Jefferson, MLK, the Bible
A brawl’s going on in Oklahoma. About teaching the Bible in schools.
A preacher’s son Ryan Walters grew up in a small town, after college taught at a local high school; whisps of whiskers covering his cheeks, at 39 ran for Oklahoma School Superintendent – won. Sounding like a teacher said schools needed to teach about the Bible.
A culture war erupted. He got called ‘a far-right Christian nationalist,’ a domestic terrorist, absolute trash, a bigot and an idiot on Facebook and Twitter.
On Chris Cuomo’s show, leaning back, he calmly explained Thomas Jefferson used the words ‘endowed by the Creator’ in the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King told Bible stories in his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail’ – the Bible shaped what they believed.
Sitting across the table, on Zoom, jaw set Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz snapped Jefferson was ‘virulently anti-Catholic,’ rolling on quipped ‘why should we be teaching students not to take the Lord’s name in vain’ – Dershowitz grinned – ‘goddammit.’
Walters replied he was trying to teach history not theology and to understand history students needed to understand how the Bible shaped what men like Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King believed.
That’s old-fashioned common sense: No one can understand history, and Presidents like Washington, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Reagan, by not including the role faith – and the Bible – had in their lives.
Jefferson, MLK, the Bible
A brawl’s going on in Oklahoma. About teaching the Bible in schools.
A preacher’s son Ryan Walters grew up in a small town, after college taught at a local high school; whisps of whiskers covering his cheeks, at 39 ran for Oklahoma School Superintendent – won. Sounding like a teacher said schools needed to teach about the Bible.
A culture war erupted. He got called ‘a far-right Christian nationalist,’ a domestic terrorist, absolute trash, a bigot and an idiot on Facebook and Twitter.
On Chris Cuomo’s show, leaning back, he calmly explained Thomas Jefferson used the words ‘endowed by the Creator’ in the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King told Bible stories in his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail’ – the Bible shaped what they believed.
Sitting across the table, on Zoom, jaw set Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz snapped Jefferson was ‘virulently anti-Catholic,’ rolling on quipped ‘why should we be teaching students not to take the Lord’s name in vain’ – Dershowitz grinned – ‘goddammit.’
Walters replied he was trying to teach history not theology and to understand history students needed to understand how the Bible shaped what men like Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King believed.
That’s old-fashioned common sense: No one can understand history, and Presidents like Washington, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Reagan, by not including the role faith – and the Bible – had in their lives.