Despite being in the middle of a court challenge over its bible-in-school proposal, the Oklahoma Department of Education has just posted another call for vendors to supply lessons integrating the bible into the curriculum.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, as part of a coalition of groups, is already suing to block state Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ mandate that all public schools incorporate the bible and to prevent the state from spending millions of taxpayer dollars on bibles. Walters requested $3 million in tax dollars to purchase a King James Version cohered to the so-called Trump “God Bless America” Bible. Thirty-two plaintiffs — including 14 public school parents, four teachers and three faith leaders — are suing Walters and the Oklahoma Department of Education, among others, in state court.
Court filings have revealed plans to issue a new Request for Proposal to find a bible supplier for elementary school-level social sciences courses after the board and Walters had closed the previous request seeking bible vendors several months ago.
The department’s new request explicitly seeks “biblical content that demonstrates how biblical figures influenced the United States.” The state’s Request for Proposal, known as an RFP, also seeks “character education.”
“The new RFP falls squarely within the activity that we are already challenging through our lawsuit,” notes FFRF Litigation Attorney Sam Grover. “We plan to address this new RFP in an upcoming court filing.”
The RFP provides examples of the gratuitous and inappropriate intrusion of Christianity into curricula. For example, the second-grade curriculum asks young students to identify stories from the New Testament that supposedly influenced American colonists. Sixth-grade students would be asked to “evaluate the role of Judeo-Christian ideals in supporting colonial demands for independence.” High schoolers would be instructed to describe the meanings and so-called effect of “Jesus of Nazareth’s words as recorded by Matthew.”
FFRF is pleased to see Oklahoma faith leaders expressing concern, such as Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of the Oklahoma Faith Network. Shannon said, “One of the things Christian nationalism has done to our country is to push this myth that our Founding Fathers were die-hard Christians, wanting Christianity and Jesus and God and everything. What I want to say today is that’s false.”
Oklahoma voters in 2016 firmly voted against using public funds for religious purposes. Article 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution says public schools shall be “free from sectarian control” and further bars using any public money “for the use, benefit or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion.”
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor notes that 28 percent of Oklahomans have no religious affiliation and that 2 percent belong to non-Christian faiths. “This is just an overt attempt to proselytize a captive audience of schoolchildren by inserting religious propaganda into social studies lessons,” she remarks.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with nearly 42,000 members nationwide, including hundreds of members in Oklahoma. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
