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The Oklahoma Department of Education is withdrawing a 2024 directive that required teachers to have the Christian Bible in every classroom and include it in lessons, following challenges that it violated the Constitution.
The directive was introduced by former state superintendent Ryan Walters, who resigned last month. The Oklahoma Supreme Court had blocked the policy while teachers and parents from diverse religious backgrounds filed a lawsuit arguing that the Bible mandate breached the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on state endorsement of religion.
The Oklahoma Constitution goes further, requiring public schools and funding to remain nonsectarian and not favor any particular religion. The state’s largest teachers union also opposed the mandate, noting that local school districts and educators, not the state, should decide which books are used in classrooms.
New superintendent Lindel Fields was given two weeks to decide whether to continue defending the policy and announced the next day that he would not. “We plan to file a motion to dismiss, and have no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms,” Fields said.
Walters, a Christian who described the Old and New Testaments as “foundational documents” of Western civilization, faced criticism from state lawmakers who said they had not approved funding for the Bible initiative. Walters expressed disappointment on social media, stating, “The war on Christianity is real.”
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