The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling out Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for inappropriately using his secular office to promote Christianity in public schools.
In a letter sent today, FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line urged Paxton to retract a press statement in which he pressured Texas schools to set aside time for prayer and bible reading and even said students should recite the Lord’s Prayer, found in the New Testament. Paxton’s injunctions come under the color of the newly enacted Senate Bill 11, which allows school boards to adopt policies setting aside time for voluntary prayer and the reading of the bible or other religious texts. However, school boards must still vote on whether to do so.
“Texas public schools exist to educate, not indoctrinate,” writes Line. “When you use your official position to instruct children to pray ‘as taught by Jesus Christ,’ you send a message to Texas students and families that the state favors Christianity over all other religions and over nonreligion. This is precisely what the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids.”
Paxton’s statement, released Sept. 2, declared that he wants “the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up” in classrooms. He further claimed that the nation was “founded on the rock of Biblical Truth” and denounced critics of his Christian nationalist efforts as “twisted, radical liberals.”
FFRF points out that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down government-sponsored prayer in schools, in decisions going back more than 60 years.
“Children are already free to pray on their own or read the bible privately,” Line notes. “But government officials may not pressure or coerce schoolchildren to participate in prayer, or promote one religion’s practices above all others.”
FFRF warns that Paxton’s rhetoric crosses a constitutional line and could embolden school boards to adopt coercive practices that marginalize nonChristian and nonreligious students.
“Ken Paxton is trying to turn Texas classrooms into Sunday schools,” comments FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Children deserve an education free from religious coercion. The Constitution, not the bible, is the foundation of our democracy — and it protects the freedom of conscience of every student.”
FFRF vows to monitor the implementation of SB 11 and support Texas families if their rights are violated.
“The solid foundation of our country is not biblical truth, but rather our secular Constitution that protects the rights of all Americans — Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, the nonreligious, and everyone else — to believe as they choose without government interference or favoritism,” the letter concludes.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 1,800 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
