The Oklahoma Catholic Conference has fired the opening salvo in what promises to be a new front in the battle to erase America's church-state dividing line. Such a fight has been long simmering just below headline level but is increasingly showing up in the commentary of religious conservatives who want to see Christianity play a more significant role in public schools, sporting events and politics in general.

Oklahoma Catholics want state approval to start up their own online charter school. It would have all the trappings of a traditional Catholic school curriculum, including religious instruction. The only difference is that the Catholic Conference wants Oklahoma taxpayers to fund it. The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted unanimously to reject the application, but that might not be the final word on the matter.

The Oklahoma City archdiocese appears intent on exercising its right to resubmit the application and reset the 30-day review clock, according to a report by the Catholic News Agency. Other schools have had their applications rejected on the first try before ultimately being approved, so this rejection might not be unusual, Brett Farley, executive director of the Oklahoma Catholic Conference, told the news agency.

But this isn't just any ol' charter school application. It proposes to cross the long-respected dividing line between church and state outlined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Religious conservatives insist the clause has been misinterpreted and that the Founding Fathers always intended America to be a Christian nation.

Culture war questions about abortion, gender identity, prayer in schools and even vaccination requirements are getting wrapped more and more in a religious context, with conservatives arguing that their rights of religious belief are violated when government forces them to accept laws that exceed the boundaries of their faith.

"I'm a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists," says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, says of her party. Republican Doug Mastriano, who ran for Pennsylvania governor in November, called the separation of church and state a "myth."

Regardless of the outcome in Oklahoma, it almost certainly won't be the final attempt to impose Christian doctrine on public schools while demanding that taxpayers fund it. Other nations have tried state sponsorship of religion, and it doesn't tend to go well. Once religion becomes interwoven in government, it becomes almost impossible to unweave it. And since the Constitution requires equal treatment, state funding would also have to extend to other religions, meaning taxpayers could be on the hook to pay for public schools teaching, say, Islamist doctrine.

Oklahoma's current charter regulations require schools to be nonsectarian in all instruction, admissions policies and operations — as it should be. Feeding souls are what churches, synagogues and mosques are all about. Public schools are for feeding brains, free of faith indoctrination. And they must stay that way.

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