State’s bid cites requirements that $60 Trump-endorsed God Bless the USA Bible appears to be tailor-made to meet

Oklahoma’s top education official is seeking to buy 55,000 Bibles for public schools and specifying that each copy contain the Declaration of Independence and US constitution, which are not commonly found in Bibles but are included in one endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

The request is part of Republican state superintendent Ryan Walters’ ongoing efforts to require Bibles in every classroom, which has been met with resistance by some of Oklahoma’s largest school districts.

Walters is seeking to spend $3m in state funds for Bibles that fit a certain criteria, including that the pages are supplemented with US historical materials. The Bibles must also be “bound in leather or leather-like material for durability”, according to state bidding documents posted this week.

  • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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    30 days ago

    I know I shouldn’t be but I’m just kind of astonished.

    I get that some states are predominantly red voters, but how many people must be involved in this process, and among them not a single person with a shred of integrity. I’m a lefty, but I’d like to think that if I was in a position to have any input into a process like this, I’m pretty sure I would be screaming blue bloody murder, even if the money was going to my own preferred party.

    It’s just so embarrassingly obviously corrupt. I would be genuinely ashamed to be involved, even if my involvement was simply not saying anything.

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Misappropriating funds to buy religious texts for a public school while insisting that the text includes the constitution that makes it misappropriation in the first place is some next level bullshit

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      30 days ago

      …and doing it with requirements that funnel state education funds to a political candidate is just…chef’s kiss

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    it doesn’t matter how the books are printed or bound…

    THIS is the problem:

    spend $3m in state funds for Bibles

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Wait until you hear about the $100k concepts of a watch they’re selling worldwide for cash OR bitcoin. It’s basically tailor made to allow foreign agents to send money to trump anonymously.

      • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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        30 days ago

        I saw the ad but missed a piece about bitcoin. Probably because I was overwhelmed with their worse-than-parody looks and presentation.

        • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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          30 days ago

          The more you look into it the better it gets. It’s basically a drop ship scam run out of a random office in Wyoming (? IIRC) where the only other registered business sells honey to treat erectile dysfunction.

            • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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              30 days ago

              I mean, yeah, it’s a drop ship front designed to be a money laundering pipe for foreign agents to send money to a Trump business. The product doesn’t actually matter.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    $60 for a Bible? $60? I mean I knew it was a scam but that’s like a triple scam.

    All the weird shit aside this is exactly the problem with school funding in our country. It’s usually not this blatantly obvious and corrupt but this happens all the time. So many schools spend millions of dollars on teaching resources another nonsense that’s just direct handouts for political purposes. Every year teachers and Librarians are just inundated with garbage that the district spend obscene amounts of money on that nobody needs or wants. It’s all dirty politics.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I heard it has a copy of the constitution/bill of rights in it, missing amendments 11 - 17, because a lot of those prevent his coup, and allow for his prosecution.

    • Gork@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Those morons probably get the Ten Commandments and the Amendments confused if they’re missing that many.

      • qantravon@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s not that they cut any in particular, they just only included the Bill of Rights, which isn’t uncommon when pairing them with the Constitution. Not defending them, still a grift going on here, but that particular detail isn’t as nefarious as some people want to think. At least, not on its own.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          29 days ago

          It’s definitely a bad way to handle the constitution though. Not saying it’s not common, but the repeal of the 18th amendment is just as much a part of the constitution as the right to bear arms and the duties of the legislature

    • Blaster M@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      Yes, in multiple ways… adding to the scriptures, promoting a man-made government, and the state government promoting a religion, which is barred by the first amendment.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      At this point in history … the only legimate way to be a Christian is to just say you’re one. It’s about the only criteria anyone goes by now.

      It used to mean something a hundred years ago … it doesn’t mean much any more

        • Evotech@lemmy.world
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          30 days ago

          You can’t just say you are Jewish. The Jewish community well not accept that.

          Used to be kinda like that

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            30 days ago

            You can’t just say you are Jewish. The Jewish community well not accept that.

            That highly depends on the Jewish community. There isn’t just one.

            Plenty of ultra-Orthodox Jews would say I’m not Jewish despite being born to two Jewish parents, having a Bar Mitzvah, etc. because I don’t fit into their weird little mold.

            On the other hand, at the temple my mom goes to, they wouldn’t care who your parents are. If you say you’re Jewish and go through the motions, they’ll accept you as Jewish.

            On top of that, there are Jews who would say I’m not a Jew because I’m an atheist and others, like myself, who consider it an ethnicity as well as a religion and argue that if those Jews are right, Larry David isn’t Jewish either. Neither are Billy Crystal, William Shatner, Sarah Silverman, and so many other people that Jews often claim as their own.

            I’ve been called an antisemite by Jews that support Israel when they find out I don’t. That’s how messed up it all is.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          As opposed to actually practicing being kind to your neighbor. Stuff like that.

  • undercrust@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    What a weird, sad, loser Ryan Walters is.

    Man the United States really IS a shithole third world now.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Walters in June ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades five through 12. The bidding documents also specify that the Bibles include both the Old Testament and New Testament, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Bill of Rights.

    Seems like it’s time to publish an annotated Bible that meets the criteria and costs much less than Trump’s bible.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 month ago

      They thought of that and don’t allow any other commentary in the book, otherwise I could see a great opportunity for the satanic temple to get into book publishing.

  • molten@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I really would rather my taxes not go to dipshit Donald or geriatric Joe. There are roads that need fixing and libraries that need funding.

  • Gladaed@feddit.org
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    30 days ago

    Doesnt seem like news to me. Neither truly new/interesting or impactful. 3 m$ is less than a Cent per person.