https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/us/oklahoma-schools-bible-curriculum/index.html

"All Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in their curriculums, effective immediately, the state’s chief education officer announced in a memorandum Thursday.

At a State Board of Education meeting, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the Bible is “one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country.”

“It’s crystal clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters said.
Every classroom in the state must have a Bible and all teachers must teach from the Bible in the classroom, Walters said."

How is this going to work for driving schools and barber colleges?

Well, for barber colleges you have 1 Corinthians 11:14

" Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,"

For barber colleges, Samson & Delilah is a good read, or maybe the death of Absalom.

Look--there're some Philistines!

Where'd I put my jawbone of an ass?

Great! Another round of lawsuits and losses in court. How much will this stupidity cost OK taxpayers? These clowns never learn, they just try to out-stupid each other.

stillanon Wrote:
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> Great! Another round of lawsuits and losses in
> court. How much will this stupidity cost OK
> taxpayers? These clowns never learn, they just try
> to out-stupid each other.

Most certainly, the state will lose in its own Supreme Court. However, as noted in the thread about the state Supreme Court's decision to make null and void the contract that would have allowed an evangelizing religious school to be considered a charter school, the state really wants to take that case (and probably this one as well) up to the U.S. Supreme Court where it hopes that friendlier Justices will relax even further the wall of separation between church and state.

I really think the real purpose is to keep religious voters appeased and to create distractions.

+1

It pleases the base.

Politics are a part of it, but the politics are just a means to an end for them.

This is way beyond just pandering to a segment of the electorate to just get votes.

They want a religious fundamentalist state. They want an EV faux "christian" theocracy like Iran or Afghanistan.

The pols want to get re-elected or to move to even higher offices. Many of them have no other guiding principle.

Are they white nationalists? I'm sure many are. But conversely many of them, like those who condemned 1/6 and TFG but now embrace him, are doing it out of unprincipled opportunism.

To suggest that the latter are motivated by sincere convictions is, in a curious way, giving them too much credit.

I think they are trying hard to get some lawsuits about it so they can attempt to get their agenda to the SCOTUS. Maybe they think the current top judges might side with them. Shudder.

Yes. Dobbs emboldened the religious right to keep pushing the envelope to see how far SCOTUS is willing to go.

If they allow this, the next step will be some state passing a law to require prayer in schools.

[|] Wrote:

> If they allow this, the next step will be some
> state passing a law to require prayer in schools.

And why do they want prayer in schools?

Turf and "getting right with God."

Their extremist religion tells them all sorts of evils will befell the world unless they can make what they call "god's law" the law of the land and everyone else thinks, lives, and believes as they do.

It's more than that, [|]. Thomas has openly called for challenges to precedents and laws that he personally disfavors.

In the Dobbs decision he said that all the substantive due process precedents, including gay marriage, contraception, and sodomy laws, are now open for reconsideration. The reprobates in the Bible Belt doubtless took that to heart. Amusingly, the only cluster of substantive due process cases he did NOT suggest should be overturned was those allowing interracial marriage--in other words, he thinks that his personal interests should be protected even if the other privacy rights should not.

There are other Supremes, including Roberts, who have done the same thing. They are inviting, nay begging, right-wing extremists to bring them cases--even in at least one instance cases that were based on fabricated disputes with fabricated evidence.

So much for "calling balls and strikes."

Rules for thee but not for me!

Ideally, it would be good to teach the Bible in schools--so too Greek mythology, since you need a basic understanding of those things is necessary to understand both Western literature and Western history.

But the precondition for that is a determination to teach those subjects as secular and not religious. Today's United States, however, and especially the Bible Belt, are manifestly unwilling to adopt that neutrality. Like littlenipper and the government of Oklahoma, the decision makers in much of the country want to teach the Bible as fact.

In those circumstances the highest priority must be reinforcement of the foundering wall between church and state. Sadly.

No doubt some just want to climb up the ladder -- this was the case during the Nazi era where many mid-level bureaucrats weren't all that Nazi or anti-Semitic ("Gestapo" Mueller was a famous example).

But, going by the rhetoric the leaders keep putting out, it seems they want a christofascist state.

Children, today we are going to learn about the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." It means that daddy cannot put his pee-pee into the lady next door, or even the lady down the street. That's wrong, and it would upset mommy and God. Any questions?

And whatever you do, don't make fun of bald guys.

STOP IT!

You'll make EOD blush!

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Children, today we are going to learn about the
> commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
> wife." It means that daddy cannot put his pee-pee
> into the lady next door, or even the lady down the
> street. That's wrong, and it would upset mommy and
> God. Any questions?

I'm laughing at your comment. In the audio-described version of the movie "The Godfather,", the narrator describes the scene near the beginning where one of the main characters is having sex with another character who is one of the maids as: "He is peeing inside the maid." Talk about inaccuracies because you don't want to tell what's actually going on...

Are they going to use the scripture about the young lady's breasts looking like young deer . . .?


"Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies."

Sex Education, right?

Which bible?

Protestant
Catholic
Ethiopian

Which of the many translations?

Who interprets the passages?

Christians can't get their act together, how would a public school?

Simple example

Lords prayer

Forgive us trespasses or forgive us our debts?

10 Commandments

Jewish
Catholic
Protestant

All three are different.

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Which bible?
>
> Protestant
> Catholic
> Ethiopian
>
> Which of the many translations?
>
> Who interprets the passages?
>
> Christians can't get their act together, how would
> a public school?
>
> Simple example
>
> Lords prayer
>
> Forgive us trespasses or forgive us our debts?
>
> 10 Commandments
>
> Jewish
> Catholic
> Protestant
>
> All three are different.

The original Greek and Hebrew.

Half the kids probably barely read English, let alone Greek and Hebrew. ;-)

I think the schools should use the illustrated Brick Bible that has Bible stories done in Lego blocks. At least the kids would see what the Bible actually contains.

https://thebrickbible.com/legacy/

"The Bible contains material some may consider morally objectionable and/or inappropriate for children."

Out of all the books getting banned lately, the Bible should be at the top of the list, IMO.

...for the Bible to be used would be the King James version. It is a variant of the Ten Commandments from that Bible (per a story in Daily Kos and I'm sure they got it from somewhere else) that is being used for the Ten Commandments requirement in Louisiana schools. For whatever reason, many evangelical leaders, like their Mormon counterparts, seem to believe that the King James Bible is the closest to the true text (or maybe it has more controlling language--I'm not sure).

Is Michael Shermer's version of Genesis acceptable source material?

Reading the Bible doesn't make a child a Christian anymore than reading the Book of Mormon makes a person a Mormon, or saying the Pledge of Allegiance makes a foreigner a Citizen of the United States.

Hell yes it does.

If parents and teachers promote the Bible as literal truth, impressionable minds will be impressed.

And seriously, that's what you want, isn't it. You're hear to save us all by hook or by crook.

Lyin' for the Lord.

I'll bet Little Nipper would be outraged if Oklahoma were to REQUIRE teaching the BOM or the Koran in public schools. "That's indoctrination!" Well yeah, that's the whole point.

But but but he has the RIGHT version of Jesus! (Eye roll)

    I'm greatly concerned about 'versions' of biblical truth!

    For instance, what if you're taught that Faith without Works is dead, but on the Christian college entrance exam, the correct answer is all it takes is Faith, and you get a low score and can only get admitted to BYU-I?

When I was a kid, the Greek pantheon was included in the curriculum. Isn't that kind of the same thing?

In the public schools, we are allowed to teach *about* religion if it's a part of the curriculum, but not to proselytize. For instance years ago my school system had a unit on Japan for the 4th graders, and I would teach my students the basic tenants and beliefs of Buddhism and Shinto. You would find the same in a World Religions survey course such as I took in high school.

The current attempts to inject the Bible and Christianity into the public schools are to me, a clear attempt to proselytize no matter how much the EVs try to present it otherwise. The public schools are not supposed to favor any one religion. We are supposed to be fair to students of other faiths or no faith at all.

I don't know if it's an attempt to proselytize, although that may be part of it. Most of the kids are likely to be some flavor of christian anyway.

It looks to me more like a way of showing who's in charge, similar to Southern cities putting up Confederate statues in the early 20th century, or modern mormons forcing big-ass temples onto smaller towns.

When I was a kid, the Greek gods were taught as stories and mythology. They didn't stress the actual temples built to the gods was because people actually believed they were real.

They NEVER said, "See? Just like other cultures including yours!"

Saw an interesting meme from a friend:

Posting the Ten Commandments is the 21st century form of idolatry. The Ten Commandments are the new Golden Calf.