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On Monday, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters sued the Freedom From Religion Foundation for daring to fight back against his push to Christianize public schools throughout his state. Walters said in a video that he was suing the “radical atheists”—a phrase he used multiple times as if there are tiers of atheism—because they were supposedly harassing students and teachers for “freely expressing their religious beliefs.”
Today in Oklahoma, we’re fighting back. I’ve got this lawsuit that I filed today against the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They’re a group of radical atheists that continue to attack our students and teachers in the state of Oklahoma. Well, never again.
These radical atheists can find somewhere else to go because we’re not gonna allow them to harass our students and teachers for freely expressing their religious beliefs.
This lawsuit will continue to ensure that in Oklahoma your rights will be protected, our teachers and students can absolutely pray if that’s what they choose to do. So Freedom From Religion [sic], we will see you radical atheists in court.
What was he talking about? After all, FFRF has never gone after teachers or students for freely expressing their religious beliefs; they’ve only fought against people like Walters who have shoved their Christianity down everyone else’s throats. For example, FFRF and a coalition of church/state separation advocates sued Walters over his plan to spend millions of dollars to shove the Bible in every classroom. (It worked. Last month, the Oklahoma Supreme Court temporarily blocked Walters from doing that.)
But what was Walters referring to? If this wasn’t purely about retaliation and obtaining attention for himself, on what grounds was he suing FFRF?
The situation itself began in December when the FFRF wrote a letter to the superintendent of the Achille Public Schools about a new policy “allowing teachers to read Bible verses at the beginning of their classes.” In at least one case, a teacher had a student read the Bible verses to the class. This wasn’t secular. This had nothing to do with the lesson plan. It was just straight-up indoctrination.
It got even worse. The district apparently began the day with “mandatory student-led prayers” over the loudspeaker during morning announcements. While a moment of silence would be legal, the district often had students saying it was time for a “moment of silence or prayer”… which was then followed by the student “praying over the intercom.”
This took place at both the elementary school and high school. FFRF added that students were unable to skip these prayers since they occurred “after the first period has already started.”
The group didn’t sue the district. They just told the district this needed to stop because it was all illegal. At no point did FFRF say students couldn’t pray on their own, only that school-sponsored prayers—like when a teacher reads Bible verses in class or students say them over the intercom—were illegal. They reminded the district that none of the Supreme Court’s recent pro-religion decisions negated that.
All of that was perfectly sensible.
So was a completely separate letter FFRF sent to the Putnam City Schools in 2018 after the high school designated a “team chaplain” whose job was leading the football team in Christian prayer before games. That religious leader openly stated that his goal was to “share the Gospel with them.”
Yet according the lawsuit filed by Walters, those letters warning the public school districts that they were violating the law… were violating the law.
That’s seriously his whole argument. He doesn’t explain why the FFRF’s complaints are wrong; he merely insists his job is to protect “individual religious freedom” and these warning letters—not even lawsuits, but warning letters—stifle the ability for students and teachers to practice their faith. And he claims the courts must stop FFRF’s “threatening and harassing behavior”… of reminding districts what the laws are.
The lawsuit itself is absurd. At one point, Walters writes:
Supreme Court precedent has long-recognized the secular value of religious texts, including the Bible, in school settings, as well as the secular value of chaplains as mentors and counselors in government-run institutions.
Sure. The Bible can be studied in school in a secular way. The key word there is “secular.” Reciting Bible verses for the sake of indoctrination, with no connection to what is being taught, which is what’s happening in Oklahoma, is still not acceptable. Christian chaplains may be allowed to offer secular services, but proselytizing to a football team, which is what’s happening in Oklahoma, is still forbidden.
In short, Walters is furious that FFRF dares to defend the law when his goal is to violate it or tear it down entirely. The Oklahoma Department of Education’s attorney Jacquelyne K. Phelps says FFRF is interfering with Walters’ and OSDE’s “statutory duty to oversee Oklahoma’s public schools and their duty to implement curricular standards, investigate any complaints levied against an Oklahoma school, and advocate for its students and parents.”
You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand how comical all this is. Instead of bothering to explain why religious proselytizing in public schools is legal—because they can’t—they’re going after FFRF for warning the schools (on behalf of local complainants!) that what they’re doing is against the law. Walters even says in his press release that FFRF is trying to “erase faith,” which has absolutely nothing to do with any of the letters they’ve written. He’s a Christian liar.
News articles about this lawsuit fail to point out that Walters has no argument here. He can’t prevent FFRF from telling districts they’re breaking the law nor can he stop FFRF from suing those districts, if it came to that, on behalf of local parents willing to fight these cases.
What Walters wants is attention. And the headlines all say that Walters is suing an atheist group, so he can build up his credentials with Christian Nationalist organizations. He also gets a few one-liners in all these articles by saying ridiculous things like “Oklahoma will never be bullied by radical, out-of-state atheists who use intimidation and harassment against kids.” Meanwhile, he’s the one who’s shoving his religion on all the non-Christian students in the state because he doesn’t give a damn about their religious freedoms.
There’s no argument here. There’s nothing judges can even latch onto if they wanted to. It’s desperation in the form of a lawsuit.
For their part, FFRF says they’re not backing down:
“Ryan Walters is a loose cannon bent on destroying secular public education in Oklahoma,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We are proud of FFRF’s record of support for true religious freedom and the rights of conscience of a captive audience of schoolchildren to be free from government-sponsored indoctrination in our public schools.”
… The nonprofit association is confident that the courts will reject Walters’ meritless claims and reaffirm that public schools must remain free from religious coercion.
It’s absurd that Walters is wasting his office’s resources fighting fake battles like this instead of doing anything to actually help the students in his state. But unless voters decide education matters, they’re stuck with a theocrat hellbent on destroying secular education and replacing it with religious indoctrination.
