Oklahoma Pushing Christian Imperialism In Textbooks

Oklahoma is a deep-red state with a long history of mixing religious beliefs with all aspects of secular life, especially education. State Superintendent Ryan Walters has a history of trying to force schools to inject religious teaching in the classroom, but has, to date, come up short in those efforts as schools are not required to do the superintendent’s bidding. However, Walters could win with his latest effort should the state legislature approve new social studies standards.

Social Studies may, at first glance, seem like a strange place to try and insert religious studies. According to the National Council for the Social Studies (bet you didn’t know it existed, did you?), the academic definition is “the study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life.” Social Studies should include topics such as History, Geography, Economics, Government and Citizenship, Social Sciences, Ethnic Studies, Human Rights and Social Justice, Financial Literacy (including personal finances), and Current Issues. Notice that religion, in any form is not included in that list.

However, during the period of public comment on the Department’s draft standards, members of the
Coalition for Religious Freedom in Public Schools reviewed the standards in depth and
found the following problems:

• Standard 2.2.5: Requires students to learn about Christianity’s influence on American colonists but excludes other religious traditions present in colonial America, such as Islam, Judaism, and Indigenous spiritual practices.
• Standards 5.2.4, 8.1.5F, MWH.1.2C, and USG.2.1B: Emphasize Judeo-Christian values in the nation’s founding while omitting key concepts like the separation of church and state and the influence of non-Judeo-Christian traditions, for various grade levels starting at grade 5 all the way to grade 12.
• Standards for Grade 7: Prioritizes Judaism and Christianity—particularly Christianity’s modern role—while offering only broad overviews of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.
• General: Sikhism is also entirely absent from the elementary and middle school world religion education. Overall, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism receive minimal acknowledgment. In contrast, “Christian” or “Christianity” appears 30 times, covering various aspects in-depth, including influence on world history and comparisons to other faiths.

People who pay attention to such things are aware that Christian imperialism has caused some of the bloodiest wars over the past 2,000 years in their effort to dominate governments and ‘convert’ or proselytize people away from other religions. When the tolerance for violent action began to wane, the use of ‘missionaries’ was adopted in an effort to maintain some form of Christian influence around the world. In some cases, missionary schools forcibly removed children from their parents in order to strictly instill Christian beliefs.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution specifically states that the government, which includes Boards of Education, is not to infringe upon the right of religious practice. The Supreme Court has long interpreted that to mean that government entities, including public schools, cannot give preference to one religion over another, nor insert religious activities of one group in deference to all others, including those that some might find distasteful.

So, where do lopsided standards come from? In this case, it didn’t come from Oklahoma teachers. Instead, it came from an ‘executive’ review committee that included out-of-state influencers such as the co-founder of PragerU (which is not a real university), a representative of the conservative American Enterprise Institute (anyone can call themselves an institute now), and the president of the Heritage Foundation, the same group responsible for the disastrous Project 2025, among others. Only three of the ten have ever lived in Oklahoma. There are no Oklahoma public school teachers or administrators on the executive committee. In essence, the proposed standards are the equivalent of religious carpetbagging.

The standards have a great deal of opposition within the state, including the ACLU of Oklahoma, American Atheists, Oklahoma, The Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, the Oklahoma Faith Network, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Hindus for Human Rights, Interfaith Alliance, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Sikh Coalition.

Missing from that list, however, is the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO), the largest Christian denomination in the state, representing the majority of the state’s Southern Baptist Churches. Several members of the Oklahoma State Legislature claim membership in BGCO-aligned congregations and the convention has long held considerable influence over state affairs. They are especially dominant in rural areas of the state where church membership plays a significant role in political races.

The state Board of Education voted to send the proposed standards to the state legislature, though, for the first time in Walters’ tenure, one member voted against his proposal. The state legislature does not have a good record for holding true to the separation of Church and State. Given the current political climate in the nation, it’s likely that the standards will be approved by a significant margin.

If Walters succeeds in pushing through the new standards, other states may follow their example. Where other tactics such as putting the 10 Commandments in the classroom or requiring religious studies have failed, this modification of teaching standards could easily provide religious teachers with an opening for undue influence and proselytization. The proposed standards are a clear violation of the First Amendment by most standards and, if approved, will almost certainly be challenged in court. However, given recent conservative rulings by SCOTUS, one can no longer assume that the courts will continue to uphold the previous interpretations of the Constitution.

This is your country. What happens in one state doesn’t stay in one state. Resist with a loud voice that even the closed ears of Oklahomans can hear.