In the past couple of weeks, the place of Christianity in schools has become a hot topic of debate, most notably in Oklahoma, where a Catholic charter school plan gained steam only to be shot down by the state’s Supreme Court. Additionally, the state superintendent has essentially ordered schools to deliver instruction on the Bible. This all comes after Louisiana ordered classrooms to post the Ten Commandments. As religion is never far from the top of the list of divisive topics, these developments are inherently controversial. But is there any validity to the idea that religion plays a role in public schools? Should we teach the Bible?

The short answer is yes, but definitely not in the manner that is being pushed.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, is the one who ordered Bible instruction in schools. At first glance, his directive looks like a thinly veiled audition to be Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee, and it probably is. In an interview with U.S. News, Walters waded into every culture war trope there is, highlighted by the fact that he openly doesn’t believe in the constitutional nature of the separation of church and state. However, amid the generic Moms for Liberty talking points, he said something that even progressives have to agree with: “…we need to do a better job of teaching the Bible’s role in American history and, frankly, Western civilization history.”

To that end, Walters is correct. Whether you subscribe to Christian beliefs or not, they are pivotal to history in the West. From the Roman Empire to divine right, to the Crusades, to Manifest Destiny, it is impossible to contextualize history without understanding the role Christianity played.

Here is where the religious zealots are wrong:

• Not all of history is good.
• The Bible is only relevant in the way it relates to the secular world.

Genesis 9:18–27 and the Curse of Ham is worth a mention in U.S. history class because it was a passage widely used to justify the enslavement of Black people—a massive institution in the American South. On the other hand, a student will probably fare just fine without learning about Jonah and the whale. We don’t need comprehensive Bible instruction in school, just relative instruction.

While it is important to have a working knowledge of Christian theology, it is not necessary to turn class into a seminary. To that end, most students probably already learn most of what they need to know. Between church, pop culture, and the little bit of religious instruction kids receive in class, students typically already have the general idea. Quite ironically, the reason we don’t need to teach such things extensively is that people like Ryan Walters are right: the values are already baked into the American pie. We inately understand. I have taught history for 13 years. In my experience, when a student is hung up on a historical concept, it is very seldom related to a gap in Judeo-Christian knowledge. Not never, but certainly not frequent enough to warrant a massive top-down intervention.

Some people will say that one-off lessons on relevant passages and passively existing in America are not enough and that students need significant instruction to contextualize American history. Yet, a strange phenomenon has happened in the last couple of months. I have met dozens of experts on the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East despite them having never visited the area or cracked open a Quran. Often, they are the very same people on the other side of this argument.

There is nothing inherently wrong with talking about the Bible in public school. Relevant and timely instruction on Christianity’s impact on history is not going to run afoul of the establishment clause. It may even make a little pedagogical sense to give Christianity a bit more attention given the outsized role it plays in our society. But we must remember that despite certain religions’ outsized impact on society, we are still a society of many different cultures, and top-down mandates to study the majority religion in public schools muddy those waters.