Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 24
Bids opened Monday in Oklahoma for a contract to supply the state's Department of Education with 55,000 Bibles.
According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.Mardel Christian & Education, which carries 2,900 Bibles, said none in its inventory fit the parameters.
Oh, wait.
Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by Orange Jesus and commonly referred to as the Trump Bible just happens to meet the guidelines. They cost $60 each online, with Trump receiving fees for his endorsement.
And the We The People Bible, which was also endorsed by Trump, also meets the specifications.
It sells for $90.
Paperback versions of the New King James Version are available online for $2.99 each but culty sycophants gotta' help out those grifters who gotta' grift.
Cha-ching.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/10/04/do...
No. of Recommendations: 3
Bibles must be the King James Version
Because somehow that makes all the nonsense sound prophetic and deep with meaning.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The Saudi backed Madrassas are better.
Produce more action and focus the kids on things like pigs......
No. of Recommendations: 3
Bibles must be the King James Version
"Because somehow that makes all the nonsense sound prophetic and deep with meaning."
Also, the words from KJV are the **actual** words from God (OT) and Jesus himself (NT).
Or so I've been told...
Pete
No. of Recommendations: 2
Bids opened Monday in Oklahoma for a contract to supply the state's Department of Education with 55,000 Bibles. According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.JHC on a cracker. I'm surprised it doesn't specify that ONLY the first 10 amendments are to be present (i.e. the nominal Bill of Rights), and NOT the other 17 amendments. You know, the ones about women's rights, slavery, the right to vote, etc. Or to specify that the last three words - "Power Of Impeachment" - from Article 1 Section 2 of The Constitution be printed in large header text starting the top of a new page. 😊
See this pretty good review and critique of the Trump Bible -
https://youtu.be/cW2skC21KKU?t=535(Yeah, the guy's a bible thumper, but he knows his bibles.)
No. of Recommendations: 7
The Saudi backed Madrassas are better.
Perhaps, but your comparison is appropriate.
“American Taliban” used to be an insult. But it is increasingly a description.
No. of Recommendations: 5
When I was a kid, somehow my public school district developed a practice of distributing a small red pocket bible, about the size of a modern cell phone, to each child in the fifth grade. I had two older sisters so I was aware of the practice and was not suprised when, on one day in October or November, my class was lined up, marched down the hall to the library past a table where someone handed us the exact same red pocket bible that had been handed out each year prior.
Having been raised Catholic (***) and having the element of surprise taken away by already seeing two older siblings get the same bible, it didn't register with me that this whole process was kinda wierd. This was just the thing they did in fifth grade where everyone got their copy of the bible. Of course, it's worth noting in hindsight that, curiously, whatever entity was sponsoring this process didn't provide copies of the FULL bible, only the New Testament. Hmmmmmm. Too much begatting going on for young minds to read about in the OT? Maybe it was the nudity throughout Genesis.
Anyway, while this didn't phase me or my parents, my best friend in fifth grade, who was of Jewish descent though I'm not sure they were practicing Jews, brought his bible home and his mother contacted the school immediately the next day. WHAT ON EARTH IS A PUBLIC SCHOOL DOING DISTRIBUTING BIBLES TO STUDENTS? She took the issue to the school board and that was the last year bibles were distributed. I never heard if this was a practice that somehow was only going on at my elementary school or across the district or who was paying for the bibles or selected which version.
My first reaction when my friend told me that his mom filed a complaint with the board was along the lines of "I get it, but what's the big deal?" However, her action woke me up and made me put myself in the shoes of other kids to contemplate how intimidating that was to be frog-marched into a room along with all your peers and be "expected" to take a bible like everyone else. Within a day or two of thinking about it, I became as creeped out as she probably was about how monsterously inappropriate the tradition was.
It isn't clear if these Oklahoma Bible copies are being purchased for the school libraries in this school district or as part of some indoctrination campaign for district employees. If the former, then the oddly specific requirements sound like a scam to force them to purchase copies of the "Trump Bible" to curry favor with the Orange One and pad his pockets, given other bibles can be purchased for far less. If this is some sort of attempt at imposing a "Christian" mindset among district employees, this merits an investigation and civil lawsuit against all district employees involved.
WTH
*** Though I was raised Catholic, to paraphrase a comedian, "it didn't take none..."
No. of Recommendations: 2
Hopefully someone files a lawsuit and seeks an injunction. I would assume the ACLU? Blatantly unconstitutional.
I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was in junior high they had a class "Bible as Literature" that was an attempt to sneak the Bible into the classroom. I was a nominal xian then (didn't go to church much, but didn't question the beliefs that I knew about). I was on the advanced track in English (yeah, they did tracking then, also), and it was required on that track. But we had to provide our own bible (KJV).
As a side note, it sorta backfired in my case. When you actually read the thing, even as a 12-13yr old, I was spotting things that didn't make sense. The book of Job? A capricious god that wanted to win a bet? Noah's Ark? How did they fit all those animals into a boat? How did the koala bear make it from Australia to get on the boat? Thus started by journey to atheism.
As someone once said, a good cure for religion is to read their scriptures entirely. Don't skip around, cherry picking. Start from page 1 and read it all.
No. of Recommendations: 5
then the oddly specific requirements sound like a scam to force them to purchase copies of the "Trump Bible" to curry favor with the Orange One ...
Sounds like a way to use Oklahoma state funds to support a political campaign to me.
Much like the 100k watches are a workaround to campaign contribution limits.
--Peter
No. of Recommendations: 0
Competing tribes trying to recruit the young.
LOL.....
No. of Recommendations: 7
However, her action woke me up and made me put myself in the shoes of other kids
And that is the key.
For whatever reason, many folks lack the capacity to do just that.
No. of Recommendations: 6
As a side note, it sorta backfired in my case. When you actually read the thing, even as a 12-13yr old, I was spotting things that didn't make sense. The book of Job? A capricious god that wanted to win a bet? Noah's Ark? How did they fit all those animals into a boat? How did the koala bear make it from Australia to get on the boat? Thus started by journey to atheism.
I would suspect it would have even more effect now that kids are on the internet and can read other sources, too. Sure, there will be lots who slave to Mommy & Daddy’s dictates, but there’s a world of information out there that Mommy & Daddy (& teachers & pastors) no longer control, and I’m pretty sure some smart aleck 13-year-olds are going to mock a lot of these fantastical fables that no one questioned before right out of existence.
At least that’s my hope.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Also, the words from KJV are the **actual** words from God (OT) and Jesus himself (NT).
That's why when Joseph Smith decided to invent a religion he wrote it down with what he thought God sounded like: a fake-y version of Kings James English.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Not sure about Hindus. Muslims believe their holy book is directly from god, as do the Mormons (via Angel Moroni). Most other xians only claim the ten commandments as directly authored by god. Which also is humorous, because most of those commandments amount to nothing. The not killing and not stealing bits are good, and honor thy father and mother is nice. The rest is ego-stroking and jealousy on the part of the deity (e.g. thou shalt have no other gods before me**).
**Which is doubly-amusing, because that implies -pretty clearly- that there are other gods, but Jehovah/Yaweh is the main dude. Might be interesting how they went from that to true monotheism (i.e. no other gods at all).
No. of Recommendations: 3
WTH said:
When I was a kid, somehow my public school district developed a practice of distributing a small red pocket bible...
...and i also got another one after recruitment into a an extracurricular group called Fellowship-of-Christian Athletes.
but i smelled some funny things :
- despite half of the school athletes in the older grades being black, there were none in this group.
- the activity part of the weekly meeting was often skipped for readings...and i had joined for the physical activity !
many people were nice, some also classmates, but never did i get an honest presentation from any adults regarding why this group existed for 3rd-5th graders. it was definitely overt Christian pressure in a public education environment.
a variety of factors saved me from indoctrination, most immediately, a move to a neighboring county with plenty of other options.
