Fox News host Rich Edson warned Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters that he was “opening the door” for Satanism by pushing for religious-based charter schools.
In a Sunday interview, Walters defended his call for the U.S. Supreme Court to find in favor of taxpayers funding a Catholic charter school.
“The reality is, is there’s no separation of church and state in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence,” Walters told Edson. “So when the Catholic Church has come forward and said, we want to start a religious charter school that can be a tremendous school for parents across the state, we of course said, yes, we are excited about it.”
The Fox News host, however, pointed to a flaw in Walters’ plan.
“When he announced the challenge, the attorney general said if the Supreme Court sided with what you’re saying, it would open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan,” Edson cautioned. “Are you comfortable with a decision that could open the way for giving the power to the Oklahoma State School Board, but also what about the San Francisco School Board and the Chicago School Board and the Portland School Board?”
“Our attorney general is dead wrong on that,” Walters snapped. “That is completely untrue. Absolutely not.”
“We have a clear application process that says you’ve got to be a successful school, you’ve got to be a school that parents want, you have to have a track record and an application there,” he added. “Again, Satanism isn’t a religion. Look, I know the left tries to act like it is.”
“It’s not. Satanism is not a religion,” Walters insisted. “We have other schools that absolutely would not meet this criteria.”