Teachers can make this backfire by teaching kids about how Jesus said, among other things:

• Rich people don't go to heaven
• Jesus's answer to religious people not wanting to see things was for the people complaining to pluck out their eyes.
• How Jesus told his followers to sell their shit and give it to the poor.

All things republicans hate because it goes against their ideals. Also they can talk about how in Acts it says Christians lived communally or just read James 5:1-6 verbatim.

But I guarantee the schools will force their teachers only to read parts of the bible that the state demand, because it's not about Christianity, it's about using religion to control people.

Time for malicious compliance: "Kids, today we're talking about two girls got their dad drunk and raped him to get pregnant.

Some neighboring states that aren't christo-fascist are about to get some really good teachers. Welcome to Colorado!

I'm so fucking tired of the US. Shit just always seems to get worse, and for every little victory, we take another huge leap towards a fascist theocracy.

'Teach Bible'... only churches should 'teach bible' and nobody should be forced to go to church.

Is it even christian to force a sermon onto people?

What they failed to realise is teachers can have a unique ability to make kids hate a subject.

If you force them to do it, they can do it really badly without it being obvious.

I can imagine reading the Bible word for for in monotone from day 1 won't be a good experience.

The goal is, here, to have an accurate view of American history

By teaching bronze age fairy tales set in the Middle East.

Surely this could backfire in so many hilarious ways?

• Teach the parts that conservatives don't do, and teach your class to call out injustice everywhere.
• Teach the bible in Aramaic or Ancient Hebrew, and give the kids 30 mins of study time to learn whatever they want from it.
• Use it as an exercise to teach that many parts were written thousands of years ago, and doesn't have current medical or societal advancements, so that many parts might be up to interpretation.
• Compare it to Islam, Judaism, and other sects of Christianity - and teach that they're basically the same thing and that everyone should get along.
• Reference that the pope said years ago that even nonbelievers that led a good life would be offered a seat in heaven, so be nice and it'll all be fine.

And this is the same cunt that was blaming "the radical left" for "politicizing" the death of a child under his care. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/oklahoma-nonbinary-student-superintendent.html

Reading the Memorandum, it doesn't specify what Bible is to be used. Perhaps malicious compliance uses a "alternative" version?

Also found this from the Satanic Temple (who hopefully is on top of this) -

If a public school permits the distribution of religious materials to the student body, they have opened a limited public forum and are obligated to allow religious materials from other faiths. This principle applies to other forms of school-sponsored religious expression as well.

Also funny how these hypocrites go on and on about indoctrination, and then want to indoctrinate every kid in the state by law.

So I have friends in Texas who have lost their license for one reason or another. This has a wider range of effect than most realize. When applying for ANY other state licensing, in any other industry, the fact that your teaching license was revoked, no matter what the reason was (it won't say why on reports) it's a mark against you when applying for others. All they see is oh this person HAD a state license and it got revoked so, maybe we shouldn't grant this other one.

School teachers, complying with letter of the law: "Bible says there was flood. Science shows there wasn't. Bible says diseases appeared as result of sin. Science shows diseases existed long before humans."

they’d face the same consequences as one who refuses to teach about the Civil War

Now I’m really afraid to find out what this includes

Reason number * I'm glad I don't live I'm america

Any of you remember Kitzmiller v. Dover? It was a case that essentially ruled that teaching ID/creationism was a theological doctrine and thus couldn't be included in the biology curriculum of schools across the country. While the issues here at not the same (teaching creationsim vs mandatory bible studies), they have the same ideological underpinnings. Unless we're talking about Sunday school*, schools must remain secular institutions where discussions of religions are from a neutral perspective in regards to the humanities. As to regards to a hypothetical Supreme Court case: considering how ultra-conservative the Supreme Court has become in recent years, I fear that they might side the theocrats.

*Are those still a thing?

Oh just fuck off.

The funny thing is that a basic understanding of the Bible is actually important for making sense of American history - the people making that history were strongly influenced by the Bible and so unless you know at least the major "plot points", their actions (and a lot of literature) won't make much sense.

With that said, I don't trust Oklahoma to teach about the Bible in a manner appropriate for historical analysis rather than religious dominance.

Can I teach ANY part of the bible?

No way this isn't struck down. It's got to just be a political signaling play.

If more people actually read the Bible there would probably be fewer xtians.

Oh I can’t wait for the lawsuits to follow this bullshit.

How can you teach Bible? Which historical happening in Israel influenced what part, which pagan deity Beelzebub was, etc?