Classroom Bible Mandate in Oklahoma & Its Opponents

classroom Bible mandate

CLASSROOM BIBLE MANDATE. The Oklahoma Dept. of Education now seeks to include Bibles in every public classroom. State Superintendent of Instruction Ryan Walters called the Bible “a necessary historical document.” Students need it to understand Western civilization, the Constitution and “the basis of our legal system.”

And who can truly dispute those assertions? Christianity grew steadily in the West ever since Constantine’s 313 AD edict of toleration. Despite severe challenges from within and without, it remains the leading faith throughout the West. According to David Barton, 52 of 55 framers of the Constitution were Bible-believing Christians. The University of Houston found that of 15,000 quotes by the framers, 34% came from the Bible. (See David Barton’s American Heritage Series).

But did the Bible influence “the basis of our legal system” beyond the Constitution? Yes. The very first Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay, served as president of the American Bible Society. And in 1892 the Supreme Court called the US a Christian nation, citing 87 precedents.

Objections that should be overruled

Of course, Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser raised objections. Despite popular perception, you can’t find their name “separation of church and state” in the Constitution. The phrase comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson to Baptist churches in Connecticut. Actually, it affirmed the churches’ right to freedom of religion as opposed to conformity to any state church.

Laser calls this mandate for Bibles in classrooms “unconstitutional.” If so, the Constitution itself is unconstitutional, since its framers so often quoted the Bible. She says that such mandates are “constitutional violations of [children’s] religious freedom.” But how does banning the Bible from the classroom provide religious freedom? She says it would “religiously coerce public school students.” But that implies every book in the classroom becomes an instrument of coercion. Walters asks only that they call it a “historical document” for the sake of understanding our civilization.

To ban the Bible from classrooms amounts to censoring the history of many Western nations. That itself violates our religious freedom. Instead, we should call for the inclusion of the Constitution in every classroom too.

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