A group of parents, teachers and religious leaders filed a lawsuit Thursday with the Oklahoma Supreme Court challenging a new state requirement to teach the Bible in public schools.
Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters announced the mandate for children in grades five through 12 be taught lessons on the Bible “as an instructional support into the curriculum” in June, and was quickly met with pushback from schools refusing to implement the rule. The suit alleges the mandate, which allocates $3 million to the Bibles, violates the state Constitution’s prohibition on spending public funds on religious items and is contrary to religious freedom.
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“The Mandate interferes with the parents’ ability to direct the religious and moral upbringing of their children,” the lawsuit states. “The
children themselves face coercive instruction on religion in their public schools that is contrary to their own beliefs. The teachers must present to their students religious doctrines to which the teachers and many students do not subscribe, or face losing their teaching
licenses.”
The suit cites Section 5 of Article II of Oklahoma’s constitution which states “No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.”
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Several petitioners in the suit identify as atheists and say the mandate would cause harm to their children by forcing religious beliefs onto them, with one agnostic teacher saying the Bible “presents religious endorsements of violence and patriarchy,” according to the lawsuit. Other petitioners take issue with the state mandating a particular version of the Bible, with one minister stating she ” believes that the King James Version of the Bible contains misleading gendered language describing God, gender roles, and sexual identity.”
Walters maintains that that mandate is essential to teaching the foundational history of the United States.
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“Oklahomans will not be bullied by out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon,” Walters said in an X post Thursday in response to criticisms. “The simple fact is that understanding how the Bible has impacted our nation, in its proper historical and literary context, was the norm in America until the 1960s and its removal has coincided with a precipitous decline in American schools. It is not possible for our students to understand the American history and culture without understanding the Biblical principles from which they came, so I am proud to bring back the Bible to every classroom in Oklahoma. I will never back down to the woke mob, no matter what tactic they use to try to intimidate Oklahomans.”
The plaintiffs asked the court to rule the mandate invalid and prevent its implementation.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.