Recent laws pushing mostly Christian principles into public school classrooms in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas are producing a range of emotions and varying degrees of concern. While I understand the dismay, the situation actually offers an incredible opportunity. Religious literacy usually sits on the back burner of American consciousness, but many individuals and organizations have contemplated this issue for decades. Offering nondevotional, constitutionally appropriate content about the world’s religions to kids of all ages is not only possible, it’s also completely consistent with the instructional standards of every state in the union.
Our constitutional democracy cries out for a citizenry that is religiously tolerant and religiously literate. Recent legal maneuvers are clear attempts to impede those goals while also consolidating Christian nationalist ambitions. In Louisiana, every public school classroom will soon be required to display the Ten Commandments . In Oklahoma, the state superintendent is trying to require all classrooms to have a Bible and all educators to teach from it. In Texas, the commissioner of education is unveiling a new K-5 Language Arts program with numerous lessons centered on the Bible and almost no mention of other religious or nonreligious traditions. Cue the consternation and legal wrangling.