(The hill) – Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said that allowing public school teachers in Oklahoma to teach the Bible is a “tricky path” when the teachers “may not be believers themselves.”
Mullin, who sits on the Senate Education Committee, said he wants his children to know the Bible, “but I also want it to be taught by someone who has been taught the Bible themselves.” I think it’s a tricky one “It is an undertaking if you put it in the hands of teachers who may not be believers, because then you are teaching the Word that can easily be taken out of context.”
“So if the state requires this, then the state should also require that this be taught by someone who has graduated from priestly school,” Mullin said during his Wednesday appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill.”
“If you just leave it to a public school teacher who may not actually be able to teach it because they weren’t taught it themselves, then that can cause tremendous confusion,” he added.
The Republican senator’s comments come a week after Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters stopped tiny of rejecting the idea of a statewide requirement to require Bibles in schools.
“Look, I think when you teach American history, you absolutely have to include the Bible. And we can’t allow left-wing activists to sit here and say we don’t like Christianity,” Walters said said.
“You have to have it in the classrooms. We ensure that history is taught in every class. This means that children will learn about American exceptionalism,” he said last week. “This means that children know what role faith has played. We will not apologize for this here in Oklahoma. We want to make sure every student knows the role the Bible has played in American history.”
Walters has made headlines because his home state of Oklahoma requires the Bible to be taught in all public school classrooms and requires educators to operate lessons about the Bible’s influence on American culture and history. In October, the state’s top educator was sued by parents and other educators over the policy, saying the mandate was unconstitutional.
When asked by NewsNation anchor Blake Burman on Wednesday whether the state should “back away” from the mandate, Mullin responded that “unless they call for a person trained in the Bible and a seminary or other school.” “Then I think this is probably the wrong step.”
NewsNation is owned by NexstarMediaGroup, which also owns The Hill.
