By Amy Furr – 28 Jun 2024 – Breitbart

My cmnt: This is such a no-brainer. Of course the Bible s/b taught in all of the nation’s public schools – as it once was. My own father said, matter of factly to me, during a conversation on public schools that he had a bible class in his public high school and didn’t think anything of it. He was a smoker, a drinker, said G-d-it all the time and had a bad temper. I distinctly remember he and mom lying in bed on Sunday morning while we went to Sunday school with my aunt taking us.

My cmnt: Yet he and my mother were both college graduates back when less than 6% of adults were. My father was a WWII vet which gave him a very serious and realistic view of the world and my mother worked in a bomb-making facility while attending college. My mother quoted both the Bible and Shakespeare to us when the occasion offered it. She believed knowing Shakespeare and the Bible were simply necessary parts of being a properly educated person aware and knowledgable of the cultural heritage that uniquely informed Britain and America, even though neither of them belonged to or attended church except on Christmas and Easter when we were visiting my Grandma.

My cmnt: My parents were cultural Christians and they and we benefitted from that. She loved Christmas carols, she read us The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve and told us about mean ‘ol Scrooge and the true meaning of Christmas. We knew all about Jesus in the manger and the Three Wise Men but never in my experience did I hear anything about Jesus on the Cross. My parents believed in God as little children believe in Santa Claus and she always said “Now I lay me down…” prayers with us when we went to bed.

My cmnt: And, for what it’s worth, neither parent ever spoke a negative word nor used a derogatory term about black people to me. My grandparents on one side and great-grandparents on the other were immigrants from various places in Europe and so had no personal experience with overt racism and brought nothing like that to my parents or they to us. Statistically if your people came to America after 1870 (about 80% of all white people) your experience was probably a lot like mine.

The state of Oklahoma is now requiring schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, in grades five through 12.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters made the announcement in a memo to all school districts on Thursday, NBC News reported.

“This directive is in alignment with the educational standards approved on about May 2019, with which all districts must comply,” the document read:

The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments. They will be referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.

Additionally, the State Department of Education may supply teaching materials for the Bible, as permissible, to ensure uniformity in delivery.

In a video posted Thursday, Walters said the Bible is connected to many of the nation’s historical events. He also referenced the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr. “used it as a tremendous impetus for the Civil Rights movement”:

In December, a West Virginia high school began integrating a Bible study program after a Christian student spoke to the principal about the idea, Breitbart News reported.

The Bible study was optional for students and guest speakers were required to fill out a volunteer form in order to speak during the morning meetings.

More recently, a bill signed into law requires a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana, Breitbart News reported June 19.

“Louisiana is the first state to successfully pass legislation requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, including state-funded universities, since the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to banish the tenets from America’s classrooms in 1980,” the outlet said.

“Efforts to restore the commandments to public schools are active in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah, although none so far have been successful,” it concluded.