These three early American leaders have a lesson plan for Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is demanding that the Bible be taught in the state's public schools. He insists that it is the foundation of the American government. This is untrue - our Constitution is secular - and by making this claim, Walters unveils his true agenda: the whitewashing of history.

Walters and other Christian Nationalists believe that religion, specifically the version of Christianity that they hold, has always had a positive effect on humankind.

Even a casual student of history knows better. Religion, like any other force in society, has been used for good and evil. For examples of the latter, consider the Crusades, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the centuries of religious wars in Europe, witch trials, the harsh Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts and the use of the Bible in the South to justify slavery, to name just a few examples.

Telling the real story

I think it's unlikely that Walters wants Oklahoma's teachers to delve into these subjects. He wants "happy history" where the role of religion is always presented positively. But that's not history at all.

The real story of the evolution of religious freedom in America includes some dark chapters. Our students deserve to learn that. Part of that lesson would be teaching about the colonial-era religious and political figures who knew all too well what can happen when religion gets drunk on the power of the state.

Consider the following three quotes, all written within the space of eight years by three men who knew each other (and definitely shared ideas); they're instructive:

"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1784)

"Torrents of blood have been spilt in the world in vain attempts of the secular arm to extinguish religious discord, by proscribing all differences in religious opinions." (James Madison, "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments," 1785)

"Millions of men, women and children have been tortured to death, to produce uniformity, and yet the world has not advanced one inch towards it." (Baptist minister John Leland, "The rights of conscience inalienable" pamphlet, 1791)

No separation, no freedom

That's a lot of blood, violence and torture. Yet Jefferson, Madison and Leland did not use lurid language like this to titillate. They wanted their readers to understand that when there is no official distance between religion and government, terrible things can happen.

These three quotes, the history behind them and the effect they had on America's policy of religious freedom resting on a wall of separation between church and state would make for a fascinating lesson plan - and it's one that surely incorporates the Bible.

How about it, Superintendent Walters?

Photo: An old print depicting the Salem Witch Trials

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