Of Biblical Proportions

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Then things got a little out of hand. Let’s fast forward a bit to Oklahoma, circa 2025, for the latest. State superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters is pushing a mandate requiring that public school students learn from the Bible. (He also famously “proposed spending $3 million to buy 55,000 copies of the Bible that has been endorsed by the president and for which he receives royalties.”) The mandate is getting pushback from some unexpected places. “Opposition here has come from pastors, religion professors, students, parents, teachers, school board members, and the school district superintendent, among others. The prevailing philosophy among Norman residents, who are predominantly Christian, is that they do not want the state—and namely, Walters—mandating how children should be taught scriptures. They want their children to learn from holy books at home or in church.” Vanity Fair: How Oklahoma’s Right-Wing Superintendent Set Off a Holy War in Classrooms. Yes, this bible studies mandate is so extreme that even many of the most religious Oklahomans view it as decidedly not OK. But plenty of things that once seemed extremely extreme are now common in our daily headlines, and the Oklahoma fight is representative of a broader religious war being fought to post the ten commandments on campuses, use public funding for religious schools, merge the idea of American and Christian identities, and constantly push for the de-separation of church and state. If you have an idea idea how to reverse this trend, pray tell.