‘The first state’: Walters touts classroom Bible directive at Tulsa church

By John Dobberstein, Editor

TULSA — State Supt. of Public Instruction Ryan Walters defended his directive for the Bible to be taught in Oklahoma classrooms Sunday during a church service in Tulsa, boasting that Oklahoma is the “first state in the country to put the Bible back in the classroom.”

Walters appeared at Sheridan.Church with his family as the guest of prominent Republican pastor Jackson Lahmeyer. Walters, flanked on the stage by his children, said Jackson wrote him a letter about a year ago pointing out the state hadn’t been using the Bible to teach history in schools.

“He documented this, he reached out, and we’ve been looking at it now for about a year,” Walters told the congregation after Lahmeyer finished a lengthy sermon about American history and the role played by religion. “So we announced this week we will be the first state in the country that requires the Bible to be taught in every classroom in the state.

“Now I’m sure the media is treating you great over that, right? The media has lost their minds over this. And you know what I told them? I said, ‘Listen, you can be offended, you can be mad, you can be upset. But here’s what you can’t do: You can’t rewrite our history.”

Walters explained his view of the role the Bible and Christianity played during the country’s founding and throughout its history, drawing on Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and letters, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous letter from a jail in Birmingham, Ala. that talked about “what God intended.”

“And so how do you teach history without the Bible? You can’t,” Walters said. “It is academic malpractice.”

Said Lahmeyer, “Let me tell you, it takes courage to do what he has done because he could make the excuse, ‘We can’t get this through. It’s too divisive. Separation of church and state’ and all that kind of stuff. And he had the courage to do the right thing — not because it’s the politically correct thing to do, but because it’s simply the right thing to do.”

“Guess what will happen? Other states will follow suit because there was a man that had the courage to do the right thing,” Lahmeyer added. “We need prayer back in school. But to be honest with you, I don’t know if any of us actually ever believed in our lifetime that we would see a miracle take place in our state.”

Lahmeyer then asked the congregation to “pray over” Walters at the service because he was currently in a “political” and “spiritual” battle. “Give him wisdom as he pioneers, uncharted territory, bringing you back into our public school saying, Jesus, you are welcome in the classroom in the state of Oklahoma,” Lahmeyer said.

Walters’ announcement at the State Board of Education meeting last Thursday that schools would be required to incorporate the Bible as instructional support across certain grade levels has been nothing short of controversial. However, Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office said state law, “already explicitly allows Bibles in the classroom and enables teachers to use them in instruction.”

Threats of lawsuits are already flying from those opposed to religion being used in school curricula, and organizations representing other religious groups questioned whether their belief systems should also be included in lessons plans.