The Oklahoma Supreme Court has blocked the implementation of new social studies standards in Oklahoma, which critics claim advance a “Christian Nationalist” agenda. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court released its ruling Monday prohibiting the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma State Board of Education from implementing and enforcing the 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies as litigation involving the matter continues.

Several Oklahoma parents filed a lawsuit against the standards, which include multiple references to the Bible and Christianity, over the summer.

The lawsuit maintained that the new standards violated the Open Meeting Act because the public was not given adequate notice that the new standards that would be adopted at a Feb. 27 State Board of Education meeting would be drastically different than the ones approved at a December 2024 meeting. Additional claims in the complaint allege that the standards violate state laws requiring curriculum to be “accurate and age-appropriate” as well as religious freedom provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution. 

As a result of Monday’s ruling, the 2019 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies will remain in place. 

The liberal advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State released a statement Monday praising the decision.

“Today’s ruling will help ensure that Oklahoma families — not politicians — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” said Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser.

She added, “These new social studies standards would violate students’ and families’ religious freedom by promoting one version of Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools.”

Under the 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies, students in second grade would learn to “identify stories from Christianity that influenced the American founders and culture, including the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.” 

In fifth grade, students would learn how to “explain how English traditions of limited government (Parliament’s relationship to the monarchy) and Judeo-Christian values shaped the colonial experience in self-government.”

A separate standard requires eighth-grade students to “evaluate the role of Judeo-Christian ideals in supporting colonial demands for independence, as exemplified by the Bible being a frequently cited authority by America's Founders.” 

Modern world history students are expected to “examine the influence of Judeo-Christian ethics and Mosaic law on early American political and legal systems, as well as modern legal systems.” United States government students are required to “summarize Judeo-Christian concepts of ethics and government as the basis for American civilization and law, as exemplified by the influence of the Ten Commandments on American judicial decisions.”

U.S. government students are also expected to “describe how the Constitution of the United States was influenced by religion, morality, and the Bible as a frequently cited authority by America's founders.” 

In ancient world history, students would learn how to “explain how Judaism influenced the foundation of Christianity, and how these religions contributed to the foundations of Western Civilization” and “describe the Hebrew Bible’s account of the unification of the tribes of Israel under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon, including David’s founding of Jerusalem in 1000 BC and the building of the first temple by Solomon.”

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters defended the new standards in an interview with The Christian Post last summer. “It is of the utmost importance that our kids get a full understanding of American history,” he said. “Obviously, that includes the most read book in American history, the most purchased book in American history, the most cited book in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Bible.”

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/okla-supreme-court-halts-bible-focused-social-studies-standards.html