GOP Sen. Lankford: The Bible Should ‘Absolutely’ Be Taught in Schools as a Cultural and Historical Document

EXCERPT:

LANKFORD: "Well, let me tell you a couple of things that we are doing in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, we are allowing students to be able to do off-campus religious education. If they want to have actual religious education, they can do that off-campus. It's an elective, like choir or band or any other number of electives that are out there, art. They can get a chance to be able to do also off-campus religious education. So, any conversation about the Bible shouldn't be a religious tone. I'm — people know that, my Christian faith has impacted my life dramatically, and I am the primary teacher to my children of my faith. That shouldn't be a public schoolteacher to do that. But, saying that, the Bible is also a part of Western civilization and part of our founding. Many of our Founders were very passionate about Scripture and about the Bible and studied it. So, as a historical document, as a cultural document, it absolutely should be taught in schools. As a religious document, that's up to parents and to faith leaders off-campus."