In Oklahoma, public schools will teach the Bible and the 10 commandments at the start of the school year

Starting this fall, the Bible and the 10 Commandments will be part of the curriculum in Oklahoma public schools from elementary to high school. This decision by the local education department is possible in the United States, because each state can vary its school curricula.

The announcement was made in late June. Students will begin studying the Bible and the 10 Commandments in Oklahoma public schools from elementary to high school. Details on how the books will be incorporated into the curriculum are still being worked out, but Oklahoma plans to make both texts uniform across the state by preparing the necessary materials for teachers.

The decision was made by Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of education. “The Bible is one of the most historically important books and a foundation of Western civilization, along with the 10 Commandments.”justifies the official. “This is less of an educational directive than a crucial step to ensure that our students understand the core values ​​of our country, and its historical context.”he adds. The superintendent is elected in the United States, and Ryan Walters, a Republican, took office in the fall of 2022, attacking the ideology woke which he says is rampant in the Oklahoma school system.

In a conservative state, his decision was received rather positively, although one local Democratic official did denounce the initiative as unlikely to improve Oklahoma’s education ranking. The state is indeed at the bottom of the country, and Ryan Walters should seek “to educate students rather than evangelize them”deplores this elected official. An association campaigning for the separation of Church and State describes a “Christian nationalist” that attacks religious freedoms. A UCLA law professor wonders whether such a measure violates the Constitution. But the Supreme Court, which Donald Trump has shifted far to the right by appointing three conservative justices, would not necessarily respond favorably. For Ryan Walters, the separation of church and state is a myth, since nothing mentions it in the Constitution. On Twitter, he explained that even if the left gets annoyed, we are not rewriting history.

The debate is not unique to Oklahoma. What is described as Christian nationalism is gaining ground in other American states, as well as in some European countries. In Louisiana, a few days ago, the Republican governor asked that the 10 commandments be posted in all public schools. The measure will be challenged in court. In Oklahoma, the local Supreme Court already rejected a project for a state-funded Catholic school. The principal would have been a practicing Catholic and the students would have had to go to Mass.

More than a dozen states, reports the Washington Postare preparing or have prepared a law that would authorize the presence of a chaplain, voluntary or not, in public schools. The federal Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, did not let Maine prohibit the payment of public money to religious schools. It also sided with an American football coach, fired by his school for having prayed in the middle of the field.