The conservative lawmaker behind a controversial mandate requiring schools teach from the Bible was subjected to a tireless fact check Tuesday from a CNN anchor who repeatedly challenged his censorship claims.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was grilled on the mandate — which he has said was inspired by Bible salesman and convicted felon former President Donald Trump — by a CNN anchor who did not pull her punches when asking her questions.
"The Bible includes beheading, rape, and incest," Pamela Brown said in her first question. "Do you support teaching children about those topics?"
Walters tried to make a case that a "radical left" force was trying to censor American history by excluding religious context, but Brown was quick to note she'd asked for a yes or no.
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"You didn't answer my question," Brown said. "And by the way, Thomas Jefferson advocated for freedom of religion, actually, not the establishment of a religion."
Walters then tried to make his case that the Bible was the "best selling book" in the nation's history but Brown shot back with a request for more information about what teachers should include and exclude when they brought the book into the classroom.
"The Bible includes also pornographic material," Brown said. "Something you've come out against."
Walters retorted that LGBTQ+ literature should be considered pornographic and that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could not be understood without the Bible in the classroom.
"How absurd it would be to teach about the pilgrims if you don't mention their intention for moving to the new world," said Walters.
Brown would later note "This country was actually founded on the belief of freedom of religion, not the establishment of religion."
She also noted the First Amendment clause that mandates "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
"Critics have come out against you and said, "Look, you're trying to impose your conservative agenda on schools in Oklahoma, you're trying to impose your religious beliefs, your Christian religious beliefs, on the students and teachers of Oklahoma,'" Brown said. "What do you say to that?"
"This is not pushing a religion on students," Walters argued. "It is teaching our history in an accurate way."
Walters then makes the case that Trump's appointees on the Supreme Court will back him on bringing Bibles into American classrooms.
"President Trump has led the way for the Supreme Court to actually look back at what the Constitution says, not what a bunch of liberal judges have said," Walters argues. "We feel very confident we will win the day, thanks to President Trump's appointees."
"If you're an originalist," replied Brown, "you would look at the establishment clause and look at the banning of religious test for office holders to also have the other argument."
