Why Some Christians Don’t Want to Bring the Bible Into Public Schools

As the idea of incorporating the Bible into classrooms gains traction, concerns about the mission of public schools — and differences across the faith — have led even some conservative Christians to push back.

In Caddo, Okla., a two-block stretch of the small town contains churches of at least four denominations, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and nondenominational. More than four in five voters in the neighboring counties went Republican in the last national election.

This rural region near the border with Texas might seem an ideal testing ground for an emerging but highly contested campaign by conservative officials to expand the role of religion in children’s education and mandate that history, literature and even math classes teach the Bible to students in grades five to 12.

Yet even here, the plans are not being embraced. Rather, they are finding unexpected opposition.

“It’s one thing that has shocked me,” said Lee Northcutt, the superintendent of Caddo Public Schools. “How many truly have said, ‘That’s why we have eight, nine, 10 churches in town. They can do that.’”

Parents have told him, “That’s my job,” he added. And one teacher who serves as a preacher told him “flat out, ‘No. We shouldn’t do that,’” Mr. Northcutt recalled.

Over the last several years, some conservative Christian politicians and organizations have sought to accelerate a national movement to bring prayer and religious texts into classrooms. Many evangelicals and Catholics oppose what they view as liberal orthodoxy in school curriculums. They would like the country’s democracy to be explicitly grounded in Christian values.