Erase the Bible, lose the West — and that’s the point



The cultural revolution of the 1960s undermined every pillar of American identity, and public religion was no exception. Supreme Court rulings in 1962 and 1963 struck down state-led prayer and mandatory scripture reading in public schools. While these decisions didn’t explicitly ban biblical education as literature or cultural instruction, they effectively removed it from the classroom. Over time, institutional pressure and administrative caution eliminated nearly all engagement with the Bible in the public square.

As large-scale immigration introduced greater religious diversity, demands for a more “neutral” education further pushed cultural Christianity into the realm of the taboo. Christmas and Easter became “winter” and “spring” break. Schools reduced biblical references to passing mentions — if they acknowledged them at all. The result: a rootless, amnesiac society cut off from the spiritual and cultural traditions that once inspired greatness.

By removing the religion that shaped our national character, we’ve lost the ability to understand or transmit our own culture. This is no accident.

Humans remain narrative creatures. Even in an age obsessed with data and reason, we understand ourselves through stories. Every civilization has a set of core narratives that define its identity. These stories echo through its literature, art, science, and daily language. People imitate the archetypes they inherit — knowingly or not—so the stories a culture preserves shape its citizens’ behavior, values, and imagination.

For ancient Greece and Rome, Homer’s “Iliad” served as a civilizational anchor. For Western Christendom, that role belonged to the Bible.

As with all enduring societies, the Western canon both reflected and created its civilization. The canon includes the foundational works every educated citizen was once expected to know, at least in outline: “The Divine Comedy,” “Paradise Lost,” the plays of Shakespeare. But none of these are truly intelligible without biblical knowledge. These literary masterpieces do more than quote scripture — they shape theology itself, popularizing specific interpretations of Christian doctrine.

Art doesn’t just reflect a culture; it defines it.

The stories are everywhere: David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Judas the betrayer, the unwelcome prophet, the good Samaritan, the sacrificial Christ. These archetypes saturate Western literature. Even works not explicitly Christian — like Shakespeare’s plays — reference scripture on nearly every page. And for directly inspired texts like Dante’s “Inferno,” biblical illiteracy makes the work incomprehensible.

Yet American legal doctrine now treats biblical ignorance as a virtue. Misreadings of the First Amendment have transformed cultural illiteracy into a legal mandate. Forget the Bible’s spiritual value — removing it from schools broke the chain of cultural transmission.

As a former public school history teacher, I saw this biblical and cultural illiteracy firsthand. I routinely had to explain the story of David and Goliath or the birth of Christ to 16-year-olds — just so they could understand the references in a historical speech or literary text. Students weren’t rejecting scripture. They had simply never heard it before.

Shakespeare and Dante still haunt English literature curricula, but only as lifeless relics. These works already challenge students. Strip out the biblical framework, and they become unreadable. That’s one reason woke activists now demand their removal altogether. Too white. Too Christian. Too patriarchal. But the push to obliterate the canon also masks a deeper failure: Today’s teachers often find these works unteachable — because students lack the cultural foundation to make sense of them.

Mass immigration has intensified the demand for multiculturalism and secularization. As the public square fills with Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists, American institutions have stripped out the Christianity that once defined them. But by removing the religion that shaped our national character, we’ve lost the ability to understand or transmit our own culture.

This is no accident. It’s the only outcome multiculturalism has ever produced.

America now suffers from a full-blown identity crisis. If we hope to recover a coherent national identity, we must start with the Bible. Conservatives and Christians who want to revive the American tradition must demand — unapologetically — the return of scripture and prayer to public life.

These practices weren’t controversial for most of our history. The Constitution didn’t suddenly change because the left launched a cultural revolution. Students — even those who are secular or from foreign faiths — still need biblical literacy to understand the civilization they live in and the culture they’re supposedly assimilating into.

A general knowledge of the Bible is indispensable. Without it, American education remains incomplete — and a unified national culture remains impossible.

The real reason why leftists don't want the Bible taught in schools



Ever since I announced that Oklahoma’s public schools would incorporate the Bible into academic curricula for the upcoming school year, my plan has been met with criticism, hysteria, and vitriol from all the usual suspects — leftist union bosses, anti-religious activists, and woke politicians.

Now those forces are massing around a lawsuit to try to stop the Bible from being taught in classrooms.

To fully understand the history of the United States and to grasp the meaning of our founding is an impossible task without a baseline understanding of the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Whether or not one accepts it as the inspired word of God, the Bible nonetheless is a passport to an intellectual world of goodness, beauty, and historical impact.

And this is the last thing that the radical left wants.

There is nothing unconstitutional about teaching the Bible. Its presence in government schools has been under assault by the Supreme Court for over 60 years. And it has been under the most vicious forms of political attack for the last 10 years.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court overturned what was known as the “Lemon test” for religious instruction in the classroom, a legal development that was long overdue. Whereas the court previously imposed a nonsensical, ahistorical three-part test on biblical instruction, we have now returned to a proper understanding of the First Amendment and the role of religion in public institutions.

Thoughtful educators and parents have in front of us the opportunity to start undoing the last several decades of judicial activism and return to well-rounded educational curricula. Naturally, there are still some who disagree.

The Bible, like so many other foundational pieces of literature that American students have been deprived of, is a primary source like any other. Its scores of primary sources and documents are assembled into a single anthology, to put it in academic terms. But the books contained within the Bible pervade so much of the historical and literary world that preceded the creation of this republic and the formation of the American people.

To fully understand the history of the United States and to grasp the meaning of our founding is an impossible task without a baseline understanding of the Judeo-Christian Bible.

In the first two sentences of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson lays out a summary of the American ideal — the bedrock principles of our entire existence as a country. In those sentences he makes it explicitly clear that our rights are derived from God and that the laws that supersede those of tyrants like King George III are given to us from the same transcendent source.

Twentieth-century figures ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to Ronald Reagan invoked scripture as a driving inspiration for their work in public life.

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream'' speech marked a pivotal moment in the history of the Civil Rights movement and of the 20th century as a whole. That speech contains references to the books of Amos, Isaiah, Psalms, and Galatians. His “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” likewise contains several direct references to scripture to make its arguments against the injustices of the system. It’s not because King just chose to use scripture as a rhetorical device. It’s because his efforts were motivated by the biblical belief that we are all made equally in the image of God and are therefore deserving of equal protection of the law and protection of society.

The leftists of the education cartel are violently opposed to allowing the Bible into the classroom; they are engaged in a form of intellectual tyranny.

Reagan often pointed to the principles of Christianity and biblical truth as a source of America’s greatness. He often said, “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Reagan easily referred to and used both the Old and the New Testaments in his personal and public life. His long-standing use of the Bible as a source for describing the country is found in his declaration that the U.S. is “a shining city on a hill” for all the world to see.

To a student who has been denied an academic education about the Bible, those arguments will, at best, sound like a poorly translated foreign language.

With the few exceptions of those who merely oppose teaching the Bible on their principle of the so-called “separation of church and state” — a phrase that appears nowhere in either the Declaration or Constitution — the loudest and most virulent opponents of teaching the Bible academically are afraid of what happens if these texts are legitimized and given public sanction.

Those same anti-civilizational voices will claim that the Bible has no academic value. Yet at the same time, leftist politicians and union bosses are fighting more for pornographic books like "Gender Queer" and "Flamer," which have nothing to do with education and are used solely to propagandize children into political and social conformity with the radical left.

So naturally, the leftists of the education cartel are violently opposed to allowing the Bible into the classroom; they are engaged in a form of intellectual tyranny.

This way, the radical, progressive, anti-Western worldview is kept safe from anything that might give weight, meaning, and substance to the things it wishes to belittle and destroy.

This is precisely why I look forward to this fight to defend scholarly education on the Bible in Oklahoma. Our students deserve a real education, one that puts them in direct contact with the greatness of the civilization that we have inherited and provides them with actual tools to confront challenges to it.

Just as important, our republic and our society deserve citizens who have been properly educated in this regard. Americans deserve no less.

How Christians can fight back against a world awash with deception



Christians risk falling for anything when the church fails to cultivate sharp-minded disciples. Many lack a well-honed "bologna detector" that can discern truth from error, fact from conspiracy, and biblical ideas from mere human opinions.

This describes a significant portion of American Christianity right now, evident every day on social media as Christians share the latest conspiracies or claim to see biblical prophecies unfolding.

After the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, many such claims spread like wildfire online. Some linked Trump’s bloody right ear to Leviticus 8:23, which mentions blood on the right lobe of Aaron the priest. Others referred to the time of the shooting — 6:11 pm — to Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

This isn't a new phenomenon.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Christians warned that barcodes used for commerce were the "marks of the beast" as described in Revelation 13:16-18. Many still believe microchips and other technologies are potential "marks." These claims and interpretations are not only incorrect but also make Christians appear unserious.

But why are Christians vulnerable to believing these ideas? How did we get here?

The church's witness and effectiveness hinge on our ability to think deeply, engage rigorously with scripture, and equip believers to stand firm in a world awash with deception.

For the better part of 2,000 years, Christianity grounded its identity on truth claims. Theologians and pastors labored to present the truth of God, as revealed in scripture, in a coherent, rational, and consistent form. Creeds, confessions, and catechisms emerged throughout Christian history as believers passed the principles of the faith to the next generation.

Christianity wasn’t based on feelings. It proclaimed truth. It offered a comprehensive worldview on God, creation, humanity, sin, redemption, ethics, vocation, family, marriage, sexuality, and more. This is why Jude 3 says, “Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

There is a faith — with principles, precepts, and claims — that embodies the heart of Christianity. It is a faith delivered as a coherent whole.

Christians well-versed in the truth claims of the faith were marked by wisdom and discernment. Mature believers knew what they believed and could articulate their faith and defend it. They knew how to weigh claims and test them against the scriptures. This is why the apostle Paul exhorts Christians to be transformed by the renewing of their minds so they can discern God’s will in various situations (Romans 12:2). He also says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Many Christians cannot do this today because Christianity in America shifted from a head religion to a heart religion.

This shift in American Christianity began during the Enlightenment period. As scientific advances occurred and philosophers spoke openly against Christianity, many Christians retreated from the intellectual arena. Revivalist pastors led movements that stirred emotions but neglected the intellect. Churches seeking to fulfill the great commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind forgot the last one. Feelings and experiences dominated American Christianity as biblical illiteracy spread.

At a time when American culture is more ungodly and opposed to truth, the church is less equipped to deal with it than ever before.

Many churches teach their people the basic gospel message of Jesus' death and resurrection and the forgiveness of sins found in trusting Christ alone. However, they have not equipped them to face the challenges meeting them in the world.

This intellectual deficiency has left Christians susceptible to superficial interpretations and sensationalist claims, undermining their credibility in society.

The loss of intellectual rigor is not isolated to the church alone. The education system in America, particularly in higher education, refuses to make students participate in critical thinking skills. Diversity of thought has disappeared. The cultural shift in America promotes fragility and emotional reasoning over critical thinking.

Discipleship has to include knowing how to properly read the Bible, interpret passages, understand theology, and discern how ideas in the world stack up against God’s revealed will.

Most churches are no different. They stir emotional responses to Jesus while neglecting the theological depth that would strengthen the faith and discernment of her members.

An example of this phenomenon is the popularity of Christian music. Many believers today are formed in their faith more by Christian radio than by biblical teaching and theology. Most prefer a music playlist to a book. They listen to feel-good, uplifting Christian songs that have strong melodies and catchy choruses but lack any substantive theology. The result is most Christians tend to have a theology as shallow as the music they listen to.

My worship pastor received an invite to join one of the major Christian labels in Nashville for a writing session. He told me after the session that he got his Bible out to help direct lyrics and ideas. One of the longtime songwriters commented, “Wow. You’re the first person to get your Bible out during a write.” That is the state of American Christianity.

It pains me to say these things. I love the church. Like the famous English pastor Charles Spurgeon, I believe the local church is the hope of the world. But the church will never be that hope until she returns to a robust commitment to loving God with all her mind.

The church must return to the formation of the intellect. Discipleship has to include knowing how to properly read the Bible, interpret passages, understand theology, and discern how ideas in the world stack up against God’s revealed will.

We need a revival of intellectual engagement in the church.

Church leaders must advocate for disciplined study, logical reasoning, and deeper understanding of Christian doctrine and philosophy. This can be done by incorporating use of creeds, confessions, and catechisms back into our worship gatherings and discipleship efforts. If we fail to do this, Christians will be seen as emotional conspiracy theorists with empty heads.

The church's witness and effectiveness hinge on our ability to think deeply, engage rigorously with scripture, and equip believers to stand firm in a world awash with deception.

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