Oklahoma’s Push for Bibles in Schools Comes With a Trump-Sized Price Tag
Former President Donald Trump’s various financial ventures are rolling out faster than most casual observers can track, from relaunching $99 NFTs and debuting a new cryptocurrency platform to hawking six-figure watches. Trump’s holiest hustle is the $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible, complete with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
About 1,300 miles from Mar-a-Lago, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Trump loyalist Ryan Waters has been pushing biblical education in public schools. The Republican—and self-proclaimed “lifelong advocate of improving Oklahoma’s education system”—declared in June that “every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible…and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.” This was followed by a memo stating: “Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum….Immediate and strict compliance is expected.”
Walters has a history of injecting right-wing cultural politics into the public schools. In January, he drew bipartisan criticism for appointing Chaya Raichik—a 29-year-old former Brooklyn real estate agent who lives in Los Angeles, does not have children (in Oklahoma schools or any other schools), and spends her time harassing LGBTQ people from her LibsofTikTok X account—to the State Library Advisory Committee. In September 2023, Walters announced a partnership with PragerU, which is not a school but a conservative nonprofit media organization, boasting to a crowd in Tulsa: “We are continuing that MAGA agenda….We’re gonna have PragerU in every school.”
At September’s Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, Walters requested an additional $3 million (for a total of $6 million) to purchase New King James Version Bibles. But when bids opened last week for 55,000 bibles, the specs had changed. According to the request for proposal (RFP), “only the King James Version” qualifies, and it “must include copies of The United States Pledge of Allegiance, The U.S. Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and The U.S. Bill of Rights.” Oh, and the Bible “must be bound in leather or leather-like material.”
The Oklahoman reported on Friday, that none of the 2,900 Bibles carried by Mardel Christian Bookstore meet Walters’ qualifications. But the Trump-endorsed “God Bless the USA” Bible fits the bill like a grift-lined glove. A second Bible that fits the RFP was also identified: the We the People Bible, endorsed by Donald Trump Jr., available for $90.
Beyond the obvious church-state issues, which are already working their way through the courts, there is some murky math here. The author and YouTuber Hemant Mehta (known o
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