A few weeks ago, Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters distributed a promotional video of himself announcing the launch of the state’s “Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism,” and praying for President-elect Donald Trump with instructions for school districts to play it for students. While at least seven districts refused to comply and Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general called the mandate “unenforceable,” Ali Velshi cautions that this incident is part of a broader, coordinated campaign by Christian-right activists to dismantle the separation of church and state in America’s schools.
The same day Walters’ video was released, his Oklahoma State Department of Education revealed that more than 500 Bibles had been purchased for Advanced Placement Government classrooms in Oklahoma public schools. These were, specifically, Donald Trump bibles.
This is a crucial moment in our history for the separation of church and state. Schools have been a “shadow target” for the far right in their fight to thrust Christianity into our legal and political systems. Eroding this principle is a threat to education and is evidenced by proposals to teach Biblical history while banning textbooks that teach racial injustice and LGBTQ+-theme books.
Many of the same actors who lead the charge to overturn Roe v. Wade, including the Alliance for Defending Freedom, are actively working to demolish the separation of church and state in our schools. Undermining secular public education with religious symbolism and religious texts while also lobbying for publicly funded religious schools “is part of a well-funded effort to fuse Christian Nationalism into American society,” explains Velshi.
The separation of church and state is a foundational principle that protects our freedom. The effort to break down that principle threatens our education system and vulnerable populations that extremists could target.
LISTEN: VELSHI EXPLAINS HOW THE FAR RIGHT IS ENTERING PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
WATCH: VELSHI ON THE THREAT TO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
