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Oklahoma State Superintendent Mandates Bible Study in Public Schools
June 27, 2024, 04:45 PM
MillironOklahoma State Superintendent Mandates Bible Study in Public Schools
quote:
Oklahoma state superintendent directs schools to incorporate Bible, Ten Commandments in teaching
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced Thursday all public schools under his jurisdiction should be incorporating the Bible and Ten Commandments into their curriculum.
“The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments. They will be referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution,” Walters wrote in a memorandum to schools that says the Bible must be a part of the curriculum for students in fifth through 12th grades.
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,” the memo added.
School superintendents were told more information would be forthcoming on monitoring this directive for the 2024-25 school year and that the Education Department could help by providing materials on the subject.
Walters’s action was immediately criticized by opponents who see it as just another way to blur the lines between church and state.
Public schools are not Sunday schools. Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference and is unfit for office. His latest scheme — to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum is a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The directive comes one week after Louisiana’s governor signed a law requiring posters of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, a move that was quickly met with lawsuits from civil liberties organizations, including Laser’s.
On Tuesday in Oklahoma, the state’ Supreme Court struck down the nation’s first religious charter school as unconstitutional, receiving criticism from Walters.
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"Age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into arrogant conceit. It's only advantage, so far as I have been able to see, is that it spans change. A young person sees the world as a still picture, immutable. An old person has had his nose rubbed in changes and more changes and still more changes so many times that that he knows it is a moving picture, forever changing. He may not like it--probably doesn't; I don't--but he knows it's so, and knowing is the first step in coping with it."
Robert Heinlein
June 27, 2024, 05:19 PM
flesheatingvirusThis and the bullshit in Louisiana need to stop. Kids can't even get out of school with the ability to READ or do basic math. Many schools don't even teach science until the later grades. Kids are not learning how to survive in modern society or the modern workplace. If you want Jesus and the bible in your life, that's great. Go to church.
Also, this seems like pandering. It is already being challenged and will more than likely not hold up in court. It's like gun laws that are obviously not holding up to scrutiny based on the Bruen (or other) decision. They are a waste of taxpayer money just to score political points.
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-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
June 27, 2024, 05:37 PM
nhracecraft^^^Uhhh, perhaps you missed this part!
quote:
“The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments. They will be referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution,” Walters wrote in a memorandum to schools that says the Bible must be a part of the curriculum for students in fifth through 12th grades.
Not to worry though...Students in 'the Land of Enchantment' will be safe from exposure to such egregious concepts which are the foundational principles of this country!
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If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 47....Making America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
June 27, 2024, 05:39 PM
Balzé Halzéquote:
Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
This and the bullshit in Louisiana need to stop.
I disagree. I think it's great.
~Alan
Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
June 27, 2024, 05:42 PM
ImabmwnutWe had scripture reading and a prayer every morning starting in JR.High. Didn’t harm me a bit.m
June 27, 2024, 06:25 PM
flesheatingvirusquote:
Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^Uhhh, perhaps you missed this part!
Nope. I can read quite well. If you think this will be all be conveyed from a purely historical perspective, you’re fooling yourself.
quote:
Originally posted by Imabmwnut:
We had scripture reading and a prayer every morning starting in JR.High. Didn’t harm me a bit.m
Well…hard to argue with that.
How would this be any different from the schools teaching kids that God does not exist? I’m sure everyone who has posted here so far would have a big problem with that. As hard as it may be for you all to believe, so would I.
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-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
June 27, 2024, 06:28 PM
nhtagmemberI wish they would focus on reading, writing, math, critical thinking and bring back shop classes
The Bible is an optional item but we already have churches whose soul purpose of existence is the Bible.
Waste of time in a school.
June 27, 2024, 06:30 PM
flesheatingvirusI completely agree. In high school, where you start to be offered elective courses, I have no issue with any religious classes being offered for students to choose from.
________________________________________
-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
June 27, 2024, 06:49 PM
nhracecraftWhen I was a HS Freshman (in a public school in NJ no less!), we had to take a required
history social studies course called World culture. We obviously learned about many of the predominant cultures of the world, including their foundational principles, AND their predominant religions, which were the basis for those principles.
We learned about the history and practices of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism, etc. How is incorporating 'some' study of the Bible, as it relates to 'an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution' any different. Further, why would it be deemed SO objectionable, when presented in that context. Schoolchildren could use a good dose of the foundational principles of this country! Personally, if this ultimately happens it will be a VERY Good thing for the students of Oklahoma!
____________________________________________________________
If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 47....Making America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
June 27, 2024, 07:46 PM
BassamaticI consider myself to be a pretty good Christian but making this mandatory in public schools is not such a good idea. Is this even legal?
As someone has mentioned, why not offer it as an elective?
.....never marry a woman who is mean to your waitress. June 27, 2024, 08:12 PM
jhe888quote:
Originally posted by Bassamatic:
I consider myself to be a pretty good Christian but making this mandatory in public schools is not such a good idea. Is this even legal?
As someone has mentioned, why not offer it as an elective?
Legal? Highly unlikely, even if pitched as Western cultural/moral/religious history.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. June 27, 2024, 08:30 PM
PowerSurgeEither allow all religious teaching or ban them all. And therein lies the rub. There are school systems that permit certain religions to be taught and not others.
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The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1
June 27, 2024, 08:37 PM
Black92LXIt should be an elective in public school. Public school needs to go back to teaching the basics.
quote:
Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
quote:
Originally posted by nhracecraft:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Imabmwnut:
We had scripture reading and a prayer every morning starting in JR.High. Didn’t harm me a bit.m
Well…hard to argue with that.
How would this be any different from the schools teaching kids that God does not exist? I’m sure everyone who has posted here so far would have a big problem with that. As hard as it may be for you all to believe, so would I.
Not sure where you have been but they have been teaching this for decades.
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The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
June 27, 2024, 08:52 PM
Millironquote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
quote:
Originally posted by Bassamatic:
I consider myself to be a pretty good Christian but making this mandatory in public schools is not such a good idea. Is this even legal?
As someone has mentioned, why not offer it as an elective?
Legal? Highly unlikely, even if pitched as Western cultural/moral/religious history.
No doubt being ginned up as a test case for SCOTUS. I’ve been following this guy for a while. He’s a young man in a hurry. But I’m not sure this is going to go the way he thinks it is.
_________________________
"Age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into arrogant conceit. It's only advantage, so far as I have been able to see, is that it spans change. A young person sees the world as a still picture, immutable. An old person has had his nose rubbed in changes and more changes and still more changes so many times that that he knows it is a moving picture, forever changing. He may not like it--probably doesn't; I don't--but he knows it's so, and knowing is the first step in coping with it."
Robert Heinlein
June 27, 2024, 09:11 PM
trapper189I’m a sinner and as such, not any better than anybody else.
June 27, 2024, 09:37 PM
OttoSigNHRA hit it. Teach the history of it, there’s value in that. Don’t try to practice in the classroom.
I guess I’m agreeing with the bad idea folks here.
Nine years to retirement! Just waiting! June 27, 2024, 10:11 PM
egregoreTen Commandments displays and Bible studies in schools are far preferable to drag queens.
"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke June 27, 2024, 10:56 PM
trapper189There’s not a chance Oklahoma public schools will be teaching the Bible or Ten Commandments as anything other than historical context, just like the Code of Hammurabi or The Laws of the Twelve Tables. Maybe they’ll teach
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People like the public schools in my county do starting in kindergarten. It’s actually one of the reasons my three kids have spent only two months in public school combined.
June 27, 2024, 11:08 PM
400mWhat a load of crap. Mandating Bible study? Stick to math, science, and reading. I’ll handle religious beliefs at home as I see fit. I don’t want the Bible, Vedas, Torah, Qur’an or any religious text study being mandated in any public school. If you want it as an elective go right ahead. If you want daily religious study at school, find a private school to accommodate you. How did this idiot get elected?
June 27, 2024, 11:20 PM
airsoft guySounds like they're running out of real stuff to teach kids, and are trying to stretch out their time. Can't have their schooling be complete before 18, think of the grifters in charge!
quote:
Originally posted by Will938:
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