Oklahoma - The Oklahoma State Department of Education's Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has bought more than 500 bibles for public schools to use in their AP Government classes' instruction.
From the official press release:
This purchase is the first in the nation Bible purchase explicitly for use in schools as an academic and literary resource and is the first step toward providing Bibles for every classroom in the state.
“We are focused on ensuring we get Bibles available in every classroom in our state as quickly as we can,” said Walters. “I will take every step possible to ensure Oklahoma students have the resources they need to fully understand American history. By acting now, Oklahoma is leading the country on a path toward greater focus on academic excellence by providing critical historical, cultural, and literary context for our students. We are not going to change our history, and the Bible is a major part of that.”
Ryan Walters
The Bible In American History - Oklahoma Leads The Way
Is the bible a part of American history? Obviously it is. If you read Albion's Seed by historian David Hackett Fischer, the first major migration from England largely consisted of Calvinists who wanted to create a kind of Christian 'city on a hill', and even had customs where new immigrants to their communities were subjected to theological questions and character evaluation before they could join the local churches. Fischer makes the point that anyone who says that the initial wave of migrants weren't trying to create explicitly Christian communities is telling revisionist, false history.
Is studying the bible in the context of an historical document a governmental endorsement of religion, violating the First Amendment? No. The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
There are plenty of subjects that are taught in public schools that don't amount to respecting an establishment, such as the ideology of terrorism and the attack on 9/11/2001. Things can obviously be taught within historical contexts without an endorsement.
Walters' letter continues:
This purchase is separate from a larger purchase detailed in a forthcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) from OSDE that will provide Bibles as well as the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution for every classroom in Oklahoma.
Walters
The United States Declaration of Independence says:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Preamble to the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence states the principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based.
National Archives
Whether someone agrees with the logic of the founders, or the theology of Christianity, it's historically inaccurate to claim that the bible had no bearing on the founding ideas of the United States and the form that the government took. Christian though I am, my point is not to defend Christianity, my point is to defend history, which is what Ryan Walters is working to do in Oklahoma. There are many positive and negative aspects of history, and all of them need to be taught, there shouldn't be any that are verboten, such as Eugenics or the influence of Charles Darwin on the founders of the Confederacy, who used Darwin's scientific racism to justify slavery.
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