Oklahoma Senate Approves Bible Teaching in Public Schools

Recently, the Oklahoma Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill to allow elective courses on the Bible in public schools.  Now before you jump to conclusions, I don't think this is a bad thing.  A lot of American (and world) law is based off of principles taught in the Bible, and students may not fully grasp the principles without an opportunity to learn about them from their source.  However, students should also be afforded the same opportunity to take courses on other religious texts, including the Quran, on their roles in history and the development of the laws we have today.

While the Constitution does not mention the phrase "separation of church and state," it is clear that that was the intent of the Framers with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment which reads "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  Thomas Jefferson affirms this in his letter to the Danbury Baptists.  (It can be reasonably argued that the current educational environment violates the second part of that clause in that a student must dismiss his belief of Creation, Reincarnation, etc. in order to pass a science class.)

If this measure passes and students are allowed to study the Bible in public school, then they must be allowed to study other texts.  No but's.

Now, here's where the irony lies: the same people who rally against elective courses on the Bible claiming that they are unconstitutional are the same who rally for government run healthcare.  These people continually bring up Roe v. Wade in regards to abortion and religious freedom.

Contrary to popular belief, Roe v. Wade was not decided on where the Supreme Court thought life began, but rather on issues of privacy.  These Right to Privacy cases began with Griswold v. Conneticutt in 1965 and have continued through today.  The courts have continually taken the position that the Constitution mandated a zone of personal privacy to remain free from government regulation with the exception of only the most exceptional of circumstances. 

According to the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, "these matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.  At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and the mystery of human life."  I'm very certain that the latter sentence there can be directly applied to one's religion.

Therefore, I can confidently conclude that if you are against this law, then you must be against the recent abortion law, and also against government run healthcare.  If not, then you are either ignorant or a hypocrite... or both.