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Anti-Education Extremists

Ryan Walters Taps Christian Nationalists and Right-Wing Propagandists To Overhaul Oklahoma's Social Studies Curriculum

Last month, Oklahoma’s Christian nationalist state superintendent of education Ryan Walters announced(link is external) that the Bible must be taught in all public schools in the state. Now, Walters is taking things a step further, announcing(link is external) that the state's social studies curriculum will be overhauled in order to further promote his Christian nationalist worldview.

"The revised standards will incorporate the introduction of the Bible as an instructional resource that Superintendent Walters announced last week as well as the ensuring that social studies reflect accuracy and not political slanted viewpoints," stated the press release(link is external) issued by Walters' office on Tuesday. Walters' claim is laughable, given that the state's new curriculum will undoubtedly reflect the "political slanted viewpoints" of the various far-right activists he has appointed to the executive review committee.

Among the participants is Kevin Roberts, the hard-right activist who has pushed the Heritage Foundation into increasingly extreme MAGA territory(link is external) and is leading the Project 2025 effort(link is external) to seize control(link is external) of the federal government should former President Donald Trump win the 2024 election.

In 2023, Right Wing Watch reported(link is external):

In a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of Heritage’s founding, Roberts said the 2024 election “may be our last, best chance to rescue this nation from a woke, socialist left bent on its destruction,” mocked “non-vaccine vaccines” and “useless masks,” declared that there must be no bargaining with the “woke left,” and asserted that “dismantling the woke and weaponized Administrative State” is a matter of national survival. A Heritage ebook about critical race theory suggests that systemic racism cannot exist because racial discrimination is illegal.

Joining Roberts is Everett Piper(link is external), the former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, a right-wing(link is external) commentator(link is external), and self-proclaimed proud(link is external) “right-wing religious nut.”

In 2017, RWW reported(link is external):

Everett Piper(link is external) is the president of a Christian college who has found success on the Religious Right speaking circuit by attacking(link is external) the “ideological fascism” of gay-rights supporters and other liberals, who he says area waging a “war against Christians” in academia and the broader culture. Piper gave a rousing culture warrior’s closing keynote to the 2015 summit of the World Congress of Families, which works to restrict LGBT rights and reproductive freedom around the globe. Piper has described(link is external) WCF’s critics as “a hateful people who hate anyone who dares stand in their way of hating God.” At a 2015 conference organized by anti-gay activist Jim Garlow, Piper described the Obama White House as “seemingly more aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood than Franklin Graham.” Piper was listed earlier this year as a member of the education committee of the secretive far-right Council for National Policy(link is external).

Commentator Dennis Prager(link is external) will be lending his "expertise" as well, which is ironic given that the educational materials(link is external) produced by Prager's own organization(link is external) are rife with(link is external) disinformation(link is external) and right-wing propaganda(link is external).

In 2023, RWW wrote(link is external):

Dennis Prager is a prominent far-right propagandist(link is external) whose PragerU videos have been viewed billions of times. Prager argued against(link is external) the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the U.S. Capitol. Prager is allied with Christian nationalists and promotes their false claims(link is external) about U.S. history. When Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress and chose a Quran for his ceremonial swearing in, Prager slammed him for not using a Bible, saying, “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

Unhinged far-right(link is external) broadcaster(link is external) Steve Deace(link is external) has also been named a member of Walters' committee, despite his repeated(link is external) calls(link is external) for violence(link is external) against his political opponents, including openly declaring(link is external) that he wants to see "antifa members hanging from gallows in Trump ties."

Finally, and most alarmingly, Christian nationalist(link is external) pseudo-historian(link is external) David Barton has been named to Walters' committee. As RWW has noted before(link is external), Barton is almost single-handedly responsible for creating the Christian nationalist myths that the far-right uses to justify its push(link is external) to enact harmful public policies that weaken the separation of church and state, undermine women’s rights, and deny legal equality to LGBTQ Americans.

RWW profiled(link is external) Barton in 2023 after Rep. Mike Johnson, who credited Barton with having a "profound influence on me and my work and my life,"was elected Speaker of the House:

David Barton has built an entire career out of misusing(link is external), misrepresenting(link is external), and outright falsifying history(link is external), the Bible(link is external), and current events(link is external) and doing so to promote his Christian nationalist political agenda(link is external). He has been highly influential(link is external) not only within Republican politics(link is external), where he has many fans among current(link is external) and former(link is external) GOP legislators(link is external), but also internationally(link is external). On top of that, Barton’s Christian nationalist pseudo-history(link is external) is shaping(link is external) both Christian(link is external) and secular(link is external) educational institutions(link is external) across the country.

Barton, who has repeatedly(link is external) misrepresented(link is external) his academic credentials(link is external) and personal history(link is external), had his book on Thomas Jefferson pulled by his own publisher(link is external) in 2012 after it concluded that “basic truths just were not there.”

Undaunted, Barton has soldiered on, repeatedly declaring that Christians who share his far-right worldview are supposed to be choosing our elected leaders(link is external) and ruling the world(link is external) because everything must operate according to biblical principles(link is external).

Barton falsely insists(link is external) that our Constitution(link is external) and entire system of government(link is external) are based on the Bible and thus asserts that everything from the minimum wage(link is external) to the income tax(link is external) to the teaching of evolution(link is external) are unconstitutional because they supposedly violate Biblical teachings. Barton also believes that there should be literally no limits(link is external) on the Second Amendment, meaning that average citizens are entitled to own tanks, fighter jets(link is external), and even nuclear weapons(link is external).

Predictably, Barton takes a far-right position on issues like abortion—going so far as to proclaim that life actually begins before conception(link is external)—and on LGBTQ issues(link is external), asserting repeatedly that AIDS is God’s punishment for sin(link is external) and therefore a cure(link is external) will never be found(link is external).

In his press release, Walters' proclaimed that the "unparalleled expertise" of these panelists "will help craft new academic standards that will serve as a mode for the nation and help Oklahoma students for years to come." In reality, what will likely emerge from this process is a curriculum warped by political bias and riddled with intentional disinformation designed to indoctrinate students with right-wing propaganda.

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