The requirement forces Oklahoma teachers to "reference" the role of the Ten Commandments in America's founding, so as a historian & teacher, let me offer this suggestion:
"Although some idiots today insist that the Founding Fathers were inspired by the Ten Commandments, they absolutely were not."
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued this memo today requiring teachers in all schools to keep a Bible in their classroom and teach from it as a historical document. (Via KOCO 5 News)
Oh and the "historical context of our country" is that the Founding Fathers knew from hard personal experience that the mixing of religion and government had caused centuries of war and chaos across Europe, so when they set up a new country here THEY VERY EXPLICITLY DID NOT DO THAT.
The Thirty Years War -- wars of state+religion, killing 1/4-1/5 of what is today Germany -- was no further back in their rear view mirror than the American Civil War is in ours -- 150 years.
The pasts that are aren't dead, not even past, are many...
