Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters issued guidelines Wednesday on how teachers should include the Bible in public school curriculum that include requiring analysis of biblical stories and art.
That dude is a complete piece of shit. I live in Oklahoma. I hate his fucking face. The Bible is not “history.” It a fictional document. Teach it as literature if you want, but they will likely be presenting the material as fact.
Don't teach it as anything to fucking fifth graders though. That is just not appropriate at that reading level.
But apparently it is in Oklahoma now.
I would say nearing the end of high school at the earliest if you want to be able to teach the Bible as literature. It might even not be grade school appropriate at all and should just be taught on the college level.
After all, unless you're teaching it dishonestly, you'll want to cover translation issues, which would require a lot of reading and analysis.
"So you see class, Samson was actually an allegory reframing the collapse of a Philistinian Great Hall as a fairy tale that justifies a schizophrenic's mass murder of persecutors."
Only for those children who have been Washed In The Blood™ of the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their one true savior.
Heathen children, blasphemers, and oh yes the Jews will be consigned to the pit of hellfire to anguish in torment for all eternity. As the Bible clearly teaches. Probably.
Worst, it's revisionist pseudohistory mixed with fiction and delusion. Well there is some archaeological evidence that corroborates some of the more grounded contents, and some of it is relevant to ancient culture and genealogy, it's all mixed up with superstitious nonsense, magic, justifications for what we would now consider crimes against humanity, hyperbole, hallucinations, and code used to bad mouth authorities without getting executed. That last part is the entirety of the Book of Revelation.
It is possible to sift some facts out of it, but it's far easier to either take it at face value, or cherry pick the parts you like. That's what they do with it today, and honestly I would just do anything to make the entire concept of religion just evaporate from human consciousness.
"OK kids, today we're going to go over how the Bible was used to justify slavery in the early colonies, continuing on until the civil war. Then we're going to cover how that was the reason why the Southern Baptist Church was founded..."
Yep. They want to know how the Bible influenced Western culture. So I assume that they will be covering everything from witch burnings to Father Coughlin supporting Hitler on national radio.
Religion is thriving in the USA in a way that it simply isn't in the UK and similar countries where religious education in schools has been compulsory for centuries.
In handing Bible teaching from parents to schools, where it will be taught by poorly paid and demotivated teachers, Oklahoma will make the primary source of information about religion people who have no particular drive for the children to become "believers".
I'm not sure what they think this will achieve, but I'm pretty sure it won't achieve more churchgoers.
Maybe they've figured out how little conservatism agrees with what Jesus actually says and want to wean the country off Christianity before people figure it out. This is a strange and slow way of going about that and a very ineffective way of manufacturing more Republican voters, I think.
Then again, this is the party that gave the worst advice about covid, resulting in a much higher death rate for Republicans than Democrats, so they have form for stupidly shooting themselves in the foot.
“The Bible is indispensable in understanding the development of Western civilization and American history. To ensure our students are equipped to understand and contextualize our nation, its culture, and its founding, every student in Oklahoma will be taught the Bible in its historical, cultural, and literary context.”
We learned this in elementary school. We learned that the colonies were, in large part, established as a way to escape religious oppression and persecution by The Church of England. One of the most important points of this country is to be free to practice any religion you wish.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of state-church watchdog group Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the guidelines are unconstitutional.
I'm not so sure. The First Amendment stipulates that Congress shall not establish a religion. States are free to do as they wish. This is an Oklahoma matter and I hope they figure out that this guy and the rest of his oppressive cult are full of bullshit.
Actually, I would support our public education covering Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other non-Abrahamic religions in an honest historical manner. I learned more about the world and human history in my college art classes which were heavily influenced be religious paintings. Human history has been immensely influenced by religion. It shouldn't be ignored.
There's a lot of misinformation and a lot of cultists out there lying to everyone for power and glory. American children should be well educated. Our public schools should have higher standards. Our teachers should be paid more and better educated themselves. The conservative push towards private and (publicly subsidized) charter schools is detrimental to the future of our nation as a whole.
These cult leaders are an insult to our ancestors and our founding fathers and mothers. I think most people would agree that being religious isn't inherently bad. But forcing others to do what you 'believe' to be true aligns you more with the Devil than with Jesus.
I'm not so sure. The First Amendment stipulates that Congress shall not establish a religion. States are free to do as they wish. This is an Oklahoma matter and I hope they figure out that this guy and the rest of his oppressive cult are full of bullshit.
The Fourteenth Amendment extends the prohibitions to the States.