Many parents and teachers were alarmed after Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters issued a directive ordering all public schools to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans.
Few teachers, though, were willing to express their opposition publicly — probably because Walters has threatened to fire anyone who fails to toe the line.
But one teacher did speak anonymously to KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.
“As both a parent and a teacher, I firmly believe that it is up to the family to teach their children about religion,” the teacher said. “It just doesn’t belong in the schools. And, most importantly, that’s taking classroom time away from people that could be spent doing reading education.”
Walters’ directive requires all Oklahoma public schools to “incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum across specified grade levels, e.g., grades 5 through 12.”
The directive goes on to mandate that teachers use the Bible in the study of “history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.” It also requires that the Bible and the Commandments be taught “for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution” — even though there is no evidence that the Bible or the Ten Commandments influenced America’s secular Constitution.
Walters sternly warned educators, “Immediate and strict compliance is expected.”
He took the action just days after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, from kindergarten through college. Landry’s action, which Americans United and its allies are challenging in court, grabbed headlines internationally. Walters, who craves the limelight and has hired a public relations firm to boost his public profile, may have had a simple case of FOMO — internet slang for “fear of missing out.”
The attempt to interject religion into public schools in Louisiana and Oklahoma represents the latest offensive from Christian Nationalists. It’s not the only one.
As public schools in the United States go back into session, Americans United is monitoring several efforts to violate the separation of church and state by forcing religion into the schools.
Here is a round up of what we have found:
Ten Commandments displays: Louisiana became the first state to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools after Landry signed the bill (H.B. 71) into law June 19.
Five days later, Americans United, the national American Civil Liberties Union, the Louisiana ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools. (The law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as pro bono counsel.) The plaintiffs in Roake v. Brumley include parents and members of the clergy. They assert that the law violates longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
AU’s legal team noted that in 1980, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court overturned a similar Kentucky law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
On July 8, the plaintiffs filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana to issue an order that blocks state officials from posting the Ten Commandments in public schools while the lawsuit goes forward. To ensure that the court has a reasonable amount of time to decide this motion, state officials have agreed that they will not post the Ten Commandments in public schools or otherwise implement the challenged legislation until Nov. 15.
Lawmakers in Texas and Utah have also promoted bills requiring Ten Commandments displays in public schools. The Texas measure failed to pass, although Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has vowed to bring the bill back next year. The Utah bill was watered down to allow — but not require — the Ten Commandments to be taught as part of the curriculum.
Use of the Bible in public schools: It is not yet clear how Walters’ directive in Oklahoma will be implemented, much less how Walters might attempt to enforce it. State law in Oklahoma leaves curriculum decisions in local hands, and several districts have indicated that they will resist the directive.
AU has pointed out that objective instruction about religion is permissible in public schools, and the Bible’s impact on art, literature and history can be discussed. But given Walters’ close ties to Christian Nationalism, AU believes it’s unlikely that fair, objective instruction about the Bible is what he wants.
On July 26, Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, the national ACLU, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice sent a formal request to Walters to provide records related to Walters’ Bible-related mandates.
The groups, which made the request under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, are attempting to determine whether those entrusted with the affairs of government are honestly, faithfully and competently performing their duties as public servants. The organizations have requested copies of records related to Walters’ directive.
“Public schools are not Sunday schools. Superintendent Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “His latest scheme — to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public school curriculum — is a transparent, unlawful effort to advance Christian Nationalism and indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students. Not on our watch.”
Chaplains in public schools: Texas legislators passed a law in 2023 allowing public schools to hire chaplains or use them as volunteers. This year, similar measures became law in Florida and Louisiana, and the concept has been introduced in 13 other states.
Advocates claim that some public schools need chaplains because they don’t have enough money to hire counselors. But Americans United noted that the job of a counselor and the job of a chaplain are not interchangeable. School counselors are trained to provide psychological care and/or provide professional assistance for students grappling with questions about higher education and career choices. The main job of a chaplain is to provide spiritual guidance.
The Texas law’s sponsor, state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), had a clear religious motivation for pushing S.B. 763. During debate over the measure, Middleton remarked that the chaplains “represent God in our government.”
Earlier this year, AU endorsed three open letters to state legislators opposing the wave of proposed state legislation seeking to install chaplains in public schools — a letter from nearly three dozen public policy organizations, including AU; a letter from nearly 40 faith organizations; and a letter from more than 200 chaplains.
The letter from chaplains reads in part, “As trained chaplains, we strongly caution against the government assertion of authority for the spiritual development and formation of our public school children. Families and religious institutions — not public school officials — should direct the religious education of our children. Introducing religious leaders into official school positions to serve students in schools will cause division among student bodies that are made up of many religions and nonreligious students.”
Thankfully, the chaplains’ bills failed in every state except Texas, Florida and Louisiana. And in Texas, the law is not popular. Texas has 1,022 public school districts, and it has been reported that only one school entity, a network of charter schools based in Arlington, has hired a chaplain so far.
PragerU videos: Misleading videos produced by PragerU, a Christian Nationalist group, have been approved for optional use in six states — Florida, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Montana, Arizona and Louisiana.
Despite its name, PragerU is not a university. It is a nonprofit founded by Dennis Prager, a conservative talk radio show host. As AU has noted, Prager “has espoused various anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women, anti-Muslim, anti-science views over the years” and his organization’s videos “whitewash colonialism and the history of slavery and racism in America; promote skepticism of climate change and science; scorn feminism and gender fluidity; support the so-called ‘parental rights’ movement that has attacked the freedom to learn in public schools, especially about race and LGBTQ+ issues; and promote other right-wing causes.”
Several PragerU videos, Americans United pointed out, “undermine church-state separation and advance white Christian Nationalism.” Last year, AU began investigating how Florida and Oklahoma officials vetted Prager’s materials — and determing if they were reviewed at all. The organization is still pressing public officials in those states to release the public documents AU has requested.
Creationism: Efforts to water down the teaching of evolution and/or promote the teaching of creationism (including variants such as “intelligent design”) surface regularly in many state legislatures.
These bills usually fail, but this year, one squeaked through: The West Virginia Legislature, after it rejected a bill that would have allowed the teaching of intelligent design in 2023, enacted in March a law intended to promote attacks on the teaching of evolution. It states that “no local school board, school superintendent, or school principal shall prohibit a public school classroom teacher from discussing and answering questions from students about scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.”
Critics, including Americans United, say the legislation is designed to open the door for teachers to discuss intelligent design.
Book Bans: Book banning remains a persistent problem in America’s public schools. In recent years, several states have passed laws that encourage people to challenge books used in schools. Usually, the books challenged contain LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
PEN America, a group that opposes censorship, earlier this year reported that it documented 3,362 instances of book bans in public school libraries and classrooms from July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023.
“These bans removed student access to 1,557 unique book titles, the works of over 1,480 authors, illustrators, and translators,” reported PEN America. “Authors whose books are targeted are most frequently female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals. Amid a growing climate of censorship, school book bans continue to spread through coordinated campaigns by a vocal minority of groups and individual actors and, increasingly, as a result of pressure from state legislation.”
PEN reported that more than 40% of all book bans (1,406) occurred in Florida school districts. Texas was second with 625 bans, followed by Missouri (333), Utah (281) and Pennsylvania (186).
What is allowed: Despite what AU’s detractors claim, the organization has never called for the removal of all references to religion in public schools. AU has insisted that public schools comply with the constitutional requirement that, when religion appears in public schools, the approach be educational, not devotional.
In 1988, Americans United led a group of 14 religious and educational organizations in publishing a pamphlet titled, “Religion in the Public School Curriculum: Questions and Answers.” The publication called for an approach that is “academic, not devotional” and added, “The school may strive for student awareness of religions, but should not press for student acceptance of any one religion. The school may sponsor study about religion, but may not sponsor the practice of religion. The school may expose students to a diversity of religious views, but may not impose any particular view.”
In 1995, AU joined dozens of organizations that endorsed “Religion in Public Schools: A Joint Statement of Current Law.” The publication stated, “It is both permissible and desirable to teach objectively about the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries. One can teach that the pilgrims came to this country with a particular religious vision, that Catholics and others have been subjected to persecution or that many of those participating in the abolitionist, women’s suffrage, and civil rights movements had religious motivations.”
Most recently, AU issued “Know Your Rights” guides in 2021 for parents, students and teachers. The guides, which have been regularly updated, make it clear that objective instruction about religion is permitted in public schools.
The guide for teachers states, “Schools may teach factual information about religion, such as including in a history class the role of religion in the settlement of the American colonies or teaching in a geography or social-studies class the religious makeup of countries. It is generally not impermissible coercion to have students learn facts about religion. You can even use some religious materials, like the Bible, as part of literary and historic instruction, if you present the material objectively and do not attempt to introduce religious teachings. For example, it would be okay to use the Bible to help explain certain biblical allegories in English class, or as a text to compare with others in an ancient-history class. But the public schools and their teachers must not teach that a particular religion is true (or not true) or that religious doctrines or beliefs are factual. Nor may they encourage students to practice a particular religion or reward or punish them for doing so.” (To see the guides, visit: www.au.org/knowyourrights/.)
Americans United’s Public Policy Department monitors legislation in all 50 states and opposes measures that would violate church-state separation.
“Freedom of religion means that students and their parents – not public school officials or state legislators — get to decide whether and how to engage with religion,” said Nik Nartowicz, AU’s state policy counsel. “Students and their families practice a wide variety of religions and faiths, and many are nonreligious. All of them should feel welcome and not have a particular religious perspective forced on them while attending our public schools.”