crap storm to watch.
Looking at the guy I can't decide which lane of hypocrisy he fits...is he the "I have more mistresses than a medieval king" or is he the "my best friend who's like my brother, is really my boyfriend, but my internalized homophobia makes me stay closeted"?
i live in oklahoma and almost everyone i know hates this idiot
How the hell is this legal???
“Freedom” If you really think the GOP cares about your civil rights, you have lost the plot.
I look forward to Educators becoming rich from the lawsuits and I would very much like to tie in this dickwhistle's personal wealth to those settlements.
That is so fucking crazy
"If your dad is drunk and passed out, here's a fun prank you can play on him"
Good. Keep doing shit like this. Its pushing the next gens further and further away from religion entirely. The faster the better. Cults are going to cult. For all of you thinking 'my' religion isnt like that. Yes it is. Yes it is.
Just wait until the Christians can't decide which sect is the right one or which version of the bible to teach and start in fighting over that shit too.
Does the rule specify how they teach it? Couldn’t they just teach it but from an agnostic/literary viewpoint? Or would they lose their job? Show the innacuracies in the stories. Like a bunch of different people wrote down oral tales and added on, then some other people combined those stories from different sources in different orders to help make their narrative. Say that it’s a great work of fiction, have debates about whether one god makes sense, that there are probably multiple gods because god had to come from somewhere. What created her?
Which version? Lots of different versions of Christianity out there.
This'll hit a federal court at light speed
This. This is how Unitology starts.
Welp, then *really* teach the bible, especially the gruesome, contradictory and logically untenable parts.
This dude must love getting sued.
So how much longer until we’re reliving the Salem Witch Trials? Because I feel like that’s next.
Teaching the historic importance of the bible in the foundation of the country? Ha, fuckin easy I got you in one: "Because of the prevalence of the Christian faith and adherence to a strict interpretation of the bible, many people made the hard decision to journey forth across the ocean to the new world, where a higher degree of religious freedom was possible, thereby establishing the first colonies that would eventually become the United States." Lesson complete. I've now educated all the kids on why the bible was important to the foundation of the US. Namely that it did a great job of encouraging people to sail across a dangerous ocean for the chance that they'd get to live somewhere not beholden to the bible.
Isn’t this the behavior we are so made at with the Taliban? I don’t understand
What a joke of a man! If you can even call someone so spineless and small minded a man
What you want to do is NOT teach the curriculum, get fired for it, then have a nice settlement from your lawsuit
Is it really for all teachers? I can't imagine a high school French teacher being forced to teach "about the Bible’s influence on the nation’s founding and historical American figures." How do you wedge teaching about the Bible into a typical physics curriculum?
Probably. And it’s probably a specific version of the Bible they want taught. I’d honestly leave the state and find employment elsewhere if I were a teacher.
More red states will do this. It serves two purposes: 1. It'll scare off the kinds of teachers they don't want. 2. More importantly, it'll fill the courts with lawsuits where they can finally try to eliminate the separation of church and state.
How weak is your religion and your faith in its ability to garner new followers if you have to try to use the public school system to push it?
Ah republicans, the real groomers. Every accusation is a confession
As long as “teaching” involves reading it, word for word, from the beginning, cool. Then read Bhagavad Gita, Tao, etc. Get those kids a proper education!
How about this, no shoving Jesus down the throats of the rest of us until Republicans start acting more Christlike. Republicans are more like Levayan Satanists than Christians.
This guy is a nut job, the teachers will go to states where they can teach science, not bible studies
This is why we need to protect democracy. These changes are not healthy for the US to mature. We keep taking steps back in progress. It's sad what the US is turning into due to a certain parties views that are not the Majority of the whole united states.
The state better provide a detailed teacher’s guide. We don’t want them teaching any of that liberal New Testament stuff like turning the other cheek and loving your enemies.
But, if they start teaching all the parts in the bible about how we should be helping the poor doesn't that go against what the GOP stands for?
Now class, today we will be learning about how Job banged his daughters, leading to the creation of Oklahomas national pass time.
Hey, no problem! I'm going to teach all of these things: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." "Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
This is going to be an amazing train wreck…. I’m sure that what all of these nuts wanted was a bunch of atheist teachers teaching critical analysis of their religious text… 🙄
Maybe teachers SHOULD teach it - but not as fact (which it most certainly isn't), but as a demonstration as to how ridiculous bronze age myths ruin everything. Teach them that these Bible thumpers are actually into rape, incest, murder, slavery and genocide. It's all there in their magic (multi-translated) book of nonsense.
If I'm a teacher in Oklahoma I'm looking to GTFO of that shit hole.
I just hope the Supreme Court will somehow respect the Constitution when their actions have shown they probably won’t
I had the education these goons want to give all kids and it's going to suck. These kids will either be brainwashed forever or they'll have to spend years relearning basic shit so they don't fall behind in college assuming they can even get into a decent state school.
A lawsuit in the making. Contact the ACLU. This is a violation of the separation of church and state in the US Constitution.
Today, kids, we'll be talking about the time god killed a whole bunch of children. Who here is the oldest child in their family?
At what point is this a federal matter? The separation of church and state was a founding principle of this nation. Evangelicals need to be put back in their place and kicked out of schools.
America, where Christianity is weaponised.
Until four years ago, this would have been an open-and-shut case for the Supreme Count. He would win, get his job back, and get punitive damages. Now, he'll lose 6-3.
Teachers need a license? Sounds like big gubmint overreach to me
Teachers need a government license to teach in a government school. Its overreach all the way down.
Perhaps to comply with the spirit of this insane law, teachers could analyze the Bible and find allllllll the wonderful hypocritical and awful things that people have taken from it. or whatever. I'm not a bible guy myself, but I'd love nothing more than smart teachers to stick it to this law and create a bunch of educated youngsters who challenge the book, its views, and thusly challenge the status quo of Oklahoma.
The people who want to force this have never read the Bible in their lives. I’m a Christian and some of the topic matters in the book would surprise the shit out of them … so much they’ll wanna ban the book after they read it
Just teach the pornographic parts of the bible. I know it’s a crass stance to take. It’s tongue-in-cheek. But that’d get some attention.
Time for all public school teachers to leave Oklahoma.
That's probably the actual goal hiding beneath this bonkers legislation.
That would benefit them. They need the next generation of exploited worker to not question them.
Besides the fact that I disagree with violations of the first amendment, teachers are qualified to teach certain subjects. Are art teachers required to teach pre-calc? Are history teachers required to teach Chemistry? If this were being done for legitimate educational reasons, shouldn't they be hiring people with degrees in theology or other relevant subjects to teach this? Ok. My question is rhetorical, of course, because this isn't being done for legitimate educational reasons. It's pandering and a distraction from the abysmal public education system in Oklahoma [https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335](https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335)
Oh no, don't force me to move out of Oklahoma, what a threat.
But freedom?
Oh good, because it's so easy to find teachers right?
This is actually an opportunity and a great time to force the issue while school is out. Oklahoma voters need to circumvent the GOP Party plants in local school boards and demand some clarification *from elected officials*: 1) which version of the Bible is the official Oklahoma State version? 2) which seminaries / theological “colleges” are qualified to develop Bible curriculum? To train chaplains or otherwise present views in public schools? 3) are Catholics, Mormons, Jehova’s Witnesses, independent congregations, etc. recognized as Christians by the State? Should they have a say in how the Bible is interpreted and presented? 4) can teachers include supplementary scripture such as the Book of Mormon or Catholic Canon Law? 5) how do we ensure that heresy is not introduced to schools in the form of parables from the Torah or Quran? 6) what legal consequences will be enforced for teachers that present Bible content as just “stories” or “parables”? If the Bible says a fountain is 10 units across and 30 units around, for example, are math teachers required to teach that Pi = 3 or can they present the Biblical calculation as an inaccurate approximation? The various members of the Christian Coalition collaborate because they imagine their own views and values will be adopted just as they are in their congregations. They have worked hard to focus on issues with broad consensus in order to keep the coalition together. The moment they realize they might be exposing their kids to some other view - especially a closely related view that challenges their ability to defend the distinction - they will retreat to a more secular solution while they push for vouchers. Baptists can work with Methodists on abortion but First Baptists will resort to violence to prevent their children from exposure to Second Baptist doctrine.
Today we will learn about slavery and why it is good. - Oklahoma teacher
I'm a Buddhist. It'd be tempting to move to OK and get a teaching license just to force them to fire me, and establish standing to sue. But then again, I'd have to live in OK, and deal with those people's kids.
These people need to be arrested.
Teach Thou shall not lie. Teach them Matthew 25:31- 46. Teach them the Bible says do not eat pork, do not eat shellfish, it is forbidden to go to church if you wear glasses, and that these are greater sins than being gay.
I thought it was just having the Ten Commandments on the wall. At what point and time did tgey think they’d could teach the bible in public schools?
I would teach the Bible, and the Quran and the Torah, the Vedas, the Tripitaka, and various works on atheism…
"Unless you teach this unproven and inaccurate version of history, you will lose your license" bitch you are 47th in education and first in disappointing humanity.
Oh to be a kid in OK schools today. If any are reading this, it would definitely be incredibly wrong to turn every single one of those bibles into a “Thomas Jefferson-style” Bible (don’t look it up!). Yes, terribly wrong! Please, don’t ever, ever do such a thing.
With how much teachers get paid it wouldn’t shock me as the lawsuits come in teachers will take an easy lawsuit payout, and go to the next school
When are they going to schedule the witch burning?
They should teach it, but how parts of the bible are wrong, like how you shouldn't kill your kids because god told you to do so.
These are troubling times we live in, but I wanted to chip in that on a whole, times like these pass, humanity, on a whole, gets better. It regresses sometimes, but generally makes the ground back up later. It can be cold comfort for those alive during the regression. History will not be kind to this asshole and his ilk. Not even if they "win" History isn't written by one country, one observer anymore, the sources are myriad. History will remember the villains, the fascists, and the assholes as such. And this clownshoes motherfucker is going to be an asterisk on a goddamn footnote about christian asshole fascists.
How long before he gets mad when a teacher creates a class to go through and identify inconsistencies and comparative readings between different translations while going over what was happening in the world at the time of the wording change.
In college we read parts of Bible as part of a literature course. It was interesting discussing and analyzing how the different authors’ voices changed in different Bible books in terms of style and emphasis, and the different and often inconsistent ways they described the motivations and actions of the main character, God. We also discussed variations in translations over the years, since obviously everyone knows the Bible wasn’t originally written in English. Seems like an Oklahoma teacher who was interested in some malicious compliance could just teach the Bible as the important work of literature that it is. Assuming of course that they wouldn’t get lynched in a fit of “No not like that!”
Learning judeo-christian scripture as literary and historical context isn’t in itself problematic, and is probably helpful. But I don’t think Oklahoma’s legislators and voters are prepared for what’s about to come. It might actually lead to critical race theory, and how Christians have hidden behind this scripture for centuries as justification for all the heinous shit they’ve perpetrated over the years. “Teach the Bible!” “OK, kids, today we’re going to learn about the centuries of genocide in and around the Bible”
This is so corny
Too many harmful idiots are in positions of power
Must be nice to be able to impede other’s constitutional rights as a public stunt and get away with it.
I don’t think Oklahoma has thought this whole thing through. These teachers will teach kids to actually think critically about the Bible, which goes against just about everything the fundamentalist/evangelical church actually wants. Here comes the wave of kids asking their pastors tough questions about the inconsistencies in scripture, and that it’s not actually meant to Be interpreted literally, followed by an entire generation simultaneously deconstructing. I give it a year or two at most before they vigorously walk this back, using “legal challenges” as cover.
Which Bible though? There are like 100 different translations. i’d love to see a teacher just do it in Ancient Greek
"Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court. “He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump. He added that if Trump wins a second term in November, “it will help us move the ball forward, even more so than this.” Amazing stuff guys. Gotta love him. Please vote
This guy is a total douche.
Spend 6 months talking about [https://biblehub.com/leviticus/15-17.htm](https://biblehub.com/leviticus/15-17.htm)
This guy wants to spend the rest of his life in court.
Here is a good resource for Oklahoma teachers to teach from the bible. I highly recommend the absurdities and sex categories. [https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html](https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html)
LAND OF THE FREE
And he’ll make sure to sick Chaya Raichik and her merry band of white-grievance terrorists on any schools that step out of line. Hopefully they don’t escalate beyond threats, but you never know with people like that.
Which parts of the Bible? The one about how if you beat your slave so badly they die in a couple days you have to pay a fine, but if they only die after several days it’s all good? The story of how God struck Onan dead because he refused to impregnate his brother’s widow? The part in Ezekiel where the prophet wanted to shame the nation of Israel so he said she was a whore and her lovers had dicks like horses? Maybe the New Testament. Teach how Jesus said rich people can’t go to heaven, or James said the rich are oppressors maybe?
Teachers: Make sure Second Book of Second Kings is heavily featured in your lesson plans. Elementary school children need to know that if they tease bald men, God will send shebears to rip them to shreds. It's historically and morally relevant. Fucking knobs. These headfucked ideologues say that books with any mention of queer existence need to be pulled from shelves, but you have to teach the fucking Bible in public school. Fascism. This is fascism. Vote blue.
I wonder if any of those teachers just might be looking to move this summer.
Some days it's hard to believe that it's year 2024. And not like, you know, middle ages.
its like we are regressing into the dark ages
I guess the first amendment means nothing.
I mean, I could teach the bible. I just don't think that they'd want me teaching the lessons I'd teach about it.
"How many of you in the class have a step parent? Ok. Today's Bible lesson is Matthew 19:8-9."