Guest column: Can we quit claiming Oklahoma, please?

Good people of the state, it appears we have changed hands again. In a public event shortly after the election results confirmed him for a second term, Stitt publicly prayed, “Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus” with the “spiritual authority” that God gives him.

For those who have forgotten, this land was first the home of indigenous peoples, who had it taken from them and reassigned for the tribes forced here on the Trail of Tears. It was proposed at one time to be a state of, for and by freed slaves. Eventually, all of those on this land were told by the United States government that it would be open to all with rights protected under the Constitution, a document whose first rights guarantee that no one religion will be established.

Now our state appears to be being claimed in the name of Jesus by our governor through a theopolitical movement called Dominionism. This movement comes in part from a radical interpretation of a segment of Hebrew scripture that indicates humankind is to "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:26, KJV). In this case, “dominion” is not about stewardship but rather control. It is the imperial flag staked into the ground to tell all who see it that his land belongs to Jesus, in all ways. These principles, mixing religion and social power, are the very same principles that allowed and justified systems such as slavery, religious persecution, the conquest of lands via manifest destiny, and worse. They lead to the same types of behaviors of conquest we have seen for thousands of years, behaviors that lead to the stripping away of autonomy for those under new rule, the burying of culture and history, and of forced assimilation.

Are the temples and synagogues and mosques now to be re-branded? Are the soil, bricks and mortars of our school buildings and halls of justice to be sanctified for use only with Christian prayer and principal? This new action calls to mind that moment when state leaders made a big show several years ago in their unnecessary “fight against Sharia.” Perhaps this is the conceit made clear, that some leaders simply believe that only Christianity is acceptable here?

We have a beautiful, diverse state full of people of all ways of thinking and believing. As an interfaith leader, I can only see these recent words by our leader as insults to the communities my organization serves, a message that the diverse communities of belief and no belief are or will be subsumed under a single umbrella of state religion. As someone who tries to follow the teachings of Jesus, I am disgusted by the thought process that leads anyone to claim “every square inch” of land that people of a multitude of beliefs walk every day for one single deity. I just don’t find support for this approach in Jesus’ own words. I hope our governor understands that leadership is about service to all rather than conquest for one.

Dr. Noel Jacobs is a clinical psychologist and president of The Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Gov. Stitt has forgotten Oklahoma first belonged to indigenous peoples