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Oklahoma forces the Bible on students, as Christian nationalism digs in [1]

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Date: 2024-06-30  

A little more than a week after Louisiana passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools—prompting some wags to point out how few Republicans have apparently even read them—Oklahoma is getting in on the Christofascist funsies.

Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, announced on Thursday that all state schools will be required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curricula. Specifically, fifth- through 12th-grade teachers will be forced to both keep a Bible in their classrooms and teach from it.

The reason? Well, the Bible is history, of course. Especially the part about an old dude building a giant boat and putting two of all the world’s millions of species on it so God doesn’t drown them all in a fit of pique. That’s history, man—like the story about Julius Caesar inventing the Orange Julius, or FDR storming the beaches of Normandy on his Jet Ski.

“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clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our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,” said Walters.

Naturally, this is nonsense. Yes, the Bible is an important book—one that’s impacted our history in myriad ways. That said, its influence on our system of government pales in comparison to the writings of John Locke and the principles of the Iroquois Confederacy, but for some reason, Bible Belt Christians aren’t clamoring to ensure those contributions are duly noted.

Why? Aw, come on. You know why. It’s because they care more about proselytizing than educating. As Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, noted in response to Oklahoma’s decision to shoehorn Jesus into thousands of Jewish, Muslim, and atheist kids’ Chuck Taylors, “Walters’ concern should be the fact that Oklahoma ranks 49th in education. Maybe education would improve if Oklahoma’s superintendent of education spent his time promoting education, instead of religion.”

Of course, all the usual suspects have weighed in on this apparent violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. And not just the usual atheist suspects.

In a statement to CNN, the Interfaith Alliance, a faith-based organization that advocates for religious freedom and an inclusive democracy, said, “This is blatant religious coercion that should have absolutely no place in public schools—in Oklahoma or any other state.”

Well, that’s just common sense, isn’t it? Or it should be, anyway. Reading from the Bible would be appropriate in a comparative religions or religious history class—as long as the Torah, Quran, Code of Hammurabi, the Tripiṭaka, the Bhagavad Gita, and, if there’s time before evening vespers, the complete works of L. Ron Hubbard are all treated with the same deference. But that’s not what Louisiana’s new law—or Oklahoma’s new guidelines—are pointing us toward. These are clearly bids to transform the U.S.—by dribs and drabs—from a secular liberal democracy into a de facto theocracy with an unofficial state religion. (Though if these slippery slopes get any greasier, we could end up hurtling headlong into full theocracy, with all the customary fig leaves duly removed.)

That said, we’re not there yet—and thankfully, there’s been plenty of pushback against this burgeoning Christofascist Sith energy.

While on the one hand, right-wing Republicans have been doing their best to force their favorite books on students, we also know how determined they’ve been to keep kids from reading the works they don’t like. And that’s unequivocally hurt their movement.

Indeed, if last November’s elections taught us anything, it’s that there’s a limit to how much religious intolerance the rest of us will tolerate. Turns out, it’s not a whole heck of a lot. For instance, voters starkly rejected the right-wing Moms for Liberty’s agenda—which includes sweeping book bans—in school board elections across the country. And while Oklahoma’s governor and state superintendent could clearly use a brushup on our founding principles, the state Supreme Court still gets it. On Tuesday, it struck down plans for a publicly funded Catholic charter school that was poised to open its doors for the 2024-2025 school year.

Both Walters and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt had advocated for the school, and Stitt said he’s hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually reverse the state Supreme Court’s ruling. He may have reason to hope, of course, as the majority- conservative protofascist Supreme Court has signaled a willingness—even eagerness—to side with parochial religious interests in defiance of both the Establishment Clause and the rights of religious minorities.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of evidence that the U.S. is becoming more secular, even as religionists attempt to shove their faiths down our yawping locust-’n’-honey-holes. For instance, Gallup has registered a decline in religion’s influence for decades. The percentage of Americans who said religion was very important in their lives slid from 61% in 1998 to just 45% in 2023. At the same time, church attendance, church membership, and the percent of the population that identifies as Christian have all seen steady declines. And the number of people saying they have no religion has spiked in recent years, from just 6% of the population in 1998 to 22% in 2023.

So should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the right’s ability to transform this country from a secular society predicated on the rule of law into a Christofascist hell in which the patently amoral Donald Trump rules over the demon hosts in lieu of Satan? The answer is yes—we should be both.

The answer also depends on what you—you, me, all of us—do going forward. We can shrug our shoulders at this egregious sectarian creep or call it out every time.

I say we fight—like when Joshua blew that horn and the walls of Jericho came tumblin’ down. I think I read about that somewhere. Not quite sure where. Might have been an Oklahoma history book—or maybe it was all a dream. Either would explain why Ronald Reagan was there, handing out lollipops and pony kegs of Coors Light.

Daily Kos’ Postcards to Swing States campaign is back, and I just signed up to help. Please join me! Let’s do this, patriots! Democracy won’t defend itself.

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