Oklahoma superintendent vows to 'fight the radical myth of separation of church and state'

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters on Tuesday vowed to bring Christian prayer back into his state's public schools and suggested that the notion of church-state separation in the United States was a "myth."

Writing on Twitter, Walters linked to a story about a recent speech he delivered to the "Pray, Vote, Stand" summit in Washington D.C. where he called for bringing back prayer in schools and argued that "there is no separation of church and state in the constitution or declaration of independence, it doesn't exist."

Commenting on this speech, Walters wrote, "We will bring God and prayer back in schools in Oklahoma, and fight back against the radical myth of separation of church and state."

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In fact, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution explicitly states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

In addition to this, American founding father Thomas Jefferson elaborated on the First Amendment in a letter sent in 1802 in which he said that the amendment's purpose was to build "a wall of separation between Church and State."

Walters has long courted controversy with his ambitions to bring religion back into American classrooms, and last year he vowed to force Oklahoma teachers to undergo "patriotic education" that was based on "Judeo-Christian values."