Religion and Politics

(A coalition of prominent state leaders could help educate the public about sensible immigration reform in Oklahoma and the country. Read DocHoc's commentary this week in the Oklahoma Gazette.)

(Who exactly are these pastafarians? Where do they come from? What do they want? Click on the image to the right to learn about them and their new religion, which is sweeping the nation.)

The Christian fundamentalist movement here will again try to turn Oklahoma schools into evangelical training academies in which students can challenge teachers about basic scientific facts based solely on their religious beliefs.

According to media reports, state Rep. Mike Reynolds (R-Oklahoma City) says he will introduce a bill called the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act this coming legislative session.

Reynolds wants schools to adopt policies that will allow students to express religious ideas in assignments without penalty and enable them to organize religious events on campuses.

In other words, students could challenge evolution theory, the scientific method and any teaching they thought conflicted with their religious beliefs. Under the proposed bill, it appears, teachers could not give low grades to students who simply refused to do an assignment based on their religious faith. So the deal is students can just use the Platinum Fundamentalist Christian Card for an "A." Priceless.

This bill appears to be yet another attempt to challenge the theory of evolution, which simply claims life forms have changed over the centuries. It is obviously related to the so-called intelligent design movement, an offshoot of creationism, which argues the world is so complicated a designer (wink, wink, the Christian God) must have created the world.

There are many things wrong about this bill. Perhaps, the most important issue is the bill would ultimately allow fundamentalist Christians, not educators, to determine the public school curriculum here. Our state's and nation's students already lag behind students in other industrialized countries when it comes to science. It also has the potential to create unnecessary religious conflict in schools if students who belong to the state’s marginalized religions—any religion besides Christianity—express their “viewpoint” as well.

All these proposed religious bills in recent years make Oklahoma seem backwards and intolerant. The Oklahoma leadership has again failed the state for not speaking up clearly and decisively about the pressing need for an appropriate separation between religion and education in our schools. Political acts like this one tell any young, rational and intelligent person in the state to leave here as soon as possible.

The Daily Oklahoman editorial page, which will probably oppose Reynolds’s bill, will actually do nothing realistic to stop such legislation. The state's largest newspaper could call for the legislator’s removal from elected office or stop blindly supporting politicians such as U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, whose senate career has been based on waging a personal war against science. But it will not do so. Meanwhile, the rich oil and business executives here need the fundamentalist Christians to vote against their own financial interests to further enrich themselves on the backs of hard working Oklahomans.

According to Vic Hutchison, a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Oklahoma and a member of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, “. . . This is a bad bill copied from a law passed and signed by the governor last year in Texas. It would allow some back-door introduction of religious material into schools where it does not belong, including creationism in science courses, etc. Students already have the right now to participate in a variety of religious activities . . . “

Hutchison, who made his comments in a recent email to OESE supporters, argues further, “The proposed bill repeats these rights, but adds some ‘slick’ wording that could lead to religion in places that should not be allowed. The bill in Texas was fought hard by several organizations such as the Texas Freedom Network, Texas Classroom Teachers Association and other educational and science groups.”

Hutchison says, “This bill should be fought by all who value the separation of church and state.”

On June 20, 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution apologizing for once supporting American slavery, the vile practice which actually created the religious organization in the first place.

Southern Baptist clergy once believed slavery was moral, and they wanted to ensure they, too, could own slaves when the organization was founded under its first president, William Bullein Johnson, in 1845. Splitting from national Baptist organizations, the new Southern Baptist clergy saw slavery and demeaning intolerance of other ethnicities as rooted in the Bible.

Experts vary on how many African slaves were killed or died prematurely because of outright murder, torture or inhumane ship travel. The estimates range in the millions. The Southern Baptist Convention through its own admission once supported this mass murder of African slaves and then did not even apologize until 1995 because of what we can assume were lingering racist views among its leaders and parishioners.

This is all old information of evil for sure. Why rehash it? It is important to remind ourselves always how all religions—Christianity included—have been used to support the most violent acts imaginable. It is especially important to remind ourselves of this history in Oklahoma after the recent incident in which 24 state legislators publicly refused to accept a special centennial edition of the Quran, the main text of Islam, from the state’s Muslim community.

Earlier, the legislators, virtually all Republicans, had received centennial copies of the Bible from, you guessed it, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, which is part of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Media reports tell us State Rep. Rex Duncan (R-Sand Springs), who declined his Quran, equates Islam with violence. He is obviously referring at least partially to the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks in which approximately 3,000 people were killed by Islamic terrorists. Yet the Southern Baptists in the nineteenth-century used the Bible to validate their support for American slavery, which resulted in far more deaths than the 2001 attacks. As I have mentioned before, we can also reconsider the Crusades and those European Christian leaders who supported Hitler.

These legislators bring attention to their own particular religions when they attack another religion. Duncan lists his religious affiliation as Methodist in his legislative profile. Does he speak for most Methodists in Oklahoma? Does the Methodist Church believe Islam is a violent religion, too?

The obvious once again: There are certainly extremist Islamic terrorists who distort their religion to validate their actions just like extremist Christian fanatics and sects have done throughout history. We need to go after these terrorists with all our resources. But this is a minuscule number of people when compared to all Muslims. The religion itself does not promote violence anymore than Christianity.

Oklahoma will never move forward until its leadership actively condemns these political stunts by Duncan and the other legislators as damaging to the state and its residents. How can our schools and colleges even begin to teach students about different cultures, languages and ethnicities when its political leadership presents such basic misinformation?

Meanwhile, the Quran controversy continues. State Rep. Mike Reynolds (R-Oklahoma City), who also refused a Quran, said he wants the Governor’s Ethnic American Advisory Council reconfigured or disbanded. The council presented the Qurans to legislators. They were paid for by private donations from the state’s Muslim community, which has 30,000 to 50,000 members.

According to a media report, Reynolds said, “Islam simply has not played a role in our state’s or country’s history.” Yeah, right. Here is the reality. Reynolds’ profile shows he is an ordained deacon and a member at Southern Hills Baptist Church. Do Reynolds’ views reflect those of his church?

So it goes in Oklahoma these days.

(Are progressives making a big move in Oklahoma right now? Read DocHoc’s commentary this week in the Oklahoma Gazette, the state's best alternative publication. Also, read the counterpoint article by Ron Black, who says the progressive mission here is definitely not accomplished.)

Oklahoma’s centennial year continues to be marred by intolerance and bigotry, which has brought the state embarrassing national publicity in recent weeks.

The legislature this year passed one of the strictest anti-illegal immigrations bills in the nation, a bill the local Catholic archbishop calls “immoral.” Now several legislators have refused to accept special centennial copies of the Quran from the state’s Muslim community in a marked gesture of intolerance.

All this is a major failure of the Oklahoma leadership across the board (corporate, political, religious, education and media leaders), who have sat by idly or, in some cases, sanctioned scapegoat ideologies that continue to keep the state from moving forward. Do the state’s Muslims and Hispanics feel their neighbors have turned on them? Who wants to live in a place of hatred? It is seriously time for a change of direction here.

The latest fiasco began when special Qurans, the main text of Islam, were offered as gifts to state legislators by the Governor’s Ethnic Advisory Council. The Qurans, which were apparently printed with the state seal and a centennial emblem, were meant as a gesture of inclusiveness. An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Muslims live here.

But state Rep. Rex Duncan, pictured right, (R-Sands Springs) refused to accept his gift, paid by the state’s Muslim community, saying “. . . most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Of course, Islam is a religion, not an ideology, and it does not sanction violence anymore than the Bible does. But that type of information is for the state’s declining number of basic realists who are appalled by Duncan’s outburst.

Duncan was joined by at least 23 other lawmakers, virtually all Republicans. One Democrat has also joined in the protest. The Associated Press and other media outlets picked up the story, and Oklahoma again made national news for all the wrong reasons. To call this an Oklahoma spectacle is almost an understatement. It brought a great deal of embarrassment to the state. This type of publicity does incalculable damage to the state’s economic development.

The obvious: There are certainly extremist Islamic terrorists who distort their religion to validate their actions just like extremist Christian fanatics have done throughout history. We need to go after these terrorists with all our resources. But this is a minuscule number of people when compared to all Muslims. The religion itself does not promote violence anymore than Christianity. Do not forget The Crusades or those Christian leaders who supported Hitler.

The fact a state leader, such as Duncan, can get away with such an outrageous gesture of intolerance and downright religious bigotry has frightening implications for Oklahoma. One can hope it is one of the last gasps of the right-wing juggernaut here that has so harmed the state’s national reputation, but that, of course, is only wishful thinking. Duncan’s ideas are probably supported by a majority of Oklahomans, who have also supported the state’s new anti-illegal immigration bill as well. It seems truly like there is a concerted effort to target Hispanics and Muslims. A couple years ago or so, the right-wingers were after gay people. What minority group is next?

A state interfaith alliance condemned Duncan’s remarks and some legislators and Gov. Brad Henry said the gifts were welcomed, but the damage was done. All the remarks condemning the intolerance had no real bite. I did not read about or see any major state education leader denouncing it and calling for increased awareness of world religions and cultures in our educational curriculum.

The only thing that can stop this type of bigotry and misinformation is education. The state’s colleges need to work even harder to promote the understanding and knowledge of different religions, ethnicities and languages. Those in the trenches who try to do so need more support from the leadership, which controls the purse strings and the educational agenda. Intelligent people can see through Duncan’s rhetoric; others see it as a validation of their own limited worldview.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s Catholic Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran and other priests have announced they will not support the state’s new anti-illegal immigration law, which is one of the strictest in the nation. It has also made national news. A pledge put together by the Catholic Church and others here says: "With the advent of this new law, we are standing together in opposition and defiance of this unjust and immoral law.”

The Rev. Lance Schmitz of Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, and Rex Friend, a local Quaker leader and attorney, were also involved in creating the pledge.

Also, the Oklahoma Gazette published an article this week showing how a group tied to Oklahoma’s anti-illegal immigration effort, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), apparently had financial connections with the Pioneer Group, an organization listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This is another excellent piece of reporting by Ben Fenwick, one of the best journalists in the state.