Aaron Burden / Unsplash
CV NEWS FEED // The Oklahoma Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the state Department of Education’s plan to purchase Bibles for public schools, despite the Board of Education’s 2024 decision to incorporate the text into the curriculum.
FOX25 reported that the court’s March 10 order of stay is a ruling in the October 2024 lawsuit, Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters, in which 32 Oklahoma families, teachers, and faith leaders challenged Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ plan to use taxpayer dollars to purchase Bibles for public school classrooms for grades 5-12.
Walters announced an initiative to incorporate the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the United States’ founding documents into public school curriculums in June 2024, CatholicVote previously reported.
Rev. Lori Walke, named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, is a female Unitarian pastor. Her Facebook page links to “Christian” organizations promoting abortion and homosexuality, and her tagline describes her as an “aspiring heretic.”
The ruling also paused the state Department of Education’s February 2025 proposal requesting suppliers for supplementary materials to help integrate the Bible into school curriculums. In addition, it stayed the Office of Management and Enterprise Services’ work on any new Bible purchase request from the Department of Education.
Walters had announced a partnership last week with musician Lee Greenwood to raise money to provide the schools with Bibles, News9 reported. Greenwood is famous for his song “God Bless the USA.”
Regarding the court ruling, Walters told News9, “The Bible has been a cornerstone of our nation’s history and education for generations. We will continue fighting to ensure students have access to this foundational text in the classroom.”
