Oklahoma has created a new office within its Education Department to \u201cprotect parents, teachers, and students\u2019 abilities to practice their religion freely in all aspects\u201d and \u201coversee the investigation of abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism.\u201d In his November press release State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the office will also issue guidance to schools \u201con steps to be taken to ensure the right to pray in schools is safeguarded.\u201d Earlier last year Walters directed Oklahoma schools to purchase a Bible for every classroom and mandated that teachers include biblical instruction in all classes. According to Walters, the creation of the Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism was prompted in part by an incident in 2023 during which a school was \u201cbullied\u201d by out-of-state groups into removing Bible texts from classroom walls.<\/p>\n
Under current Supreme Court precedent, displaying ten-commandment posters on the walls of public schools runs afoul of the First Amendment\u2019s establishment clause, which protects individuals against government-sponsored religious coercion. Also under current Court precedent, public school students are free to pray at school, although officially sanctioned or teacher-led classroom prayer would violate establishment clause protections.<\/p>\n
In other public school-related news,<\/strong><\/span> <\/strong>the Texas State Board of Education gave final approval in November last year to a controversial new elementary curriculum that features numerous biblical references, such as stories about King Solomon and Jesus\u2019 sermon on the mount. Although schools won\u2019t be required to use the program called \u201cBluebonnet Learning,\u201d the state will offer financial incentives to districts that do. Some 100 critics of the program testified before the school board against its inclusion. Southern Methodist University religious professor Mark Chancey said the material not only privileges the Christian religion but includes biblical instruction that is \u201cerroneous, made up, or just plain strange.\u201d<\/p>\n China Releases Four Religious Prisoners<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The U.S. government has secured the release of four individuals held in China as religious or ethno-religious prisoners. In September 2024 the U.S. negotiated the release of American pastor David Lin, who spent nearly two decades in a Chinese prison for his religious activities.<\/span> Two months later the U.S. secured the resettlement of three Uyghur Muslims from China to the United States as part of a broader prisoner swap. One of those freed in the swap was Ayshem Mamut, the mother of Chinese-American lawyer and religious freedom advocate Nury Turkel. Turkel, an outspoken critic of Chinese religious repression, has previously served as cochair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal body that advises the president, State Department, and Congress on religious freedom violations globally. While applauding these releases, current USCIRF vice-chair Eric Ueland highlighted the vast challenge still ahead, saying, \u201cDespite this good news, millions of other religious minorities in China face horrible conditions both in and out of state custody.\u201d<\/p>\n The State of American Faith<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The percentage of Americans who say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives has dropped, according to the results of recent nationwide polling by the Pew Forum. The survey found that 45 percent of Americans say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their life, with another 26 percent saying it is \u201cfairly important\u201d and 28 percent saying it\u2019s \u201cnot very important.\u201d When Gallup first asked this question in 1965, 70 percent said religion was \u201dvery important.\u201d<\/p>\n The polls also showed that three out of four Americans claim a specific religious identity, with 68 percent claiming Christianity (33 percent Protestant, 22 percent Catholic, and 13 percent other Christian religions). Seven percent of Americans identify with a non-Christian religion, with 2 percent Jewish, 1 percent Muslim, and 1 percent Buddhist, among others.<\/p>\n Breakthrough for Sabbathkeepers in Brazil<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In a landmark decision Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court has ruled that a university must make reasonable accommodations for students who keep the seventh day of the week holy\u2014from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday. The case involved Seventh-day Adventist students who had been unable to take tests or attend classes scheduled on Saturdays. The decision sets a much-needed legal precedent for students across the country who have long struggled to negotiate alternate arrangements for mandatory school activities scheduled on Saturday. Helio Carnassale, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Adventist Church in South America, said the ruling was a \u201cgreat victory,\u201d but added that the legal battle had been more than just an Adventist cause. \u201cIt is a ruling that benefits every person with a holy religious day,\u201d he said. \u201cIt stresses our conviction that freedom of religion is an individual right, something that every human being must equally enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n Religious Conscientious Objection Suspended in Ukraine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Conscientious objectors to military service in Ukraine are facing new pressures after the country\u2019s supreme court suspended the right to conscientious objection and to an alternative civilian service during the war with Russia. In the case, decided last summer, the court sentenced Ukrainian conscientious objector Dmytro Zelinsky to a three-year jail term. Since then, the state has increased its prosecution of conscientious objectors with many, including Baptists, Pentecostals, and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, receiving jail terms for refusing on religious grounds to enter military service.<\/p>\n Pressure to Unite Church and State in the Nation of Georgia<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In the Eastern European country of Georgia, the far-right Georgian Dream Party won election in October last year and is working to amend the national constitution to make the Georgian Orthodox Church the official state church. Critics, including many Georgian Orthodox bishops, say the move is intended to politicize religion and allow the government to steer the church toward Russian political interests. Some 86 percent of Georgia\u2019s population identifies as Orthodox Christian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oklahoma has created a new office within its Education Department to \u201cprotect parents, teachers, and students\u2019 abilities to practice their religion freely in all aspects\u201d and \u201coversee the investigation of abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism.\u201d In his November press release State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the office will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-6732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-january-february-2025","tag-january-february-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}