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It’s a consistent theme across history that religions are only as tolerant as they have to be. When they’re in the minority, they call for individual freedom and state neutrality. But when they attain majority status, they immediately try to take over the government, write their beliefs into law and silence the competition.

The state of Oklahoma is a case in point. There was a time when the courts protected Americans’ constitutional rights. Now the right-wing takeover of the judiciary is all but complete, and Christian nationalists are sure they can do whatever they want and get away with it. They’re dropping any pretense of neutrality and seeking to cram Christianity into public schools across the state:

All Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in their curriculums, effective immediately, the state’s chief education officer announced in a memorandum Thursday.

At a State Board of Education meeting, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the Bible is “one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country.”

“It’s crystal clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters said.

Every classroom in the state from grades 5 through 12 must have a Bible and all teachers must teach from the Bible in the classroom, Walters said.

If there’s any glimmer of hope, it’s this: even in a state as conservative as Oklahoma, this blatant Christian nationalism isn’t going unchallenged. Multiple school districts are shrugging it off. And as recently as 2016, Oklahoma voters supported church-state separation, resoundingly rejecting a bid to strip a secular provision from the state constitution.

But leave that aside for the moment. The political leaders of Oklahoma are proclaiming that America is a Christian nation. What does that mean to them?

Here’s a clue. At the same time as they’re preaching pious myths about how the Bible is the source of our laws, Oklahoma is also considering outlawing homeless shelters across most of the state:

A bill proposed in Oklahoma would make it illegal for almost all cities in the state to provide homeless shelters or outreach and halt existing programs.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 484, introduced and authored by Sen. Lisa Standridge, R-Norman, would prevent municipalities in all cities with a population under 300,000 from using city resources to operate homeless shelters or perform homeless outreach.

Only two cities in Oklahoma have more than 300,000 residents — Oklahoma City and Tulsa — which means that if SB 484 passes, the measure would affect every other municipality in the state.

…The policy is similar to Oklahoma’s anti-camping law that took effect Nov. 1, 2024, which criminalizes camping on unauthorized state land or rights-of-way such as under bridges or alongside public roads and highways.

Taken together, these actions send a clear statement. Oklahoma’s deeply conservative government wants schools to teach kids about the Bible and Christianity. At the same time, they want to make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outdoors and also illegal to build places for them to sleep indoors. They don’t see any contradiction between these messages.

(And yes, Oklahoma was also one of the states that refused federal money for feeding hungry children.)

Here’s my question. If Oklahoma is set on teaching the Bible, are they going to mention verses like these?

“And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.”
—Leviticus 25:35

“For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.”
—Deuteronomy 15:11

“Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate.”
—Proverbs 22:22

Call me cynical, but I’m guessing these passages won’t be included in the public school curriculum. Christian nationalists only want to teach the good stuff – the biblical passages about stoning gay people, butchering heretics, and commanding women to submit to their husbands. They ignore, or outright reject, the parts of the Bible that are suspiciously liberal, like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, loving your enemies, and the meek inheriting the earth. That woke stuff has no place in their version of Christianity.

This is the state of Christianity in America today. Whether it’s Christians who burn with hate and prejudice toward refugees and immigrants – and thus aspire to be among those the Bible condemns to hell – or the Christians who demand more and harsher persecution of gay and transgender people, or the Christians who want to make it illegal for homeless people to exist… American Christians, especially right-wing evangelicals, are a bubbling cauldron of hate and rage.

They try to outdo each other in sadism; they compete to see who can show the most cruelty toward the oppressed and downtrodden. At the same time, they thump their breasts and proclaim their superiority because they’re believers.

However, it would be unfair to leave it at that and say that these people represent all American Christians, rather than only most of them. There are a few – all too few – Christians who stand out as beacons of compassion and decency. Like Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde, who enraged right-wingers with a post-inauguration sermon at Washington’s National Cathedral:

“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Budde said.

“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”

Worth noting, Budde is also the bishop who helped lay Matthew Shepard to rest. After his murder, Shepard’s parents were reluctant to inter his ashes in their hometown, for fear that the grave would be desecrated by bigots. Budde stepped in, offering them space at the Washington National Cathedral.

If more Christians were like Mariann Budde, I’d have written something different. Even if Christians were trying to take over the government, but actually cared about using that power to help the poor and the needy and to welcome refugees because the Bible tells them to, I’d be more conflicted.

But that’s not the world we live in. It’s the worst ones who are occupying the seats of power and setting the agenda, and that’s been true for a long time. Their religion is a dead tree leaning over a dry spring. Whatever love or kindness it ever had was thrown away long ago. There’s nothing left of it but a withered cult of hate and power.

Image credit: David Brossard via Flickr; released under CC BY-SA 2.0 license