Letters to the Editor: A Bible for Oklahoma schools? Thomas Jefferson had some ideas

To the editor: How fortunate for Oklahoma Supt. of Public Instruction Ryan Walters that there already exists a Bible that fulfills the stated desire to teach its “historic significance throughout this nation’s history.� (“Oklahoma amends request for Bibles that had matched Trump-promoted version,� Oct. 8)

It was completed around 1819 when the author removed the original’s “groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, and fanaticism and fabrications.� He left what he titled, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,� and it is more commonly known as the Jefferson Bible.

Along with the Declaration of Independence, it would constitute a “twofer� by the same author who wanted to remove the distractions and divisiveness of divinity and reveal the Bible’s valuable moral lessons.

How fortunate indeed, unless Walters’ original motivation was to just be a shill for the $60 Trump Bible.

S.H. Kardener, Santa Monica