Writing in The Oklahoman, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has criticized the approval of a Catholic school as a charter school.
It's rather surprising, given that Drummond is a typical Oklahoma Republican, which is to say a Neanderthal, but he gets that this is opening up a Pandora's Box:
The recent decision by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to approve the application for what would be the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school is cause for serious concern.
Sponsors of the proposed new school declare that it will be “Catholic in teaching, Catholic in employment and Catholic in every way.” Supporters hail the approval as a victory for religious liberty.
It is the exact opposite. The board’s vote drove a stake in the heart of religious liberty.
Religious liberty is among our most fundamental freedoms. Europeans fled the Old World so they could worship in the manner of their choosing without the state sanctioning or limiting their choices. Today, religious liberty allows us to worship according to our faith and to be free from any duty that conflicts with our faith. Forcing Oklahomans to fund religious teachings with their tax dollars is not religious freedom — it is state-sponsored religion, which violates the first clause of the First Amendment.
Today, the school seeking approval happens to be a widely followed branch of the Christian faith. Tomorrow, the school may be sponsored by a mosque wishing to teach Sharia law, or some other faith that most Oklahomans would find deeply offensive.
Notice him breaking out the "Sharia Law" trope.
It's not that he supports the separation of church and state, it's that he realizes he's going to have to go and defend the Charter School Board when a Muslim, or Hindu, or Jewish school demands state support, and that he will lose badly, at least until the hacks on the Supreme Court rule that, "Some religions are more equal than others."
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