Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Education Ryan Walters is no stranger to public quarrels and disagreements. His efforts to revoke the teaching license of Summer Boismier, a former English teacher in Norman Public Schools, gained national attention. According to a September 13, 2023, news item from the Oklahoma City Fox affiliate, Walters said she had willfully violated OK House Bill 1775. This bill prohibits teaching Critical Race Theory or about gender and sexual identities.
Walters wrote on Twitter (now X), “There is no place for a teacher with a liberal political agenda in the classroom.” At present, three individuals are suing Ryan Walters for defamation.
In an interview on July 8, 2023, Superintendent Walters was asked whether educators could teach about the Tulsa Massacre and not violate HB 1775. He answered, “Let’s not tie it to skin color and say the skin color determined it.” Unlike Walters, reputable historians consider that horrific event as one of the worst acts of White supremacists’ terror against Black citizens in U.S. history.
Superintendent Walters opened bids on October 1, 2024, to buy 55,000 Bibles to be put in every Oklahoma public school classroom. The requirements were unusual and uniquely specific. Bidding could only last for two weeks. The Bibles must be King James Version and include both the Old and New Testaments, but must also contain the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Declaration of Independence, and must be bound in leather or leather-likeness.
No Bible, other than Trump’s God Bless the U.S.A. version (printed in China for about $3 each, and selling for $59.99) could meet those criteria. Walters must have known this.
Walter’s stated reason for wanting the Bible in classrooms is because he believes it is necessary for teaching American history and its role in our system of laws.
Strangely, the Trump Bible omits Amendments Eleven through Twentyseven from the Constitution. These include the ending of slavery and Prohibition; how the Electors from each state present their ballots to the Senate and the candidate with the greatest number is declared President; that all people born in the United States are citizens; and that citizens have the right to vote. Amendment XXII restricts the President from serving more than two terms. Amendment XXV tells how a President may be removed from office.
One must wonder how students in civics or government classes can be taught without those important Amendments being included, or why they are missing in Trump’s Bible. Fifty-five thousand Bibles is a greater number than Oklahoma has public school classrooms, and not all classes are for history or civics.
Would Walter’s desire for the KJV Trump Bible exclude a teacher from using another version? Jehovah’s Witnesses might choose the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. A Mormon teacher could prefer The Holy Scriptures, Inspired Version, by Joseph Smith, Jr. A Catholic would possibly use the Douay-Rheims version. Would Muslims have the same right to bring the Koran to classrooms?
Ryan Walters is a die-hard Trump supporter. An article in The Christian Chronicle,ajournalassociatedwiththe Church of Christ, shows him with a big smile and wearing his MAGA cap at the Republican National Convention, while Trump can be seen in the background (Bobby Ross, Jr., “A fight over Bibles in schools,” The Christian Chronicle, Vol. 81, No.9, September 2024, pp. 6-9).
In the article, Walters describes his early years helping his grandfather with his cattle and riding the tractor with him for hours and hours. “We’d talk about the Bible. We’d talk about history” (Ibid.).
“And frankly, my grandfather was the one where we really started having these conversations about what happened when they took the Bible out of school…. And so that was a big part of my growing up” (Ibid.).
It is easy to understand how Ryan Walters’ life-long membership in a church noted for being ultra-conservative could help shape his beliefs.
On October 8, 2024, one week after the bidding for Bibles opened, the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services amended the bid. It no longer requires the Bibles to contain the historical documents such as the ones in the Trump Bible and extends the deadline until October 21, 2024 (Ken Miller, Associated Press, October 8, 2024,middletownpress. com/news/article/ oklahoma-amends-requestfor- bibles-that-initially-appeared- to-match-only-version- backed-by-trump).
Walter’s spokesperson, Dan Isett, said, ”… the request for proposal amending the bid was because it catered to one specific organization, noting that tailoring the request so that only one manufacturer’s Bible would qualify would be illegal” (Ibid.).
Oklahoma Representative Mark McBride, a Republican, chairs the House Education Appropriations Committee. He said this about Walters, “I’ve traveled to a lot of countries with a lot of dictators, you know, and spent some time…you know, it’s just tyranny. It’s almost scary. I mean, that he thinks that he has the power that he does” (msn.com/en-us/news/other/ lawmaker-calls-for-ag-opinion- comprehensive-investigation- after-walters-seeks-statepurchase- of-bibles-resembling- trump-promoted-bibles). McBride also said he was surprised that $3 million was set aside from his staff’s payroll for the Bibles. He replied, “The Bible, in my opinion, is the inspired word of God. And I think it says in Revelations, don’t add to or take away from this [Rev. 22:18-19]. And it’s almost scary. I mean, that he thinks that he has the power that he does” (Ibid.).
“I struggle with the fact that we think that we can add some kind of documents into the text of the Bible. That bothers me,” said McBride.
Representative McBride, you are not alone in being bothered by some of Superintendent Walters’ actions. We wonder when the next shoe will drop. And it will.