OK Ed Secretary Walters now requiring Bibles In every state classroom

[KatyaR]

https://www.news9.com/story/667d7facdb56cfabce1dbbce/osde-meeting:-state-superintendent-walters-announces-memo-to-require-bibles-in-every-oklahoma-classroom]

I just can't with this this guy any more. (Sorry, I'm horrible at formatting....)

[Exerpt]Related to the Supreme Court decision, Walters announced on Thursday that every teacher and classroom will be required to have a Bible and that he would be issuing a memo to every school district in Oklahoma about the decision. Walters cited a state statute regarding historical documents, claiming the Bible is a document that has significance to historical events as well as the foundation of America.

"The last is, we’re going to make an important announcement today regarding the bible and the Ten Commandments. My staff has been looking at Oklahoma statute, we’ve been looking at Oklahoma Academic standards. And 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clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of western civilization, understand the basis of our legal system, and frankly talking about the bible one of the most foundational documents used for the constitution and the birth of our country. We also find major points in history that refer to the bible, reference the bible.

We see multiple figures whether we’re talking about the Federalist Papers, constitutional conventional arguments, and Martin Luther King Jr who used it as a tremendous impetus for the civil rights movement and tied many of those arguments back to the bible. It is essential that our kids have an understanding of the bible and its historical context. So we will be issuing a memo today that every school district will adhere to, which is that every teacher, every classroom in the state, will have a bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma in accordance with our academic standards and state law. “[exerpt]

[hlthe2b]

1. Well, then someone should send them all copies of the Koran--given they seem to want their own Sharia law.

[bullimiami]

2. Torah's and Korans too? And anybody else's religious text that they request?

Thought not.

[Ilsa]

8. And the Book of Mormon. And the Tao Te Ching, and

the Bhagavad Gita, the Kesh Temple Hymn of Ancient Sumer, Kitáb-i-Aqdas (The Most Holy Book), The Book of Common Prayer, the Rigveda, and many, many more.

[FloridaBlues]

3. They never stop forcing their Christian nationalist view.

Hopefully the courts can stop it.

[wnylib]

15. The Supreme Court already ruled on a related issue

with Bibles in schools, back in the early 1960s.

I went to public schools in PA in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, PA law required that all public school classrooms begin the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance and the reading of a full chapter from the King James Bible.

I remember that I was chosen to read a Psalm for my 6th graduation ceremony in the school auditorium. I had a strong voice that would carry. It was late spring and I practiced in our back yard. My best friend, Judy, came into the yard and I asked her to listen and tell me if I was doing ok. She refused. She was Catholic and told me what a sore point it was among Catholics that they had to listen to a Protestant Bible in school. It was the first time that I became aware of that issue.

Judy fold me that the Catholic Church was bringing a case to court over it. People today remember Margaret Murray's successful court challenge because she was an atheist. But Catholics and other religions were also challenging the constitutionality of it. The SC chose Murray's case to rule it unconstitutional to force public school students and teachers to participate in religious activities like Bible reading and prayer.

Even the pastor of our family's Protestant church agreed with the court ruling. He gave a sermon on how the ruling protected religious freedom. He also said that, if parents wanted their children brought up on the Bible and the church's beliefs, then it was their responsibility to do it and they should not shirk that onto the schools.

This would not be exactly the same case, unless Oklahoma teachers start teaching children from the Bibles.

Even RW Catholics are likely to oppose this in Oklahoma if the Bibles are Protestant versions.

[Solomon]

4. Which bible?

[0rganism]

6. My question too, there are many editions with significant differences

What's it gonna be? NIV is common and popular, but KJV and legacy Catholic versions are probably more historically relevant to the argument they're making. And who gets to approve the bible-based lessons upon which they insist? Actual theologians or just political schmucks grifting off the fanaticism of an overzealous constituency?

Hmm, I bet I know the answer to that last one.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Well, if the classrooms get locked down because of a shooter on campus,

at least the pages of the Bible will make great poop sheets for the kids.

[SarahD]

7. Be careful what you wish for.

Teachers could have a lot of fun with that. The Bible is full of sex and violence, not to mention idiotic rules about wearing mixed fabrics, etc.

[Ilsa]

9. Preach to the football team about "pigskin."

Kosher meals, vegetarian meals, vegan meals, etc.

[jmowreader]

10. Except that footballs aren't made of pigskin

[Irish_Dem]

11. Who's paying for all these Bibles?

US Taxpayer?

[Ocelot II]

12. There are many versions. I vote for the Wycliffe Bible. It's in Middle English

and would be almost completely unintelligible to the average Oklahoma schoolchild.

1 In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe. 2 Forsothe the erthe was idel and voide, and derknessis weren on the face of depthe; and the Spiryt of the Lord was borun on the watris. 3 And God seide, Liyt be maad, and liyt was maad. 4 And God seiy the liyt, that it was good, and he departide the liyt fro derknessis, 5 and he clepide the liyt, dai, and the derknessis, nyyt. And the euentid and morwetid was maad, o daie. 6 And God seide, The firmament be maad in the myddis of watris, and departe watris fro watris. 7 And God made the firmament, and departide the watris that weren vndur the firmament fro these watris that weren on the firmament; and it was don so. 8 And God clepide the firmament, heuene. And the euentid and morwetid was maad, the secounde dai.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(Wycliffe)/Genesis

[LudwigPastorius]

13. "every teacher...will be teaching from the bible..."

Does that include Lot offering his daughters up to a mob of Sodomites to be gang raped?

Or, in Leviticus when god threatens to punish sinners by forcing them to eat their children?

Or, all of the other accounts of adultery, rape, slavery, and genocide?

[AnnaLee]

14. Is there a word for it?

What is the word for the Christian religion's version of "Sharia law"?