(LifeSiteNews) – Oklahoma will become the second state to return Biblical principles to public education this year, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced.
CNN reported that, effective immediately, all Sooner State public schools will be required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments in grades 5-12 because the Bible is, in Walters’s view, “one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country,” and essential for the “history of this country,” a “complete understanding of Western civilization,” and an “understanding of the basis of our legal system.”
“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” he explained. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.”
Interfaith Alliance, a group of “people of diverse faiths and beliefs” who purport to oppose “religious and political extremism” and “impos(ing) beliefs on others,” blasted the move as “blatant religious coercion.” But Walters told the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch that the requirement is simply a return to more classical American education norms.
“Until the 1960s, if you walked into a schoolhouse, you were going to see the Bible,” he said. “You were going to hear teaching from the Bible, (and) you were going to hear a lot of literary references to the Bible as well. It’s the number one bestselling book in American history (…) if that doesn’t qualify for a piece of literature that should be in the classroom, I don’t know what book would qualify.”
Supporters argue that such religious content is integral to emphasizing the role of faith in America’s formation and fortunes dating back to the nation’s founding, and do not constitute an impermissible “establishment of religion.”
The phrase “separation of church and state,” frequently invoked in opposition to religious content on public grounds, comes not from the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution but from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association on January 1, 1802, reassuring the group of his belief that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only & not opinions.”
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State,” Jefferson said in the correspondence.
When taken literally, “separation of church and state” is accurate shorthand for one of the practical effects of the First Amendment: recognizing that the church and the state are two distinct entities, and neither may control the affairs of the other. Today, however, left-wing activists claim that it means religious ideas and values cannot in any way inform, influence, or be recognized by government, and that any expression of faith on government time, on government land, or with government resources is illegal, no matter how benign or voluntary. That interpretation is without basis in the words or actions of America’s Founding Fathers, who viewed religion as vital to America’s success and worthy of being recognized in public education.
Oklahoma’s announcement follows Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signing a law last month to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Louisiana public classrooms.