Oklahoma school officials worship at the altar of Trump Read on Substack
(Some blue language within.)
Yes. This is happening.
A knuckle-dragging religious troglodyte Trump cultist in Oklohama disguised as the state superintendent of schools has made Bibles in the classroom a statewide requirement. Oh, it gets worse. Initially, when the requirement was made, only one Bible fit the requirement. I’ll let you guess which one.
The initial requirement was that the Bibles be bound in “leather or leather-like material for durability,” and include the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance. The only Bible that fits that requirements cost $59.99 and puts the profits directly into the wallet of one Donald J. Trump.
Fortunately for Donald Trump, while the requirement was that the Bibles purchased for schools with state money contain the U.S. documents, there isn’t a requirement that they not be made in a factory using child labor in China.
Fun fact: The “God Bless the USA” Bibles, as they’re called and selling for $59.99, are only made at the cost of $3, and again, in China…the nation Trump claims is bribing President Joe Biden.
I never read the entire Bible but because of a mostly-Southern childhood where I was forced to attend church, Bible school, revivals, a Baptist Halloween, and even a Baptist private school against my will, I am pretty damn familiar with it. I know there’s no mention in the Bible of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the United States, or Donald Trump. Also, how was I forced to attend all that Baptist stuff when I was born Catholic? Why?
What fucknut Ryan Walters is trying to do is force his religion on the children of Oklahoma while making a broad appeal to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the easiest politician to manipulate because he’s a corrupt narcissist. It’s why Republicans and foreign governments rented his hotel rooms while he was president (sic), even when they didn’t stay at his hotels. There are many ways to purchase Trump’s affection.
William Barr once rented the ballroom at Trump’s Washington hotel. Who the hell goes to a William Barr party? That sounds brutal. You could run into a Cory Lewandowsky or a Stephen Miller at one of those. Scott Pruitt, a member of Trump’s cabinet needed a new mattress and instead of buying a new one at an actual business that sells mattresses, tried to purchase a used one from Trump’s DC Hotel. Why would you want to buy a used mattress that thousands of people got funky on and could possibly contain bedbugs instead of, oh, I don’t know, purchasing a brand new one nobody’s ever shagged on? A mattress that MAGAts got busy on is the worst.
Here, Walters is appealing to Trump’s narcissism and corruption, possibly to win a spot in his administration. Bribing someone is so much easier than working to charm them. And here, Walters, who probably has zero charm, is bribing Trump with taxpayer money.
Just as Louisiana is forcing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom in the state despite its abysmal literacy rate, Oklahoma is forcing Bibles in its classrooms when 45 percent of its fourth graders are below the basic reading level. That’s not OK (see what I did there?).
Maybe Oklahoma should use the textbooks it has now to teach its children how to read before sticking unnecessary zealotry bullshit on its walls that they can’t read.
It’s too bad “thou shall not grift,” “thou shall not bribe,” and “thou shall not force its religious fuckery on thy schoolchildren” aren’t part of the Commandments.
Also, Bibles should NOT be in any public school classrooms. The Bible should not be taught in schools. What should be taught in school is math, reading, and history. Maybe if we do a better job at teaching history, we’ll stop being so stupid to repeat it. Current events should also be taught in classrooms as well (not what Beyonce is wearing but news) so people in Oklahoma and Louisiana can see that their Republican officials are trying to turn their states into the Taliban. Don’t do that. Taliban bad.
Because of pressure, the state is backtracking and adjusting the requirements for the Bibles, which they’re taking bids for now. The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc, etc, don’t have to be a part of the Bible now, they just gotta come with it. They’ve also adjusted the requirements for Fruity Pebbles to be sold in Oklahoma as the Ten Commandments no longer have to be printed on the label and can now be the toy surprise inside. It’s gotta suck to be a kid in Oklahoma. I’d Sooner live in a blue state. See what I did there? Never mind.
Walters is upset about having to change the requirement and said, “The left-wing media hates Donald Trump so much, and they hate the Bible so much, they will lie and go to any means necessary to stop this initiative from happening.”
Hmmm….if it didn’t have anything to do with Donald Trump, then why are you bringing him up? Walters is having great difficulty in hiding that this was all about buying 55,000 Trump Bibles at $55.99 each.
But, you don’t have to hate Donald Trump or the Bible, which Trump has never read, to not want Bibles in public schools.
Instead of requiring that Bibles and the Ten Commandments be placed in schools, require that the Constitution be placed in schools. Or better yet, before you become the State Superintendent of schools, especially in a yee-haw state, there should be a requirement that you READ the Constitution…and take a test on it.
Ryan Walters would flunk on the First Amendment as it says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Now, I know Walters is not Congress but I’m pretty sure the Constitution forbids any government from establishing a religion, which is what Walters is trying to do. He’s not trying to force the Koran or Torah in classrooms.
And by the way, is Walters requiring math and history books to be leather-bound or just the school’s Bibles? Maybe could they use that cheap “leather-like” material the $59.99 Trump Bibles come with.
Hey, shitweasels… When you guys pull this kind of crap, can you find a way to make it appear that it serves the betterment of society, the public, and the greater good instead of just serving Donald Trump and yourself? Hmmm?
Music note: I jammed to Verbena while coloring. (snip)
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Ali. Don’t you just wish you could be the teacher there and do the old “malicious compliance” thing? I’d love to talk about how we are supposed to remove the plank, love our neighbor, how the old testament is made complete by Jesus so no longer applies – or if applies in part must be applied in whole, etc. You want to demand Bible, let’s do Bible! Do you remember how obnoxious little boys are when learning about dinosaurs, now imagine how they would be if they knew what was in THAT book!
Hugs
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oh, and no republican knows anything of the constitution outside “free speech means I can call people rude names and I get all the pew-pews.
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Exactly. SMH.
A while back, there was a story about a pastor who preached Matthew, including the Sermon on the Mount. A few separate rightwingers apparently thought they knew more than the pastor, telling him that those leftwing Jesus stories aren’t real and don’t really work. He explained that they’re literally in the Bible as the words of Jesus, and was told that nobody wants to hear that stuff anymore. That makes my head explode.
Seems as if they’re attending the wrong church.
And yes, I loved doing little subversive things in my Latchkey class; like holding elections during election season, teaching them how instant runoff voting works, and how to get out votes. They loved IRV! They didn’t at all enjoy campaigning, even for positions they wanted, like dog catcher, but they did enjoy watching classmates campaign. But we got a lot of good work done, then. Of course, this was during the transition from GW to Obama, too, and I kept it very apolitical making it a simple class election. But interestingly, I never had to guide them with what was clean campaigning! They were all positive, all on their own. It was pretty awesome. I hope it sticks with them.
One dark, cold January, they got to plan a town (I was a planning commissioner for my city for not quite 25 years; I figured if nothing else, it’d be a fun Legos project.) It was amazing to me the common sense things they chose to do to make their town livable, and how hard they worked to cooperate with each other.
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That must have been a really fun class to teach.
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It was great! I’d been in the classroom for a bit, but mostly worked afterschool/latchkey. I especially appreciated afterschool after the time I spent in the classroom, as afterschool has time. In the classroom, it’s always having to move along to get everything covered during a class day. In afterschool, if someone’s stumped on something, we just work on it until it’s done, and we can take breaks and pick it up another day. We were to provide STEAM enrichment and homework help, along with nutritious snacks and physical playtime. We had 2.5 hours any day school was in session for the full day. Some call it glorified daycare, and yes, it was, but what’s wrong with that? The kiddoes are safe, fed, and learning things in the fashion of Sesame St., etc., they’re mostly in fine moods when their families pick them up, which makes everyone’s evening nicer, and the kiddoes do better in class the next day.
I should clarify that I was not an actual teacher, having no license or full degree in Ed. I was a para, with credit hours in various fields, then continuing ed provided. Para means half. I was very happy in that job, helping everybody out, and passing along some nice stuff. We had “Chocolate Week” during Valentine’s week; they learned the origins of chocolate (not the slave/child labor part,) did coloring sheets with facts, did M&Ms math, looked up their favorite chocolate online to give a little report, and finally, we made fudge on Thursday or Friday, whenever the whole class was there.
I could go on about that job for a while! But I won’t. I do hold a bit of grudge-forgiven but never forgotten-that we all had to sit on our hands while the Don twiddled his thumbs instead of getting treatments and vaccines done so we could go back to work and get the kiddoes safely in school. When school reopened, I didn’t go back because so many younger women with families needed those parttime afterschool positions to get caught back up financially, as many somehow didn’t qualify for unemployment. I did that work because not enough people wanted to before that, and I found a great spot. But after, well. I’d been young with a young family that needs stuff, and those women needed that work. And it was the Don who caused that, and similar things everywhere. The Biden admin has really turned things around, and I wish more people would remember these things.
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and the teachers are all terrified they will have to “teach” religion. There is no “out” for anyone of non-Christian faith either…we’re trying, so far unsuccessfully, to get the ACLU to sue ryan asshole and his band of stupid sycophants.
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Well, and that was my question at the beginning of this: was there a curriculum and syllabus for what Walters wants? At the time there was not. Seemed as if one could get by with having a Bible in the classroom, and just never getting around to “teaching” whatever it was Walters wanted taught. Since then I’ve read and Hilldale or Hillsdale, whichever, produced curricula, but I haven’t seen what it involves. Usually, when there are new curricula, there is education for the teachers during the weeks before school started. I think I started following this because I wanted to know about this stuff The first quarter is already almost over, but I haven’t seen any news from inside the classroom. The only thing is how deeply Walters is into the OK state treasury for his whims.
I finished my last semester of high school here in KS. There was a class called College Prep, which was advanced English/Literature/writing/etc. for college bound students. This was in the mid-seventies. We did read some Bible chapters, under the Literature designation, and critiqued it as we did other Lit we read. That was all. Nothing wrong with that. Going farther, though, is wrong in public school.
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NO education for the teachers on how to teach it, and the curricula has not yet been written…BUT, the woman assigned to write it is a Mothers for Liberty idiot so you can guess how “accurate” the materials will be. I took religion courses in college only…whether in my 4 year school or graduate school. We had comparative religions though until the Seminary. I only had world history which toouched on religions of specific regions of the world, and then it was only a brief description of basic tenets of those religions, as they related to the cultures. That during my senior HS year.
Our (enid) HS teachers are all up n arms about teaching any religion courses, but so far ryan and his asshats have not heard about it or are saving EHS for later one. The principal there has stated publicly that since is it unconstitutional he will not be requiring any teacher to succumb to the state’s dictates. We’re a little more progressive here since Vance AFB is local to our town.
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I’ve read that Bixby is standing strong, as well. Walters said he expects whatever is in his mind to be taught within current law. I read that Republican OK State legislators have said law is such that no changes should be made. I’m guessing that this has been a bunch of storming and bluster while stealing taxpayer money to send to the Don for bibles. And whatever else is happening under the radar.
So, a MFL. I thought it was Hillsdale College; they’re getting in the middle of a lot of the voucher wars, etc., as well as continuing ed for teachers, the content of which is Bible-driven. Lots of people working on this, but it’s costing the school districts, which are the taxpayers, all the money that ought to be going to the actual schools. I wish more people would pay attention to such things, and vote accordingly. Also, this is stuff we the people can push in line at the store, or wherever we get the opportunity. Nobody on either side likes their tax dollars wasted, especially the school dollars, of which there already are not enough.
There I go again. So sorry!
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never apologize! The more interaction the better.
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