Latest news with #AmericansUnitedforSeparationofChurchandState
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Civil rights groups promise litigation in response to social studies standards
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Two civil rights groups have now promised 'action' after lawmakers did not act on the new social studies standards, meaning they will eventually be implemented. The two groups include Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law. Oklahoma families, not politicians or public schools, should decide if, when, and how children engage with religion. If implemented, these new social studies standards will violate students' and families' religious freedom by promoting Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. We are preparing to take the steps necessary to protect the religious freedom of all Oklahoma public school students and prevent these standards from undermining public education in Oklahoma. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law They were also a part of a lawsuit which eventually led to a temporary halt to Supt. Walter's Bible buying for Oklahoma classrooms. Senate and House republicans are asked why they didn't act on school standards It was in March when the Oklahoma Supreme Court temporarily blocked State Superintendent Ryan Walters and the State Department of Education from purchasing Bibles and Bible-based lessons for Oklahoma schools. The court barred OSDE from issuing any new requests for the purchase of Bibles. The ruling also places a temporary hold on a request for proposals seeking a supplier for Bible-based curriculum. The ruling came after the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services, the state agency that oversees RFPs, asked the court to issue a stay because of the concerns about ongoing lawsuits and the possibility of new legal challenges. There is no litigation filed just yet regarding the standards, but the two groups said it is more than likely would come when the standards go into effect. The standards won't officially be applied to schools until the 2026/2027 school year. Contracts to find textbook suppliers begin later this year and last until next year. Meanwhile, lawmakers have continued to push for some accountability when it comes to Supt. Walters and him using tax dollars for legal fees/legal counsel. 'He's communicating to the Republican caucuses that's making them feel comfortable about these standards, because our continued concern about those standards at their age is inappropriate, politically charged. And there are so many religious undertones,' said Rep. Cyndi Munson. News 4 reached out to OSDE for a response to the potential for this litigation, but didn't hear back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Veterans Affairs asks employees to report ‘anti-Christian bias' for investigation by new task force
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The establishment of the task force at the VA comes as much of the staff is facing uncertainty about the future of the sprawling agency charged with providing medical and other benefits for millions of military veterans. The department is in the midst of a resizing effort that could lead to cuts of over 80,000 jobs. Advertisement The email from Collins instructs employees to report any incidents of 'anti-Christian discrimination' including 'adverse responses to requests for religious exemption under the previous vaccine mandates,' reprimands for displaying Christian imagery or symbols, 'unofficial understandings hostile to Christian views' and retaliation of threats for abstaining from procedure like abortions or hormone therapy for people who are transgender. Other federal agencies, including the Department of State, are setting up similar internal reporting hotlines. Advertisement While some Christian groups and conservative organizations have welcomed Trump's wider effort, it has also been criticized for prioritizing the rights of Christians over other religious minorities, as well as intermingling the church and state. 'All people, including Christians, should be able to live as themselves and believe as they choose so long as they don't harm others,' said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 'But rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws.' Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, accused the VA of acting without 'factual basis or rationale' and warned that the task force could divide 'the veteran community' by favoring Christianity over other religions. 'Since our nation's birth, veterans have fought and died to preserve our freedoms — including to live free from religious intolerance or interference by government,' he said in a statement. 'The First Amendment ensures that all religions and faiths are treated equally, with full freedom of worship. The government should be vigilant never to endorse or favor one religion above others.'
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Testing ground for Project 2025': behind Oklahoma's rightwing push to erode the line between church and state
Ryan Walters bowed his head in prayer at his desk in the Oklahoma state superintendent's office. 'Dear God, thank you for all the blessings you've given our country,' the rising star on the Christian right said in the mid-November video. 'I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions. I pray in particular for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change for our country.' Walters sent the video, in which he announces a new department of religious freedom and patriotism, to all public school superintendents in the state and told them to play the prayer for their students and send it to parents. Schools pushed back, as did the Republican state attorney general, who said Walter had no authority to require students to watch it and that it ran contrary to 'parents' rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights'. Walters' efforts exemplify attempts to erode the separation of church and state – an increasingly powerful push on the right, with elected officials at the local, state and federal level explicitly stating they don't believe there is or should be a separation, and that they intend to govern that way. Oklahoma has become a laboratory for this effort, and Walters, as state superintendent overseeing policy for K-12 schools, one of its most prominent proponents. He has pushed to create the country's first Catholic public charter school. He bought Trump-branded Bibles that he wants to put them in classrooms. He has installed prominent rightwing figures such as the activist behind the anti-LGBTQ+ group Libs of TikTok and the leader of the Heritage Foundation on state education committees. This is what Christian nationalism looks like in governance – rejecting church and state separation and installing Christian viewpoints – and it's on the rise with Trump back in the White House. 'If you support LGBTQ equality, if you are for inclusive and thriving public schools, if you believe science should dominate during a public health crisis, if you are for fighting climate change in necessary ways for human survival, then you are for church-state separation,' said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Oklahoma is not alone in pushing these kinds of policies. Louisiana passed a law that would require the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, which is on hold after a legal challenge. Texas lawmakers have signaled they want to pass a similar law. An Idaho lawmaker introduced a bill, written by a Christian lobbying group, to require daily Bible readings. A few states, starting with Texas, have passed laws to allow schools to hire chaplains. Some argue abortion bans passed in states such as Missouri violate church-state separation by imposing the religious view that life begins at conception. The US supreme court agreed in January to hear a case assessing the ability of the Oklahoma charter school board to create the country's first public religious charter school, a closely-watched test of church-state separation. Oklahoma's supreme court ruled against the school. After the high court decided to take the case, Walters, who did not respond to requests for an interview, told the rightwing Real America's Voice: 'There is no separation of church and state. Good luck finding that in the constitution or declaration of independence.' Several groups have coalesced to provide an intellectual justification for the erosion of the separation of church and state – but few have found more success than David Barton, the founder of the Christian group Wallbuilders and a longtime proponent of the idea that the founding fathers sought to create a Christian nation. Through Wallbuilders, which was founded in 1988, Barton offers churches and activists a trove of materials with historical examples of US leaders who were outspoken Christians – evidence, Barton argues, that the US is a rightfully Christian country. Barton's claim that the separation of church and state is not a legal guarantee has been widely embraced by the Christian right. Activists like Barton focus on a few historical details to craft their case, like the fact that the phrase 'separation of church and state' does not appear in the 'free exercise' clause of the first amendment, which prohibits the state from establishing a religion. But scholars reject that claim and point to the establishment clause in the constitution, which prevents the government from creating a state religion. 'If you go back to the actual constitution, clearly the founding fathers did not want to privilege Christianity – or any religion for that matter,' said John Fea, a professor of American history who focuses on the role of Christianity in the country's founding. The 1947 landmark case Everson v Board of Education of Ewing Township established that not only federal but also state and local governments were required to adhere to the establishment clause of the first amendment. 'The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable,' wrote Justice Hugo Black, siding with the majority. The court eventually adopted a three-part test to determine whether the government had violated the first amendment's establishment clause. In doing so, Barton wrote in a 700-word statement to the Guardian, the court had 'unilaterally imposed on America a national religion of public secularism'. A series of recent cases decided by the conservative-controlled supreme court have eroded that standard. In back-to-back rulings in 2022, the court determined that in some cases, state governments are required to fund private religious education and that a Christian football coach at a public school could lead his athletes in prayer. The story of Christian nationalism in the United States is a story of white Christian conservatives terrified of being replaced by a more secular, non-white population, and scrapping all of their might to make sure that that doesn't happen Sam Perry, Christian nationalism professor at the University of Oklahoma Behind the current effort to erode the separation of church and state is a constellation of lawmakers, activists, thinktanks and wealthy donors pouring funds into initiatives to divert public dollars into private religious education and chip away at abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights. Organizations such as the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) are creating model legislation for Christian-based laws, including banning abortion and overturning same-sex marriage, the latter of which Jason Rapert, the group's founder, thinks the current supreme court could do. 'We've allowed the ungodly leaders in this country to go too far,' Rapert said. 'They've led our nation down an ungodly road that has led to ungodly destructive policies.' Those wanting to erode church-state separation see Trump as an ally. Trump supports increased use of school vouchers, which allow public money to go to private, often religious institutions. He has sold a Trump-branded bible, including a new version themed around inauguration day. The judges he has appointed have been responsible for overturning precedents on key separation issues. Trump created a task force in February to 'fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society' and created a faith office to be headed by the Rev Paula White, a televangelist who said she intends to use the role to 'combat discrimination against Christians in federal institutions and ensure religious liberties are upheld across the country'. His allies on the Christian right also see his victory as a rejection of anti-Christian bias, which they believe is rampant, despite Christians' demographic majorities in the US and overrepresentation in government. ''Christian nationalist' as a negative concept is literally a creation of the left,' Rapert said. 'They tried to redefine Christians and patriotic people somehow to be bad. That didn't work.' Sam Perry, a professor at the University of Oklahoma professor who studies Christian nationalism, said the movement is fundamentally about keeping power as the country changes. 'The story of Christian nationalism in the United States is a story of white Christian conservatives terrified of being replaced by a more secular, non-white population, and scrapping all of their might to make sure that that doesn't happen,' Perry said. These ideas have taken hold across the country, but few places have been as radically reshaped by the Christian right as Oklahoma. Walters has emerged as a key figure in the Christian right for his efforts to install religion in public schools. His profile has increased in the process – at one point, Libs of TikTok promoted Walters to be Trump's pick for education secretary. It is the epitome of Christian nationalism in a very blatant and aggressive way The Rev Shannon Fleck 'Our kids have to understand the role the Bible played in influencing American history,' he said in November 2024. 'We will not stop until we've brought the Bible back to every classroom in the state.' Walters' efforts to infuse Christian doctrine in the public school system appear to reflect the aims of 'dominionists' – Christian activists whose theology calls for the installation of biblical rule over society and government. He has reportedly courted City Elders, a reconstructionist sect based in Tulsa, Oklahoma that, according to its website, aspires to create a 'Biblical model of City Governance' and claims to have recruited numerous political 'elders' to implement biblical law in local government. Walters' rise and the broader movement behind it disturbed the Rev Shannon Fleck, the director of the interfaith group Oklahoma Faith Network. 'It is the epitome of Christian nationalism in a very blatant and aggressive way,' Fleck said. 'There's no attempt at masking it at all. That has gone completely away, and it's just a full fledged implementation.' Fleck and a coalition of faith leaders in Oklahoma have launched initiatives to offer religious Oklahomans an alternative to the ultraconservative and anti-LGBTQ+ theology that has come to characterize many churches in the state. But her battle is an uphill one: Christian dominionism and the far-right ideas have seeped into Oklahoma politics, with a local 'Freedom Caucus' rising to prominence within the statehouse and the City Elders group gaining influence within the state Republican party. And it isn't only state lawmakers who have come to embrace a radical view of the role of Christianity in government. 'There's a lot of pressure on clergy,' said Fleck, describing the way the pandemic radicalized people online, congregants moving to the right of their pastors. Believers felt that Trump's presidency 'is a holy war, that he is God's chosen candidate, that God has his side', Fleck said. What could a second Trump term look like? A lot of the clues are in Oklahoma Aaron Baker, Oklahoma high school teacher It's in this environment that Oklahoma has become the 'testing ground for Project 2025', said Oklahoma high school teacher Aaron Baker, referencing the conservative playbook by the Heritage Foundation that calls for an increased role for religion in governing. A local television station discovered, via records requests, frequent communications between Heritage and the Oklahoma superintendent's office. 'I think others want to know, what are we in for now? What could a second Trump term look like? A lot of the clues are in Oklahoma,' Baker said. Baker, who teaches government in the Oklahoma City metro area, hasn't received a Bible from Walters' office yet. Baker wouldn't teach from it, he said, but would add it to the classroom library.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Education Department Seeks to Buy Bible Lessons for Oklahoma Elementary School Kids
This article was originally published in Oklahoma Watch. While its effort to buy Bibles for classrooms is tied up in court, the Oklahoma Department of Education initiated a new vendor search to purchase materials containing Bible-infused character lessons for elementary-aged students. The department is looking to buy supplemental instructional materials containing age-appropriate biblical content that demonstrates how biblical figures influenced the United States. Additionally, the materials must emphasize virtues, significant historical events, and key figures throughout Oklahoma history, according to bid documents published Friday. The request for proposals doesn't specify how many copies the state wants to buy, only that the vendor must be willing to ship directly to districts. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Like the Bibles the department sought in the fall, this request could be challenged under the state constitution, which prohibits public money from being spent for religious purposes. 'This RFP seems to be another constitutional violation,' said Alex Luchenitser, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and one of the attorneys representing Oklahomans in the Bible lawsuit. 'It seeks to inject the Bible into public school curricula, and only refers to the Bible and doesn't refer to any other religious texts, so it's clearly a move to push Christianity,' he said. The Education Department wants the character materials to align with Oklahoma's new social studies standards, which have been revised to contain more than 40 references to the Bible and Christianity, compared to two in the current version. But the proposed standards haven't been approved. Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is expected to present the standards to the Board of Education at its next meeting, scheduled for Thursday. It will be the first time the board meets since Gov. Kevin Stitt replaced three members. If approved, the standards will move to the Legislature for consideration. The standards review committee included several nationally prominent conservatives: Dennis Prager of PragerU, David Barton of the Christian Nationalist organization Wallbuilders, and the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts. While standards guide what schools are to teach, school districts have sole authority to choose curriculum and books. In November, the state abruptly canceled a search to buy 55,000 King James Bibles, an effort that attracted criticism for appearing to exclude all Bibles except an expensive version endorsed by President Donald Trump. Walters vowed to reissue that request, but a coalition of parents, students, teachers and faith leaders asked the Oklahoma State Supreme Court to block the purchase and Walters' mandate to teach the Bible. The Office of Management and Enterprise Services, the state's central purchasing agency, also wants to wait. It asked the court for an order allowing it to delay the new Bible request for proposals until the case is resolved. Two OMES employees are named in the lawsuit. This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
TN bill to allow public schools to hire chaplains amid debate over religion and education
Adding to other Tennessee controversies over the role of religion in public education, state lawmakers want to allow local school districts to hire school chaplains. A new bill in the General Assembly is part of a wave of similar legislative attempts in at least 15 states in the past couple years, which critics have decried as an attempt to infuse conservative evangelical Christian values in public schools. Proponents of this newer school chaplaincy movement reject accusations of religious bias and defend the idea as an innovative response to youth mental health issues and violence in schools. The bill in Tennessee permits public school districts or publicly funded charter schools to hire school chaplains or accept volunteers to do the same. Starting in Texas in 2023 with heated deliberation and ultimate approval for the first-ever school chaplain bill, other Republican-led states have followed suit, which has fueled a backlash from those backing the separation of church and state. 'Not only are they unqualified to provide student mental-health services, but chaplains typically do not have the necessary experience or training to ensure that they adhere to schools' educational mandates and avoid veering into proselytizing and other promotion of religion,' Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a March 6, 2024 news release in response to 14 states filing bills to allow for school chaplains. Americans United highlighted three different open letters from various faith leaders and groups opposing school chaplaincy. The school chaplaincy debate echoes other legislative fights over the display and teaching of the Ten Commandments and the Bible in public school classrooms. This same legislative session, Tennessee lawmakers are considering a bill to allow the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Relatedly, the newly expanded statewide school voucher program will likely funnel significant taxpayer dollars to private religious schools. Religious schools were among the top places where existing Education Savings Account program students opted to use voucher money to attend in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties. Though school chaplain advocates defend the idea as religiously neutral, many of the movement's backers come from hardline religious backgrounds. One of the movement's leaders, Rocky Malloy, who leads the Oklahoma-based National School Chaplain Association, promoted his organization's lobbying efforts and its benefits for conservative evangelical values at the National Religious Broadcasters annual gathering in Nashville in June. The Tennessee bill's sponsor in the House, freshman lawmaker Rep. Aron Maberry, R-Clarksville, is a former pastor at a nondenominational evangelical church. Maberry was not immediately available for a comment. Texas, Florida and Louisiana have all passed school chaplain bills. As is true with those other states, Maberry's bill does not require school chaplains to receive a certification from the state Board of Education — a requirement that applies to other school counselors. In Texas, some districts have admitted chaplains as support staff while other districts have made them guidance counselors, according to the Washington Post. Ten Commandments bill explained: New Tennessee bill would allow Ten Commandments to be placed in public schools Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@ or on social media @liamsadams. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee public schools: Bill to allow districts to hire chaplains
