Oklahoma’s state superintendent on Thursday directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, in the latest conservative push testing the boundaries between religious instruction and public education.

The superintendent, Ryan Walters, who is a Republican, described the Bible as an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone” and said it must be taught in certain grade levels.

The move comes a week after Louisiana became the first state to mandate that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, which was quickly challenged in court. The Oklahoma directive could also be challenged and is likely to provoke the latest tangle over the role of religion in public schools, an issue that has increasingly taken on national prominence.

  • yggstyle@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The majority of the southern states identity (not that part) has long since been reduced to a caricature of itself.

    All being a southerner requires now is access to your divine guide: whatever the most recent pop country album is. It’s just advertisement set to country tunes.

    If anything I’d say the least free group in America is your typical ‘country boy.’

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I know a shit ton of people in southern states and not a got dang one of them likes country. Or Western!

      (now there is some overlap in the rockabilly and singer-songwriter types, and Nashville is where a ton of musician hotshots live, but straight top 40 radio Barf Grits country - nah.)

      • yggstyle@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, it’s more a commentary on the whole current ‘country’ lifestyle. Texan? Buy all the things with a single star on it or you aren’t Texas enough. Southern? Get that truck. Gotta lift it. Biggest tires you can find. It’s all just the most degenerate capitalism with a dixie wrapper on it.