Ryan Walters Takes Holy Aim at ‘Radical Atheists’

It’s time to pray for Prague students.

Well, at least the ones who don’t want the conservative rural Oklahoma version of the Christian religion stuffed down their throats each morning.

A few weeks back, KFOR Channel 4 reported that Prague Elementary School was organizing “student-led (wink wink) prayers” over the intercom each morning in an effort to promote one religion over all others and, I assume, guilt, shame and indoctrinate students into following and participating in the Christian faith.

I guess word about the forced morning prayer ritual got around to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Their pesky lawyers sent Prague Public Schools a letter demanding it stop the compulsory worship ceremony because it violates that hallowed and pesky document that all rural Oklahomans hold near and dear to their hearts – the US Constitution.

The school district’s attorney – Justin Cliburn – got the letter and actually agreed with it. As a result, the school promptly stopped the contrived “student-led” prayers that were likely organized by holy roller parents, school leaders and other religious zealots, and everyone went along with their day.

Here’s a snippet:

“Your letter addressed Prague Elementary School students’ beginning the school day by praying for the school over the school’s public address system and the District’s subsequent social media posts identifying the students by name and image,” Cliburn said. “The District agrees that the posts and prayer are inappropriate for a public school district. It will ensure neither occurs in the future and will delete any District social media posts referencing the same.”

Never letting the opportunity to pander to religious conservatives go to waste, Oklahoma State Education Stooge Ryan Walters has now latched onto the obviously contrived controversy and is using it as an opportunity to showcase his abject stupidity.

He released a patented video rant yesterday chastising the district for “backing down to a radical atheist group.”

He vowed to never let “Atheism” become a state-sponsored religion and promised to “continue to fight for religious freedom and liberty freedom” in Oklahoma schools by – checks notes – forcing students to pray to his preferred deity each morning.

Check out this lunacy:

First of all, as an agnostic-athiest and fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I’m going to consider Ryan’s use of “radical” as a compliment.

“Whoa, Cowabunga dude! Check out those radical atheists over there! They look cool, chill and don’t care about your religious beliefs unless you try to impose them on other people. Cool people, huh? Let’s see if they want some pizza!”

Seriously, I know Ryan’s an idiot and everything, but he’s aware that the whole point of atheism is that it isn’t a religion, right?

It’s not as if all the atheists meet up each Sunday morning to eat crackers, drink grape juice, and then listen to some old dude teach moral lessons from a 2,000-year-old anthology of fables and myths.

Atheism doesn't have its own uniform set of beliefs, rituals or forced indoctrination of kids each morning while they’re captive inside the classroom. In its simplest form, it’s simply the acknowledgment of the mystery and uncertainty of why we’re all here and what happens when it’s over.

In a way, I guess that’s the challenge of interpreting Ryan Walters's social media videos. Is he really that stupid, and does he really believe that atheism is a religion and that it’s okay to force prayer upon public school students each morning? Or, is he simply pandering to stupid religious people who believe that atheism is a religion and that it’s okay to force prayer upon public school students each morning?

If I had to choose, I'd say it’s probably both.

Anyway, as opposed to Ryan Walters, I’d like to thank Prague Public Schools for caving to, uhm, George Soros, Atheist Radicals and the US Constitution and eliminating its forced prayer rituals.

Although it may suck for religious zealots who live in the area and want to force their beliefs on young and vulnerable minds, there are fortunately many churches in the area where they can meet up and do just that.

Also, it will be interesting to see if a more devout rural public school district that’s run by religious zealots tries to implement its own “student-led" prayer initiative with, of course, the sole intent of not backing down, taking it to the courts, and wasting Oklahoma taxpayer dollars in the process.

If so, we’ll keep their non-Christian students in our thoughts and prayers.

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.