My early secular education was in the public schools of Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma. My religious education was from my family and the preachers and Sunday school teachers of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Pawhuska. There was a great deal of osmotic transfer in both directions, but my church never interfered in government affairs and my schools never intruded on matters of faith.
My favorite Sunday school teacher was Violet Willis, who was abducted from her Osage homeland as a child and raised as a Christian in the public school in Chilocco. My favorite American history teacher in high school was Mike Burton, who never allowed questions of historical fact to be mixed with questions of religious belief.
My beliefs and my facts were carefully kept separate by responsible adults, both secular and sectarian. Science reigned supreme in public school classrooms, and moral instruction was the main focus at home and in church. At school, I never heard or saw any religious material or teaching materials; that was the domain of the clergy.
In school, I received 12 years of instruction in American history and fundamentals. I learned that our Founding Fathers rebelled against religious tyranny and monarchical rule. The separation of our three co-equal branches of government, and especially the separation of religion and state, was the wake-up call of our republican form of democracy, and we had to be ever vigilant to prevent faith from attempting to control the facts.
Issues such as the Salem witch trials, the Scopes monkey trial, and attempts to smuggle or demand a particular doctrine into the curriculum are constant warning signs that our democracy is fragile. Our Founding Fathers feared religious intolerance. The very first requirement of our United States Bill of Rights is:
“Congress shall make no law establishing a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”
And to the credit of the founding fathers of the Oklahoma Constitution, they stated in Article II of the Oklahoma Bill of Rights:
“Public funds or property – use for sectarian purposes. Public funds or property shall never be appropriated, expended, donated or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit or support of any sect, church, denomination or religious system, or for the use, benefit or support of any priest, preacher, minister or other religious teacher or dignitary, or of any sectarian institution as such.”
The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of a god of any religion, and neither the Bible nor the Ten Commandments had any place in the careful design of our form of government by our Founding Fathers. If our public schools are to publish and teach our history, they should publish the Bill of Rights and explain to American students how our country managed to survive as a democracy for over 200 years by avoiding having our future leaders controlled by any religion.
Perhaps Oklahoma State Secretary of Education Ryan Walters was confused when he called for mandatory Bible classes and Ten Commandments displays in all fifth through twelfth grade public classrooms in Oklahoma during a State Board of Education meeting on June 27, 2024. Oklahoma law, which established his position in 2012 (70 OS 2011, §3-107), defines the powers and duties of the state’s elected Secretary of Education:
“Upon request, the State Superintendent shall advise school district superintendents (regarding) school law, including court decisions, opinions of the Attorney General, and ‘other informational matters relating to school law deemed appropriate.'”
The United States of America was not founded on the dogmas or doctrines of any religion, and in fact was specifically immunized against the dangers of that religion. I thank my teachers at church and school for understanding this and informing me of it.
