We all know of and despise Ryan Walters, the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Oklahoma. He’s a Christo-Fascist of the worst kind who has been striving to destroy public education in his state.

He has tried to purchase Trump Bibles for public schools, eventually settling for sending a few hundred to AP Government teachers who don’t need them.

He rewrote the social studies standards to indoctrinate children with revisionist pro-Christian mythology, got the state’s Board of Education to approve those standards without telling them he made additional changes, got sued over it, and got blocked from implementing those standards by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

He used public money to fund a religious charter school, a decision the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court later voted not to overturn that decision.

Despite a statewide teacher shortage, he said that teachers transferring from blue states like California had to take a special “America First” test to gauge their level of patriotism. The whole charade was just a publicity stunt for the right-wing group PragerU.

He sued an atheist group for warning public schools that they needed to follow the law and not allow staffers to push religion on kids. A judge dismissed that frivolous lawsuit with a blistering takedown of his pathetic arguments.

He also tried forcing teachers to make the Bible part of their curriculum, tried to put Christian chaplains in public schools, tried to mandate displays of the Ten Commandments in those schools, claimed the Tulsa Race Massacre had nothing to do with race, falsely insisted that President Joe Biden wanted “to destroy our Christian faith,” formed a faith committee to examine prayer in public schools, appointed the troll who runs Libs of TikTok to a statewide library advisory board, and sent out a “sample prayer” for teachers to use for the people of Israel (and definitely not the innocent people living in Gaza).

He pissed off Republicans in his own party, too. They said he was withholding $150 million for security enhancements that had already been allocated to public schools, hiding information about how he spent taxpayer dollars for his office’s travel budget, failing to fulfill open records requests in a timely manner, and refusing to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers for students. (Alas, there were not enough votes to impeach him.)
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Just this week, he announced that every high school in the state would have a chapter of Turning Point USA in honor of Charlie Kirk, even though Walters has no actual ability to force schools to launch extracurricular groups and even though high school students already have the ability to start their own chapters if they want to.

But wait, I said this was good news. It is! Ryan Walters is resigning!

Walters, 40, said Wednesday night on Fox News that he is stepping down as state superintendent of public instruction to become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that says it assists educators “in their mission to develop free, moral, and upright American citizens.”

“We’re going to destroy the teachers unions,” Walters said on Fox. “We have seen the teachers unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools.”

It is fitting that he is stepping down to join a fanatical, conservative, anti-teacher organization. May he wither away in his new bubble of contempt and hatred for education — it’s where he belongs.

Now the big question: will he be replaced by someone sane? It’s Oklahoma, so probably not.

We were always in favor of separation of church and state — I still am — and I never cared for these phony Christian charities that were providing evangelical nonsense and calling it genuine aid. But I am compelled to admit that some Christian charities were mostly sincere and were really supplying relief to communities in trouble, especially after disasters struck (some saw it as an opportunity to do nothing but PR, but let’s not tar every charity with the same ugly brush). Keep religion out of government, but if a church is actually providing helpful social services, they deserve compensation from the state…for that, but not for preaching or prayer.

Unfortunately, there are some who want to use secularism selectively applied to punish Christian charity and liberalism. Mike Flynn clearly did a search, not for corruption or abuse of funds, but for a Christian denomination he doesn’t like, to declare that they shouldn’t get government support. Lutheran Family Services must be very bad, because they assist refugees and immigrants. Of course Elon Musk agrees.

(Disclaimer: I was brought up Lutheran, but got out of there as fast as I could, and do not have a special place in my heart for Lutheran anything.)

I might be willing to go along with calling supporting Christian charities illegal payments, but only if the term was applied to all religious sects, all missionary efforts, and all religious outreach, as a way to close the loopholes that allow some churches to buy private jets so they can deliver Bibles to starving people. But I don’t know, “Lutheran immigration and refugee service” and “Lutheran social services” sound pretty benign. I’d want more evidence that they were abusing the system than that a notorious kook and fanatic searched for the religion in a table of funding payments. This is just naked sectarianism, a little sabre-rattling to start a holy war.

And DOGE is an even worse criminal enterprise, trying to benefit billionaires by ripping apart the social safety net.

I got the usual email from American Atheists, and Melina Cohen brought up an interesting contrast.

First, on Monday, there was Reverend Lorenzo Sewell, whose benediction has been variously described as “spirited” and “cringeworthy.” Sewell, a born-again adherent of charismatic Christianity and a favorite of the religious far-right, appropriated the tone and cadence of revivalists and plagiarized entire sections of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Afterward, he received a hug from Trump and announced the launch of his cryptocurrency memecoin, $LORENZO: “I need you to do me a favor to go and get that coin for us to accomplish the vision that God has called us to do on earth.”

The next morning, there was Bishop Mariann E. Budde, the leader of the Episocopal Diocese of Washington who asked the president to “have mercy” for immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Later, Trump rebuked Budde, calling her a “so-called Bishop,” a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” and demanding she apologize. Representative Mike Collins of Georgia went further, saying Budde “should be added to the deportation list.” Even Sewell stepped away from his budding crypto venture to accuse Budde of “theological malpractice.”

I missed that little detail of the inauguration because I didn’t give a fuck about the inauguration, but that surprised me: the guy they brought in to do the prayer used the time to announce his memecoin grift? And a Republican is threatening to deport a bishop who preached mundane Christian platitudes?

The closer you look at this administration, the more fractally corrupt they are.

I’m bewildered. I’m an anti-theist, so it makes me uncomfortable when I see a priest acting charitably and kindly and proposing that people should follow a higher moral calling. I am forced to admit that there are good people in the priesthood. Like Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their spouses were in attendance for the church service at the progressive institution, and had to listen as the Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop at the cathedral, delivered a direct appeal to the president to conclude her sermon.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families—some who fear for their lives,” Budde said, but didn’t stop at LGBTQ rights, going on to address Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals—they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” Budde continued.

The bishop then called on Trump “to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

I did have some of my biases confirmed, because Trump and Vance squirmed and scowled and generally acted like demons listening to the Lord’s Prayer. The words burned! You can tell they’re already dreaming of their vengeance, because how dare an Episcopalian bishop suggest that citizens should not fear for their lives? Their little gang of followers sitting behind them look stupefied.

Of course, Trump went home and banged out a rant, demanding an apology. He’s not used to people criticizing him.

The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!

Lies from beginning to end. “So-called Bishop”? How dare she bring politics into a prayer for the presidential inauguration? There has not been a giant crime wave caused by immigrants. The service couldn’t have been that boring, since she stirred up a few members of the crowd.

She is pretty good at her job, since she made this hard-core atheist feel some charity towards her faith.

Now, please, if only our media would stop pandering to the madman and publish sincere criticisms of him every time he plays the petty tyrant, that is, every day. Make him squirm all the time.

Ken Ham is proud to announce that Answers in Genesis will be celebrating a non-Woke Christmas.

It wasn’t that long ago that woke was just a word I used in the context of “waking up” after being asleep. Now the word woke has permeated our culture with various meanings, including believing in what are called “progressive” (actually anti-God) values.

Over the past couple of years, many organizations and companies have been described as becoming “woke,” which usually means they have greatly restricted or abolished freedom for those with a truly Christian worldview. And in recent times, we’ve seen considerable backlash against various companies because of their woke positions (which often result in pushing a transgender ideology, etc.). But really, the woke agenda is driven by a secular/anti-Christian worldview based on man’s word rather than God’s Word!

As I often remind people, believing in a literal Genesis 1–11 is the key to being “woke-proof,” as Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for marriage, gender, and, in fact, everything! I tell people that Answers in Genesis is a “non-woke” organization and our Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are “non-woke” attractions.

As the culture becomes more secular, woke, and permeated by moral relativism, Answers in Genesis and our two attractions exist like a beautiful oasis in a desert environment increasingly devoid of biblical truth.

Well, isn’t that nice. AiG finds comfort in reducing the Bible to one page at the beginning of the book, and discouraging people from exploring further. After all, if they read the New Testament they might be introduced to a radical Woke character who encouraged tolerance and change. Although, if you browse YouTube, you might find a lot of loud evangelical preachers who are trying desperately to tell listeners that Jesus wasn’t actually tolerant, and that his values, and yours, are more properly founded in hate.

Right now, I’m seeing a lot of journalists joining Ham in repudiating “woke”. It’s silly. They don’t understand what “woke” is or that the Democrats were not particularly “woke” in the last campaign, so I’m seeing claims that “woke” fueled dissension, and that the liberal side was focused on arguing identity politics.

And so this narrative of succumbing to “Big Woke”, according to the American journalist Jack Mirkinson, “bears virtually no resemblance to the actual campaign we all just suffered through”. Woke talking points were a key part not of Harris’s campaign but of Trump’s – he said that Harris suddenly “became a Black person” to capitalise on her race, and his campaign spent millions on ads about transgender rights. Welcome to the culture war – where only the right is really fighting, and the other side is helping it out by punching itself in the face.

Except that Harris ran a centrist campaign, and liberals don’t argue about pronouns — if I’m told what pronoun someone prefers, I accept it and we’re done. The only people fighting over pronouns are the far right weirdos who want everyone to conform to their dogma and stereotypes, like Ken Ham.

I’m going to continue to be “woke,” as long as that means aspiring to a just and equitable world. If that means accepting a “secular/anti-Christian worldview,” then so be it — it’s a stance I’m already comfortable with.