Over 30 Oklahoma residents — including public school parents, teachers, students and faith leaders — filed a lawsuit against the state superintendent, objecting to a Bible mandate.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, Oct. 17, argues that Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ Bible Education Mandate violates the state constitution’s religious freedom protections and other state statutes.
The mandate — issued by Walters this summer — orders all public schools to incorporate the Bible into curriculum. Throughout the lawsuit, the group cites a range of issues which they believe make the mandate problematic, including interdenominational theological differences, concerns around bullying and parallels to Oklahoma’s “history of forced religious proselytization of Native Americans in boarding schools.”
“As parents, my husband and I have sole responsibility to decide how and when our children learn about the Bible and religious teachings,” said plaintiff Erika Wright in an Oct. 17 news release. “We are devout Christians, but different Christian denominations have different theological beliefs and practices.”
Walters told McClatchy News he believes it’s impossible for students to understand American history and culture without understanding the Bible.
“Oklahomans will not be bullied by out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon,” Walters said. “The simple fact is that understanding how the Bible has impacted our nation, in its proper historical and literary context, was the norm in America until the 1960s and its removal has coincided with a precipitous decline in American schools.”
Parents, teachers, faith leaders’ concerns
The Rev. Mitch Randall, one of the plaintiffs cited in the lawsuit, told McClatchy News he was born and raised in Oklahoma, and this mandate is personally offensive to him as a person who identifies with the Southern Baptist tradition and as a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) nation.
As a Southern Baptist, Randall said the mandate goes against church and state separation, an idea that’s been embedded in theology. He cited a passage in Matthew 22, which he said Southern Baptists interpret as God “segmenting the idea that church and state should always be separate.”
Randall said his personal family history is another reason why he opposes the mandate.
He said his great-grandmother and her sister were removed from their home in Broken Arrow and sent to a boarding school where they weren’t allowed to speak their native language and they were forced to attend church.
“All of this was done at the funding of the government,” Randall said. “It’s a haunting history that Oklahoma has when it comes to mandating religion for public education when children are a captive audience.”
Another plaintiff in the lawsuit — who McClatchy News is not naming to protect the identity of the child — said the Bible mandate interferes with their parental right to “direct and control the upbringing of” her children.
According to court documents, her child was given a quiz where grading was based on the accuracy of Bible translations, the importance of faith and the nature of God.
As a nonreligious person, the quiz made the student feel “marginalized and unwelcome at school,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit further says the mandate violates the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act and that spending state funds on Bibles violates the Oklahoma Constitution. The act is “the law governing procedures for state administrative agencies to propose and issue regulations and provides for judicial review of agency adjudications and other final decisions in Oklahoma,” according to Ballotpedia.
Oklahoma state representative Mark McBride told KTUL that Walters is in “ 12 or 14 ” lawsuits as of Oct. 10. He’s accumulated over $100,000 in attorney fees in a five months, KTUL reported.
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