The St. Isidore government Christian school was so thoroughly religious that its bylaws explicitly prohibited more than two non-Catholics from occupying seats on its board of directors. This was a public school that was set up to be directed by the Catholic Archbishop of Oklahoma City and the Catholic Bishop of Tulsa, with no religious dissent allowed – not even from Protestant Christians. This was a public school, created by the government, that planned to engage in religious discrimination in its hiring and leadership appointments.
Christian ideology and rituals infiltrated the entire curriculum of the St. Isidore government Christian school, with “online prayer services, scripture study through Lectio Devina, Visio Divina, the rosary, theology classes, study of the saints”. The school even made science classes religiously themed, reframed into the nonsensical “study of God’s well-ordered universe”.
The study of gods is inherently non-scientific, because science is based on evidence. There is no evidence for the existence of gods, demons, spirits, monsters, or any other supernatural creatures. A school of dentistry might as well try to teach its students the study of the Tooth Fairy’s magically constructed mandible. Agriculture students might as well be instructed to study the Easter Bunny’s influence on egg production on chicken farms. Schools like St. Isidore teach children nonsense and fantasy while pretending it’s real.
This tragic confusion was nowhere more clear in the St. Isidore school’s promise that it would teach “children to seek Truth through faith and reason”. If a person is seeking truth through faith, they are by definition not being taught how to properly apply the principles of reason. St. Isidore’s plan was to teach the children of Oklahoma to think and behave unreasonably.
The St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School did not exist before it received government funding from the state of Oklahoma, and it could not have operated without government funding. The state government of Oklahoma didn’t just give money to the Christian school. A state government organization actually worked with Catholic church to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in the first place.
The creation and funding of the St. Isidore Christian school was government establishment of religion, and as such, it was in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. That made the government religious school illegal.
It wasn’t just the Constitution of the USA that made the St. Isidore government religious school illegal. The school was in violation of the Constitution of the state government of Oklahoma as well.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court, however, ruled that the government creation and funding of the St. Isidore Christian school is in violation of the law. The court stated in its opinion, released today, that
“We hold that the St. Isidore Contract violates the Oklahoma Constitution, the Act, and the federal Establishment Clause… We first look to the Oklahoma Constitution. Article 2, Section 5 states: ‘No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.’
…The framers' intent is clear: the State is prohibited from using public money for the "use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion." Although a public charter school, St. Isidore is an instrument of the Catholic church, operated by the Catholic church, and will further the evangelizing mission of the Catholic church in its educational programs. The expenditure of state funds for St. Isidore's operations constitutes the use of state funds for the benefit and support of the Catholic church. It also constitutes the use of state funds for "the use, benefit, or support of . . . a sectarian institution." The St. Isidore Contract violates the plain terms of Article 2, Section 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution. Enforcing the St. Isidore Contract would create a slippery slope and what the framers' warned against--the destruction of Oklahomans' freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.
…Under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, made binding upon the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, Oklahoma cannot pass laws ‘which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another.’”
The Attorney General of Oklahoma responded to the judgment by saying, “The framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who drafted Oklahoma’s Constitution clearly understood how best to protect religious freedom: by preventing the State from sponsoring any religion at all.”
