God, the Bible, do not belong in Oklahoma's public school classrooms

It's a ridiculous debate, makes no sense economically and even the state senate's top Republican doesn't believe Bibles have an educational role to play

Here’s the deal.

Oklahoma second baseman Kyle Branch, a true freshman who’s been phenomenal since joining the Sooner lineup, comes to the plate to some sort of Christian contemporary tune

It’s called walk-up music and each batter chooses his own.

I’d prefer Van Halen, but whatever, cool, no problem.

Also, I would have enjoyed the Sooners’ last four post-national championship press conferences a little more had they spent more time talking about softball and their achievements and less time talking about God, Jesus and Divine Providence.

But I’d never want them to hold their tongues because I’d rather hear their version of their truth instead of mine, even though mine would have given them abundantly more credit.

And many times, tens or hundreds of times, I’ve watched public school high school teams take part in what sure looked like an organized prayer before taking the field, pitch or court, which I’m pretty sure isn’t supposed to happen as a matter of law.

But whatever.

Though organized, they appeared voluntary enough, and good luck getting a bygone era Supreme Court ruling, even one yet to be overturned, enforced in Oklahoma.

All that being said …

God, presuming God exists, and the Bible, too, have no place in Oklahoma’s public school classrooms.

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Of course, a student can bring their faith into the building or virtual classroom, but the building nor virtual classroom should bring it to the student.

For one, trying to put religion into Oklahoma’s classrooms makes for an utterly embarrassing debate waged by small-minded people and here’s a story from the Oklahoman’s Murray Evans and M. Scott Carter making that pretty clear.

Two, it’s an absolute waste of resources. And three, if he was quoted correctly, and I’m sure he was given the reporters on the story, even our state senate’s pro tempore, a guy named Lonnie Paxton, Republican from Tuttle, doesn’t think it has anything to do with education, which he may not have intended to say so clearly, yet did nonetheless.

About that debate:

Wednesday, as Evans and Carter reported for the Oklahoman, “the Oklahoma Senate nixed a $3 million request by the agency to place Bibles in classrooms,” a line-item request state superintendent-in-name-only Ryan Walters put forward.

Good for them.

Walters, though, wasn’t going to take a rebuke from fellow Republicans without doing something comically stupid, so he found the guy bound to be enriched the most by the sale of Bibles state senators refused to indulge.

That’s right, good old Lee Greenwood himself, who must need the dough if he’s willing to align himself with a corrupt fear-monger with a Napoleon complex like Walters.

Greenwood, you may recall, penned and sang “God Bless the USA,” the lyrics of which, as well as a few founding documents, come included with the $60 Bible he’s hawking and Donald Trump has endorsed.

“The Bible is the most influential document in our nation’s history. Ryan Walters has committed to get every kid in Oklahoma a Bible and we need your help,” Greenwood, an 82-year-old who’s patriotic hit holds no candle to Neil Diamond’s “America,” Charlie Daniels Band’s “In America” or Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” patriotic songs all, tweeted on Wednesday.

“Join me and @TheLeeGreenwood in the fight to get Bibles back in OK schools,” tweeted Walters as part of a retweet of Greenwood.

All of which hearkens back to what Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein amidst Watergate:

Follow the money.

It’s all silliness when any kid with a smart phone has a Bible, not to mention Greenwood’s lyrics and every founding document, in their pocket if they want them. Not to mention every parent and guardian who wants their child to have access to a Bible will find them access.

But Walters is doing all he can to remain relevant in a state the attorney general never cared for him in the first place and the governor’s finally thrown him overboard and Greenwood wants to sell his Bibles and $3 million in sales sounds great.

Then there’s Paxton’s quote:

“It’s one of those deals that can be a hot topic issue, especially when there is something that every student in Oklahoma can download on their phone as an app and it’s free. Three million dollars, obviously this year, is pretty hard to come by. We’d recommend that $3 million be spent in places that help educate our children. School districts in Oklahoma are already allowed to have Bibles in their classroom when used for historical purposes and they can download that app for free. There's no need to spend state dollars there.”

Did you catch it?

“We’d recommend,” Paxton said, “that $3 million be spent in places that help educate our children.”

End of story.

Bibles are literally free.

Also, said the state senate majority’s torchbearer, they’re not educational tools for our children.

So why bring them into the classroom, period, even if they’re free or donated?

In what world is forcibly making them a part of any curriculum a good idea, unless the whole idea is to groom, arrest critical thinking and make students pawns in a culture war they never asked to be involved in, a war only one side’s really fighting while the other’s just trying to hold down the fort.

Seriously.

Who can imagine a god that looks at Walters and thinks, “that’s my guy, that’s my vessel.”

I mean, really.

Can’t we leave him out of it?

You know, “Him.”

Presuming He exists, the only side I can imagine Him on is the kids’, who, good chance, do not appreciate being trapped in a system ranking 49th of 50 states.

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