Parents, teachers, and clergy members have filed a lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court to challenge a new state requirement that Bible lessons be taught in public schools.
In June, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced that public schools must incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in the curriculum.
During the announcement, Walters called the Bible an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone.” Without 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,” he stated.
The lawsuit alleges the Bible Education Mandate “interferes with the parents’ ability to direct the religious and moral upbringing of their children.”
According to the plaintiffs, students “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.” They add that the state’s purchase of Bibles for classrooms “diverts the tax payments of all the adult petitioners from proper uses to the support of a single religious tradition.”
The lawsuit draws upon Section 5 of Article II of Oklahoma’s constitution for its claim. The section 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.”
Plaintiffs also claim the mandate violates Section 2 of Article I in the state’s constitution, which says, “Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of the State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; and no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.”
The suit asserts that the mandate supports a “system of religion” and “represents a governmental preference for one religion over another, as the state funds are to be spent on the King James Version Bible, which is a Protestant version that is different from versions typically used by Catholics and Jews,” and therefore violates the state’s constitution.
Some of the plaintiffs in the suit are described as “atheists,” “LGBTQ,” or members of a “faith community” that “values inclusivity and respect for others.” One reverend in the lawsuit believes the “King James Version of the Bible contains misleading gendered language describing God, gender roles, and sexual identity.”
Walters responded to the lawsuit in a statement on X, asserting that “Oklahomans will not be bullied by out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon.”
He explained that 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.”
