{"id":24705,"date":"2024-10-08T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=24705"},"modified":"2024-10-08T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:23:06","slug":"so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","title":{"rendered":"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24696\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24696\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24696\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24696\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock | Inset: Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The state of Oklahoma remains under scrutiny as it prepares to enact State Superintendent Ryan Walters\u2019 plan to include the Bible as part of public schools\u2019 educational requirements. The state opened up a Request for Proposal (RFP) for companies to supply 55,000 Bibles to the state\u2019s Department of Education on Monday. The RFP\u2019s list of requirements for the Bibles, however, is raising some eyebrows. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25184836-02_-_attachment_a_bibles?responsive=1&amp;title=1\">document,<\/a> Bibles for the state must be King James Version and include the Old and New Testament, not include any Biblical commentary or supplemental reading to maintain historical use of the Bible, be bound in leather or leather-like material for durability, \u00a0and include copies of the US Pledge of Allegiance, the US Declaration of Independence, the US Bill of Rights, and the US Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oklahoman.com\/story\/news\/2024\/10\/04\/donald-trump-supported-bible-one-of-few-that-meets-ryan-walters-criteria-for-ok-classrooms\/75510021007\/\"><em>The Oklahoman<\/em><\/a>, a Bible with such specific requirements is extremely hard to find, with a vendor at Mardel Christian &amp; Education, which carries nearly 3,000 Bibles, being unable to find a single Bible that would match the criteria. Two Bibles, however, that would meet the criteria, are connected to the former President Donald Trump: Lee Greenwood\u2019s God Bless the USA Bible, which Trump himself has endorsed and has been referred to as the \u201cTrump Bible\u201d, and the We the People Bible, which Donald Trump, Jr. has endorsed. Neither comes with a cheap price tag either, costing $60 and $90 respectively. Donald Trump also receives a small fee for his endorsement of the God Bless the USA Bible. Walters has been an avid supporter of the former president, adding on an appearance of a conflict of interest to the requirements.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Walters requested $3 million for the Oklahoma Department of Education to purchase Bibles for classrooms. Exactly how many classrooms will receive Bibles is unclear, as Walters has clarified that he would like the Bibles to be in classes teaching history and literature, despite having said in the past that he would like a Bible in every public school classroom. There are currently 43,000 classroom teachers in the state, making the requested 55,000 Bibles seem high. Oklahoma State Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican like Walters, <a href=\"https:\/\/kfor.com\/news\/local\/lawmaker-calls-for-ag-opinion-comprehensive-investigation-after-walters-seeks-state-purchase-of-bibles-resembling-trump-promoted-bible\/\">has requested<\/a> that the state\u2019s Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, determine if Walters is legally able to draw funds from the Department of Education\u2019s payroll expenses to spend on Bibles instead. The state has saved money on payroll expenses during Walters\u2019 tenure with 130 people having been fired or resigning. McBride was critical of the turnover. \u201cWe needed the staff. They need to have the staff to operate efficiently. It\u2019s obvious they\u2019re not operating efficiency efficiently,\u201d he said. Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson stated the RFP may violate state law due to the Bible standards limiting competition from bidders. \u201cIt appears to me that this bid is anything but competitive,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt adds to the basic specification other requirements that have nothing to do with the text. The special binding and inclusion of government documents will exclude almost all bidders. If the bid specs exclude most bidders unnecessarily, I could consider that a violation.\u201d The current Attorney General has not commented on the requests.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state of Oklahoma remains under scrutiny as it prepares to enact State Superintendent Ryan Walters\u2019 plan to include the Bible as part of public schools\u2019 educational requirements. The state opened up a Request for Proposal (RFP) for companies to supply 55,000 Bibles to the state\u2019s Department of Education on Monday. The RFP\u2019s list of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":24696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,157,74,2443],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-bible","category-religious-freedom","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The state of Oklahoma remains under scrutiny as it prepares to enact State Superintendent Ryan Walters\u2019 plan to include the Bible as part of public schools\u2019 educational requirements. The state opened up a Request for Proposal (RFP) for companies to supply 55,000 Bibles to the state\u2019s Department of Education on Monday. The RFP\u2019s list of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-08T14:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid","og_description":"The state of Oklahoma remains under scrutiny as it prepares to enact State Superintendent Ryan Walters\u2019 plan to include the Bible as part of public schools\u2019 educational requirements. The state opened up a Request for Proposal (RFP) for companies to supply 55,000 Bibles to the state\u2019s Department of Education on Monday. The RFP\u2019s list of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-10-08T14:23:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid","name":"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg","datePublished":"2024-10-08T14:23:06+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-08T14:23:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/trump-bible-oklahoma_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-PublicDomain.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock | Inset: Public Domain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/so-called-trump-bible-appears-to-benefit-from-oklahoma-bible-bid#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"So-Called \u201cTrump Bible\u201d Appears to Benefit from Oklahoma Bible Bid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","caption":"rdewing"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24714,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24705\/revisions\/24714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}