Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ plan to flood the state’s public schools with Bibles and require teaching about that devotional text has just encountered a serious roadblock: Oklahoma residents are taking him to court.
Walters has been on a crusade to force the Bible into state classrooms since last summer. On June 27, he issued a directive requiring every public school in Oklahoma to “incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments,” into the curriculum for grades 5-12.
At the time, Americans United blasted Walters’ scheme.
“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” said AU President and CEO Rachel Laser in a media statement. “Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference and is unfit for office. His latest scheme — to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum — is a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students.”
Added Laser, “This is textbook Christian Nationalism: Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children. Not on our watch. Americans United is ready to step in and protect all Oklahoma public school children and their families from constitutional violations of their religious freedom.”
Walters later announced a plan to spend a staggering $6 million of taxpayer money over two years on King James Version Bibles for public schools. And Walters took steps toward using that $6 million on a Christian Nationalist version of the King James Bible that includes the texts of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Bill of Rights.
Earlier this year, Americans United and allies filed public records requests seeking information about Walters’ Bible-education mandate and Bible-buying plans. Then, AU’s coalition filed suit on behalf of 32 Oklahoma residents in the state’s top court.
The Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters lawsuit asserts that Walters has engaged in abuses of power and violations of Oklahoma taxpayers’ religious freedom. Walters, the legal action contends, is violating the Oklahoma Constitution’s religious freedom protections because the government is spending public money to support religion, as well as favoring one religion over others by requiring the use of a Protestant version of the Bible.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 17, also maintains that Walters’ actions violate the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act and other state statutes because officials did not follow required rules for adopting new policies and for spending public money. Americans United and its allies are asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to invalidate the Bible-education mandate and block the state from spending millions of taxpayer dollars on Bibles.
Oklahoma parents and children, public school teachers and faith leaders joined the lawsuit. The 32 plaintiffs include 14 public school parents, four public school teachers and three faith leaders who object to Walters’ extremist agenda that imposes his personal religious beliefs on other people’s children — in violation of Oklahomans’ religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
The plaintiffs come from a variety of faith traditions, including Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian (U.S.A.) and United Church of Christ, and some identify as atheist, agnostic or nonreligious. Some are of Indigenous heritage, and some have family situations — such as LGBTQ+ members or children with special educational needs — that cause particular concerns around teaching the Bible in public schools, especially around bullying.
Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice are representing the plaintiffs.
“I am a faith leader who cares deeply about our country’s promise of religious freedom and ensuring that everyone is able to choose their own spiritual path,” said the Rev. Lori Walke, senior minister of Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City and a member of AU’s Faith Advisory Council. “The state mandating that one particular religious text be taught in our schools violates the religious freedom of parents and children, teachers, and taxpayers. The government has no business weighing in on such theological decisions. I’m proud to join this lawsuit because I believe Superintendent Walters’ plan to use taxpayer money to buy Bibles and force public schools to teach from them is illegal and unconstitutional.”
Another clergy plaintiff, the Rev. Mitch Randall, a Baptist pastor and CEO of Good Faith Media, observed, “As a Christian, I’m appalled by the use of the Bible — a sacred text — for Superintendent Walters’ political grandstanding. As a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, I’m alarmed by the parallels between this Bible mandate and the religious proselytization and forced assimilation my relatives faced in government boarding schools. As a taxpayer, I object to the state spending public funds on religious texts. The separation of church and state is a bedrock principle protecting religious liberty for every citizen; I urge the court to uphold this principle and strike down this mandate.”
Parents are speaking out as well.
Erika Wright, a Cleveland County resident who is the founder and leader of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, has two children who attend public schools.
“As parents, my husband and I have sole responsibility to decide how and when our children learn about the Bible and religious teachings,” Wright observed. “We are devout Christians, but different Christian denominations have different theological beliefs and practices. It is not the role of any politician or public school official to intervene in these personal matters. Oklahoma’s education system is already struggling, ranking nearly last in national standings. Mandating a Bible curriculum will not address our educational shortcomings. Superintendent Walters should focus on providing our children and teachers with the resources they need; our families can handle religious education at home.”
Americans United believes that objective instruction about religion in public schools can be permissible in some contexts, such as in an elective comparative religion class, as long as certain guidelines are respected. But Walters has made it abundantly clear that he’s not interested in factual instruction about religion. Instead, he’s on a tear to infuse Oklahoma’s public schools with Christian Nationalism.
“The Supreme Court has been wrong — there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence. It doesn’t exist,” Walters declared to attendees of the Pray Vote Stand Summit hosted in Washington, D.C., by the Family Research Council, a Christian Nationalist organization, in September of 2023.
“We will bring God back to schools and prayer back in schools in Oklahoma and fight back against that radical myth,” Walters vowed.
In other contexts, Walters has stated, “Atheism is now the de facto and sponsored religion, and it is indefensible in a place like Oklahoma that we would allow this to happen.”
(For more on Walters’ ties to Christian Nationalism, see “The Wall basher,” December 2023 Church & State.)
Walters has been a controversial figure in Oklahoma. Oklahoma Speaker of the House Charles McCall (R-Atoka) objected after Walters spent $30,000 in taxpayer money to hire a public relations firm to boost Walters’ national profile.
“Education — everyone is a stakeholder in education,” McCall told reporters in March. “We should not be expending state monies, taxpayer dollars, for personal promotion.”
KFOR, an Oklahoma City TV station, reported that Walters spent thousands in taxpayer dollars on travel expenses, including “expenses for attending a movie premiere and recording a podcast in Texas, attending a Moms for Liberty conference in Pennsylvania, and traveling to Washington D.C, to meet with a guest-booker for Fox News.”
In August, 21 members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, including several Republicans, signed a letter asking McCall to launch a formal investigation into “alarming” actions by Walters and suggesting that his “failures” justify impeachment. (McCall said he would not investigate Walters unless 51 members of the House requested it.)
Americans United is determined to stop Walters’ plans to infuse Oklahoma public schools with Christian Nationalism.
“The separation of church and state guarantees that families and students — not politicians — get to decide if, when and how to engage with religion,” said AU’s Laser. “Superintendent Ryan Walters is abusing the power of his office to advance a Christian Nationalist agenda and impose his personal religious beliefs on other people’s children. Not on our watch. We’re proud to defend the religious freedom of all Oklahomans, from Christians to the nonreligious.”