When I was a kid, summer vacation seemed to fly by. One minute we were saying goodbye to our classmates for the summer, and the next we were desperately waiting for class rosters to be posted for the new year. As I got older, I thought summer time flew by because I got to do all the things I loved all the time. I could spend the day reading books and going to the pool. I could choose whether or not I wanted to be around people. I could eat breakfast at noon and lunch at 12:30. It was fabulous.
I’ve realized that even for me, an adult who doesn’t spend my days reading and swimming, summertime seems to fly by. Like most of you, I worked all summer, just as I do throughout the school year. And yet I find myself wondering, “Where did summer go?” I don’t know the answer to that, but that’s the way it is. The 2024-25 school year is about to start. Teachers are posting their Amazon wish lists and glue sticks are everywhere in stores.
As teachers, students and parents prepare, school districts in Oklahoma are wrestling with Superintendent Ryan Walters’ memo requiring Bibles in all fifth- through 12th-grade classrooms. His office has issued specific guidelines on how teachers should use Bibles to instruct their students. The guidelines say the Bible should be “taught in a manner that emphasizes only its historical, literary and secular benefits and ensures compliance with legal standards and precedents.” Teachers should convey “historical context” and teach its “literary significance” and “artistic and musical influence.” As someone who spent years in school learning the Bible’s “historical context” and “literary significance,” among other things, I wonder if teachers feel qualified to do what they’ve been asked to do.
That being said, I am very surprised that Walters advocates using the Bible in teaching, since he refuses to teach his students the truth about the role of racism in our nation’s history. One of the reasons the Bible is historically and culturally relevant is because it was used by people who enslaved people to oppress them. The enslaved people quickly learned that the Bible is a revered book that must be obeyed. The enslavers loved to quote Ephesians 6:5-8, which begins, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and trembling…” Oddly, the enslavers neglected verse 9. “And you masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that you both have the same Master in heaven, and with Him there is no person” (the Scriptures are from the NRSV).
Slave owners even provided Bibles to their slaves, but in many cases the slaves were given what was known as the heavily redacted “Slave Bible.” The slave Bibles omitted most of the Hebrew Bible and less than half of the New Testament. Why? The omitted texts were deemed inappropriate because they might tempt the slaves to rebel. Stories such as the Israelites’ escape from Pharaoh in Egypt were deleted from the slave Bibles. I am surprised that Walters wants to teach students that the Bible was used as a tool of oppression by early Americans.
Perhaps that is not the information Walters has in mind for his students. Perhaps he wants students in art classes to learn about the influence of art on culture by examining how artists have depicted Jesus throughout the centuries. Students could learn critical thinking by asking and answering the question, “Why would religious art depict Jesus with white skin and blue eyes when he lived in the Middle East?” Could it be that the church benefited from the implication that Jesus resembled light-skinned Europeans more than people with black or brown skin?
In the memo Walters sent to school districts explaining how to integrate the Bible into the curriculum, he suggests comparing stories from the Bible with myths and legends from other traditions. I wonder if he is trying to open a bottomless pit. In every grade there are students who have been taught by their parents that the story of Noah and the Ark is a true story and certainly not a myth, and that it should be treated as if it were historically accurate. Alternatively, in every grade there are students who have been taught that the story is one of many flood myths in ancient literature and should be interpreted accordingly. Given the feedback I received when I said publicly that the Bible should not be interpreted literally, I do not envy school administrators who have to field calls from angry parents.
As an ordained minister who takes the Bible and its interpretation very seriously, I hope that the school administration will stand up to Superintendent Walters and refuse to obey his order. While the Bible is an important part of our country, there are many, many other books that are just as important and do not carry the burden of being holy scripture of Christianity. It is unnecessary to burden teachers, who are already overworked and undervalued, with another task that will undoubtedly cause conflict between them and the families they serve.
This order is yet another attempt by Walters to blur the line between church and state. Yes, the Bible can be studied in ways that do not favor Christianity. However, teachers are not trained to do this, and there are other resources to teach students what they need to learn. I wish Walters would spend more time examining why Oklahoma is ranked 49th.th in education and less time to promote its own brand of Christianity. What I know for sure is that Oklahoma will not improve its rankings if it continues to divide, demand more from teachers, and spend money on Bibles. Let’s respect the Bible and its content enough to allow parents to teach it to their children if they choose. And let’s work together to make Oklahoma’s public schools safe places of learning for all students. Together we are stronger.
This article originally appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News: Rev. Kelley Becker: Bibles in schools? That’s what I think
