A report from from The Oklahoman confirmed that Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is pushing to put more Bibles in the classroom, but it appears the bid might have been rigged to benefit Donald Trump.
The Oklahoma Department of Education opened bids this past week to vendors to supply the Department with about 55,000 new Bibles to place in the public schools system.
According to The Oklahoman, the requirements for the vendors include:
“Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.”
Is it a coincidence that few Bibles meet those requirements? The Bible endorsed by Trump, however, does. Trump receives fees for endorsing musician Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, which has been endorsed by Trump., and those Bibles likely would meet Oklahoma’s requirements.
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This feels so blatantly illegal. This isn’t surprising in the slightest.
Inb4 No one will be punished and nothing is changed.
It violates the first amendment establishment clause they can’t privilege Christianity over other religions before even getting to the selection criteria obviously only one grifter can meet, but with the federal courts disproportionally filled by theocrats the separation remains very threatened.
It also violates collusion laws and also collusion clauses in their own terms found at
https://sde.ok.gov/ev00000555
Kinda odd that they chose to adbicate any fiduciary responsibility in order to prefer a book with an extremely specific physical design on the basis of durability, despite that design being so specific that it costs >10 times more than less specifically-designed books, when the only people who can acquiesce to such a request are political figures of the same affiliation
so what do we do?
Blatantly illegal appears to be all the rage these days.
I worked at a major public university for 14 years during the late 90s / early 00s. This happens more than people realize.
I believe you. It doesn’t make it right, and I wish we could do something. Justice feels fairly hopeless at this point
it’s not. at any point, if enough people band together, we can make anything happen, with or without the government’s support. we are looking down the barrel of global catastrophe. at some point, we have to do something.