BY : Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
An Ohio state lawmaker who spent years as a Baptist pastor before winning election to the state legislature is pushing a bill that would require public schools to teach the positive impact of “Judeo-Christian” values on American history, naming the legislation after the late conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk.
Gary Click, a 60-year-old Republican serving his third term in the Ohio House after serving as pastor of Fremont Baptist Temple, drafted the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act, or Ohio House Bill 486, and shepherded it through that chamber.
It is now before the state Senate.
The bill seeks to authorize teachers in public schools and instructors at state institutions of higher education to provide instruction on the positive impacts of religion on American history, without making it mandatory. It lists roughly two dozen examples of religion’s role in American civic life, from references to divine power in the Declaration of Independence and the religious affiliations of its signers to the influence of the evangelist Billy Graham.
The legislation includes 20 historical topics that may be covered, from the Pilgrims’ organization as a church and the religious implications of the Mayflower Compact to Benjamin Franklin’s appeal for prayer at the Constitutional Convention. It also lists the role of the Ten Commandm
Kirk, who built a national platform advocating for conservative education reform and was an occasional confidant of President Trump, backed the bill before his assasination last September, according to Foreign Policy Journal.
Click told NPR he named the legislation after Kirk because he believes Kirk was killed for promoting Christian principles and “the Christian history of our nation.”
Click rejected the argument that the bill constitutes a religious imposition, drawing a parallel to laws against murder or theft, which he said are consistent with biblical commandments without amounting to legislating religion.
Opponents of the bill are calling it unnecessary and historically lopsided.
ents in shaping American law, and the influence of religion on the civil rights movement through figures including Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The bill passed the state House of Representatives last November by a vote of 62 to 27, entirely along party lines.
State Rep. Sean Brennan, a Democrat from northeast Ohio who describes himself as a practicing Catholic, said he voted against the bill because he feels it risks deepening divisions in the country, claiming the country has “evolved” and is “more inclusive.”
Sarah Kaka, president of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies, an educator advocacy group, said she never encountered a teacher in Ohio who said the bill’s content was off-limits in the classroom and told the outlet the bill presents “a skewed perspective on history” that is “not balanced.”
Andrew Whitehead, a professor at Indiana University Indianapolis who studies religion in American political life, was quoted as saying that the movement behind such legislation represents “Christian nationalism,” which he defined as an effort to merge a particular form of Christianity with American civic institutions and to have government at every level defend that fusion.
Click said the term “Christian nationalism” is a “dog whistle” and “crisis language” designed to “take [people] back to this idea of you’re forcing your religion on us.”
A handful of other states have introduced similar legislation, though none has named a bill after Kirk.
Click served in many roles throughout his 30 years of ministry, including bus ministry, radio, Christian education and youth ministry, according to his profile. He has also served as a law enforcement chaplain.
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