Oklahoma's school chief required Bibles in class and one seemed to meet the criteria - endorsed by Trump

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

1 hour ago


Over the summer, Oklahoma ordered its public schools to begin teaching the Bible in every classroom. Now the state is being criticized for seeking to buy potentially millions of dollars worth of Bibles, with requirements that only seem to match Bibles endorsed by members of theTrump family.

As The Oklahoman reports, a request for proposals for selling 55,000 Bibles to the state issued on Monday specifies that the Bibles must be the King James version, feature the Old and New Testaments, and include American political documents like the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

Only a few commonly available Bibles fit the bill, according to the paper: the $60 God Bless the USA Bible, endorsed by Donald Trump, and the $90 We The People Bible, endorsed by Donald Trump, Jr. Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Alicia Andrews told the paper the plan seems designed to curry favor with the Trumps. Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters, the architect of the Bible initiative, has endorsed the Republican for president.

“For (Walters) to craft this RFP, to specifically identify this Bible, this document that the state taxpayers would spend money on, either is a dereliction of duty, a dereliction of stewardship or maybe it is a … signal to former President Trump: ‘Hey, hey, I’m on your team, sir,’” Andrews told The Oklahoman. Walters office denied any political motives behind the request for proposals.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-bible-oklahom-ryan-walters-b2624140.html

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[AllaN01Bear]

1. of course , the donald trump bible would fill the bill.

gee.

[Cheezoholic]

2. Just to be clear, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution are the same document

Obviously the writers of the article need a civics lesson, JFC! (pun intended )

[SunSeeker]

6. Exactly. The Bill of Rights are just the first ten Amendments to the Constitution.

[JoseBalow]

10. They'd know that if they read their bible

[cab67]

30. And not the complete document.

There are 17 other amendments not included in this idiocy.

[sakabatou]

3. Think of all the money the school could save by NOT breaking the wall of separation

[SunSeeker]

4. That amounts to a gift of public funds and an illegal campaign contribution.

King James version Bibles can be purchased on Amazon for only $1.99 or, even free. A lot of religious organization give Bibles out for free. https://biblesfree.org/bibles.html#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20looking%20for,library%20or%20lost%20and%20found.

Same thing with copies of the Constitution/Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. All are absolutely FREE. https://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm?section=bookstore&page=freeCopy.cfm#:~:text=Order%20your%20free%20copy%20of,Fascinating%20Facts%20About%20It%20today!&text=To%20learn%20more%20about%20the%20Constitution%20%E2%80%94%20the%20people%2C%20the%20events,order%20pocket%20constitution%20books%20online.

It is INSANE and CRIMINAL to pay $60 for this.

[keithbvadu2]

8. A gift/grift of taxpayer money to Trump.

[bluestarone]

5. I would pull my child out

Plus i feel all federal funding STOPPED!

[ShazzieB]

7. Oh, for the love of dogs and cats and little green lizards!

Leaving aside the issue of how inappropriate it is to require that the Bible be taught in public schools, this is a laughably transparent political stunt.

The reason so few Bibles fit the "requirements" that Walters pulled out of his posterior is that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are not part of the Bible, and have nothing to do with the contents of that book. These are gratuitously unnecessary extras that have no part in teaching anyone about the Bible, and have only been added to a few editions by publishers hoping to cash in on the "patriotism" of unsuspecting suckers who are willing to pay a premium for them.

Not only is this a blatantly obvious attempt to pander to TSF and politicize the selection of textbooks for Oklahoma schools, it adds a significant extra expense to the cost of carrying out this ridiculous mandate. I took a quick look at Amazon just now and was able, with minimal effort, to pull up multiple editions of the KJV Bible available for under $20. The only purpose of spending 3 times that much (or more) would be to curry favor with and fatten the wallets of people named Trump.

Even IF I didn't disagree with the Bible mandate in the first place, I'd be mightily pissed off by this stupid stunt. As it is, I'm only vicariously pissed off, because I don't live in Oklahoma and the tax dollars being wasted on this aren't coming out of my bank account. If I did live there, this would be me:

[slightlv]

13. Is that the only difference between t's bibles and others? That the

Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are included? I agree, they should not be included; but then I affirm a strong wall separating church and state. I don't think ANY bibles should be included at school, except excerpts where appropriate in a world religion class. I'm with those who said they'd pull their kids out of school... and then I'd also make a huge stink about it regionally as well as Nationally. We have to fight back these theocrats with just as much fervor as we do the maga repubs (tho they really are one and the same).

[ShazzieB]

17. Yes, this is just a reglar KJV Bible with a few added extras.

It's actually called the “God Bless The USA” Bible. *GAG* You can see all the details here: https://godblesstheusabible.com/

According to the above website, this Bible is "officially endorsed" by both Trump and Lee Greenwood and contains the Old and New Testaments plus the following:
-- Handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
-- The US Constitution
-- The Bill of Rights
-- The Declaration of Independence
-- The Pledge of Allegiance

And I just made a truly horrifying discovery while checking out the website: this Bible was recently reissued in something called “The Day God Intervened” Edition. From what I can tell, it's exactly the same, except that the cover is embossed with these words (above the words Holy Bible, I might add):



For anyone who doesn't recognize that date, it's the day of the assassination attempt. And now I feel like I'm going to be sick, because this thing is even more of an abomination than I thought!

Apologies to anyone else who feels like being sick after reading this post. I looked up the website so I could be sure of answering slightly's question correctly, and got a LOT more than I was expecting.

[slightlv]

20. Dear gods! Gag me with a spoon! /nt

[Jim__]

9. I would think they'd have banned the Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal, and such.

[Linda ladeewolf]

11. This sounds

Like the ultimate Butt Kisser!

[happy feet]

12. Is ...separation of church and state...gone?

That battle was won when I was in grade school so we no longer said ‘the lord’s prayer’ in school each day.

[slightlv]

14. Back in the late 70's,

when I was running my BBS, one of my users and I got into chat mode over a religious objection of the day was concerned. We both saw this coming down the line. And we also saw many, many more religions popping up to take its rightful place beside Christianity. "Chatted" many hours about this, and how the Xtianists were going to respond when they were made to allow Hindus, Muslims, Pagans, and others *(including Christianity as most of us were taught in our young, young days) in the public square if they wanted to include their xtianity. We saw no good coming out of it, and a lot of angst, court cases, and riots at times because of it.

[mdbl]

15. How sickening. Oklahoman children will be mystically manipulated dolts when they get through with them.

So much for science.

[chouchou]

16. The state of Oklahoma ranks 4th !! Ah.....4th worst state.

They might want to improve their lousy-ranking state, instead of indoctrinating children for church attendances.
Oklahoma? You're not OK.

[IcyPeas]

18. Ryan Walters.... remember this guy?

... supports Moms for Liberty. He appointed owner of Libs of TikTok, Chaya Raichik to the OK library board. PragerU curriculum. He is a dangerous creep.

Here's a few clips from his Wikipedia page:

A member of the Republican Party, he has been a vocal critic of critical race theory, LGBT students' rights, and teachers' unions in Oklahoma

During his tenure, he has campaigned for the removal of Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and supported the political organization Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as an "extremist" and "antigovernment" group. Since February 2024, Walters has been criticized for his appointment of Chaya Raichik to the Oklahoma Library Advisory Board, and stances on transgender youth and students …

In September, Walters announced that the state would cooperate with conservative media group PragerU to provide curriculum to Oklahoma schools, a policy similar to one recently adopted in Florida. Oklahoma Democrats criticized the curriculum as "whitewashing history".

In January 2024, Walters appointed the far-right Libs of TikTok account owner Chaya Raichik to a statewide library advisory board, prompting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats

In August 2023, the Monday before a meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, far-right social media account Libs of TikTok released an edited video of a Union Public Schools librarian which Walters shared the following morning. The six consecutive school days following the video's release, both UPS and the librarian's home received bomb threats. Walters attended the board meeting that Thursday, during which a third bomb threat had been made against Union Public Schools. Walters initially did not have any comments on the matter. The following day, after a fourth bomb threat was made, Walters denounced the threats, though he did not remove the Libs of TikTok post believed to have incited the threats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Walters_(politician)

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

19. Oh, lovely

Let the lawsuits begin!

[GreenWave]

21. Put in the dicarded parts of the Bible, like women's sexuality!

Oops. The old book has been heavily censored. Also the Council of the War Gods (plural!)

[mwooldri]

22. Does the book have to be physical?

Or would a digital copy on a shared folder suffice?

[Stargazer99]

23. Is this same book required in private schools? I will bet it isn't-

How dare state government require this as there are many other religions that now have a point in requiring that they are also taught

[wolfie001]

24. That Walters guy is one shady f6cker

Skeletons meet closet

[samnsara]

25. they will all be spitball targets

[jaxexpat]

26. It's worth noting that the King James Version is so archaic, it's a confusing joke.

For the sake of edification through perusal it may as well be written in Latin, especially in these most modern of times. It's preferred by the yokel classes because, to them, it sounds more "godlike", I guess. It's preferred by yokel preachers because it gives them more control over the message with fewer who would/could dispute their words. Plus, that's how they were taught in "preacher school".

And, of course, it has no place as a reference in any public school's course of instruction.

[cab67]

31. Check out the website that sells Chick Tracts.

I won't paste the URL here, but a google search should bring it up.

These are the people who publish those short newsprint comic books on homosexuality, evolution, abortion, Dungeons and Dragons, and anything else they find ecclesiastically impure.

They're also very anti-Muslim, anti-Mormon, and anti-Catholic.

They have one or two on the reason the King James Version is the only acceptable translation. It goes beyond sounding "godlike." In particular, it's seen as a needed antidote to Popery.

[jaxexpat]

33. As Mrs. Drysdale would say, "Oh, those dreadful hillbillies".

[YoshidaYui]

27. THAT'S RIGHT OKLAHOMA, SHOVE THOSE BIG THICK BIBLES

DOWN THE THROAT OF YOUR KIDS, AND MAKE THE PARENTS BUY TRUMP'S BIBLE SO THEY ARE TEACHING THE RIGHT THING, ITS THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN ASSURE THE KIDS WILL GROW UP TO BE GOOD LITTLE NAZI'S WHO HATE ALL RACES COLORS AND CREEDS... fuck you to the Hell Oklahoma, if I lived there, there , there would be torches in the streets and a lot of angry parents.

[Mysterian]

28. I remember when a radio station recited the Declaration of Independence on-air

and hundreds of trumpsters called and told them to stop playing communist propaganda.

But why is a state in the USA buying bibles, and why must they contain the Declaration and other non-religious texts? Are there any sane people left in Oklahoma?

[AZ8theist]

29. Trump "approved" book he's never read. Fucking ridiculous.

What's next, Oklahoma? Purchase of 55,000 copies of "Mein Kampf"?

[cab67]

32. This is actually a form of bigotry.

And not in the way most people would think.

The King James Version is preferred by several Protestant communities - the more conservative ones in particular - in part because it was written not long after the Reformation and during a time when Catholic vs Protestant was a thing all over the European continent.

The KJV is sometimes seen as not just sufficiently pure, but also sufficiently anti-Catholic.

By insisting on this version, the bowsers who came up with this policy aren't just pushing Christianity - they're pushing a version of evangelical Protestantism that is inherently anti-Catholic.

I gave up Catholicism for Lent a while back, and it kinda stuck. I'm not even remotely happy with the way American conservative Catholics have inserted themselves into politics in this country* - indeed, it's one of the reasons I've distanced myself - but I also know they don't speak for every Catholic in the country. I still have many fond memories of my time involved with the Catholic student centers at my undergrad and graduate schools, and I find real beauty in how Catholics are expected to treat the poor and downtrodden. For this reason, the thought of requiring a version of the Bible that came from an explicitly anti-Catholic mindset really bothers me.

I actually would support a course on Biblical history at the high school level. But I don't mean teaching the Bible as history. Rather, I mean teaching the history of the Bible, which is seriously fascinating stuff.


*I will take bishops' threats to Catholic politicians who support women's reproductive rights seriously when they start issuing the same threats to Catholic judges, prosecutors, jurors, and prison officials who take part in executions. Official Catholic doctrine opposes both for the very same reason.