Why did we see so much violence last week in Charlottesville, Virginia? Was it because white supremacists have become emboldened with an ally in the White House? Was it because people who have gotten so many breaks in life think they’re actually victims who must fight back?

Not according to Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. He knows exactly what caused the violence: Taking the Bible out of public schools.

He made his comments during an interview this week with West Virginia radio host Tom Roten:

Bevin linked the removal of religious education in public schools to the efforts to take down Confederate monuments, saying that taking the Bible out of schools is also a “dangerous” attempt to “scrub history” because “when you go back a couple of hundred years, in most instances the only textbooks that were in our public schools were the Bible.” “And it’s interesting,” he added, referring to the discussion of Charlottesville, “the more we’ve removed any sense of spiritual obligation or moral higher authority or absolute right and wrong, the more we’ve removed things that are biblically taught from society, the more we’ve seen the kind of mayhem that we were just discussing.”

Say it all together now: The Bible was never banned from public schools. What Bevin’s referring to are mandatory Christian prayers. How that rejects some part of our history, I don’t know. (And why are we trying to replicate our education system from hundreds of years ago?)

Bevin also seems to be under the impression that books don’t exist and the only way we can remember the past is through monuments honoring people who did horrible things. (Somehow, Germany understands its history just fine without statues of Hitler lining every block.)

Finally, he’s wrong to assume the Bible is the only way to tell right from wrong. Christians cause plenty of harm and secular people do a hell of a lot of good. Societies that are less religious also tend to be less violent.

The history of white supremacy is littered with biblical passages.

But Bevin has never been a student of history. Or logic. Or science. He thinks God is the solution to everything. Even societal problems that his own party is fomenting.

The governor, by the way, signed a bill last month allowing elective Bible courses in public schools. That in itself is not illegal, but unless students speak up, it’s hard to know if the classes consist of teaching or preaching.

(via Right Wing Watch)

