It’s tempting to ask what members of the Ohio House of Representatives were thinking last week, but there is evidence they simply were not. They passed House Bill 486, which comes with the heavily coded moniker the “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act.”

It would “permit teachers in public schools and state institutions of higher education to provide instruction on the influence of Judeo-Christian values on history and culture.”

Those wondering whether instruction will include lessons on all people and groups who said they were acting in the name of “Judeo-Christian values” — good and bad — note this language in the bill:

“The teaching of the historical, POSITIVE (emphasis ours) impact of religion on American history is consistent with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. An accurate and historical account of the influence of Judeo-Christian values on the freedom and liberties ingrained in our culture is imperative to reducing ignorance of American history, hate, and violence within our society.”

Further, like children who know perfectly well they are doing wrong, and therefore loudly declare they are not, lawmakers also approved this language in the bill:

“Accurate historical instruction regarding verifiable, historical impacts of religion on American history is factual and is not proselytization or a violation of the First Amendment.”

In other words, they are screaming “it’s not what it looks like,” because they know perfectly well it looks like and IS the indoctrination against which our First Amendment warns so strongly.

A teacher doing his or her job — accurate historical instruction, as it were — will now have to worry they cannot teach students about the negative episodes in our country’s history spearheaded by those who said they were acting in the name of Judeo-Christian values. They will feel pressure to teach in a way no educator in our public schools should consider.

Imagine what Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin would have to say about the effort. For that matter, one wonders how Dr. Oz, Usha Vance or Kash Patel would weigh in.

“The bill flies in the face of the First Amendment because the government has no business endorsing or promoting a particular religious tradition,” state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, said.

But this bill passed on the same day the state Senate passed SB 34, “Enact the Historical Educational Displays Act,” which includes the Ten Commandments as one of the historical documents public schools must display.

In testifying against that measure, Rabbi Megan Doherty, of the National Council of Jewish Women, correctly argued it “will inevitably exclude students of minority faiths.”

Given the way some of our elected officials are voting these days, that may very well have been the intention.