Oklahoma governor signs order directing state to prioritize religious freedom

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 15:34 pm (CNA).

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt this week signed an executive order instructing state officials to ensure Oklahoma’s laws are “the most robust” in the nation at protecting religious freedom, with the governor also criticizing the state attorney general for attempting to block a proposed Catholic charter school there.

The order, announced on Monday, initiates a review of various state laws and policies to ensure they comply with religious freedom protections enshrined in both the U.S. Constitution and the Oklahoma Constitution.

The directive explicitly targets several state laws, including one requiring charter schools to be “nonsectarian” in their operations.

The order comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court began considering a proposed Oklahoma school that could be the nation’s first publicly-funded religious charter school. 

Oklahoma’s St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the state charter school board to open in 2023, but state Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the charter school board, arguing the charter school’s existence would constitute state support of a religion.

The ongoing litigation has since reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the landmark decision could reshape school choice and religious freedom in the U.S.

Drummond criticized the governor’s religious freedom order this week, citing concerns that taxpayers could be forced to support other religious institutions. 

“Gov. Stitt has been clear that he supports our tax dollars funding radical Muslim schools teaching sharia law, and I couldn’t disagree with him more,” Drummond said in a March 31 statement. 

“If a taxpayer-funded religious charter school is allowed to open in Oklahoma, it will only be a matter of time before taxpayers are funding schools dedicated to sharia law, Wicca indoctrination, scientology instruction — even the Church of Satan,” he alleged. 

“As a devoted Christian and a strong supporter of religious liberty, I can tell you that the only way to protect religious liberty is for the state not to sponsor any religion at all — just like our Founding Fathers intended,” Drummond continued.

Stitt in his executive order explicitly criticized what he calls Drummond’s “apparent hostility to religious liberty.”

“By filing lawsuits seeking to prevent the nation’s first religious charter school [from] opening its doors, Oklahoma’s attorney general has fought against Oklahomans’ religious liberty with a zeal and aggressiveness that suggests animosity towards religion and religious liberty,” Stitt wrote.

Stitt’s executive order further requires that state officials not restrict access to public programs on the basis of a person’s or entity’s religious nature.

The executive order instructs “that no individual or entity shall be excluded from participation in, or denied access to, any public benefit, program, or funding solely on the basis of their religious character or affiliation or intended religious use of such benefits.”

“Religious freedom is foundational to our way of life in Oklahoma,” Stitt said this week. “It’s not a privilege handed out by the government — it’s a God-given right that the government must protect.”

“We will not stand by while faith-based organizations — including faith-based schools — are pushed to the sidelines by activist bureaucrats or hostile politicians,” he said.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263099/oklahoma-governor-signs-order-directing-state-to-prioritize-religious-freedom