The Freedom From Religion Foundation condemns the latest efforts by Texas Christian nationalists to force the bible and Christianity upon a captive audience of public school students, most recently by Mike Morath, commissioner of the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
Proposed teaching materials for elementary school English and language arts curriculum include biblical concepts such as the “Sermon on the Mount,” the life of “Jesus Christ” from birth to resurrection and biblical prophesies. “It sure reads like a bible class that you might get at a traditional Christian church,” Rice University Political Science Professor Bob Stein told Fox 45 News.
Morath absurdly told a Texas House Public Education Committee hearing on Monday that “The purpose [of including religion and religious stories] is to build vocabulary and not background knowledge.” Morath defended his decision to integrate Christian dogma into elementary curriculum by saying he seeks “to reinforce the kind of background knowledge on [literary] seminal works of the American cultural experience.” But the curriculum, which omits references to other religions, belies that claim.
“Half a million Texans are practicing Muslims, and this new state curriculum went through and deleted every mention of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed,” points out state Rep. James Talarico, named “Secularist of the Week” by FFRF’s legislative arm, FFRF Action Fund, for his strong secular advocacy.
Talarico made the point that the curriculum would teach kindergarten students that the “Golden Rule” is a core value of the bible, when in fact it is a cornerstone principle of many religions or life philosophies. The Texas Almanac reports that minimally more than 10 million persons in the state are not claimed by a religious group, who would be taxed to pay to have their children subjected to Christian propaganda and proselytizing. Those are among the reasons why Stein points out that curriculum would violate not only the Establishment Clause, but the Free Exercise Clause.
Today (Friday, Aug. 16) is the final day for members of the public to chime in on the proposed curriculum. Then it goes to the state board in November for final approval.
Texas leaders have long been determined to turn Texas public schools into Christian training grounds. During their last legislative session, the clock ran out on a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom, legislation copied and ultimately adopted this year by Louisiana, which FFRF is suing over.
The Texas Legislature last year passed a law requiring school boards to vote on whether to hire, or allow as a volunteer, an unlicensed religious chaplain to take the place of school counselors and social workers. The bill is clearly wildly unpopular among the vast majority of school boards throughout the state. During the last legislative session, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott relentlessly pushed his pet project: vouchers that would take away funds from public schools and direct them to private (usually religious) schools. It failed thanks to rural legislators who realized they would see no benefit to funding private schools in the big cities. Abbott has since bullied his way to getting closer to his objective to defund public education to fund religious schools. Hopefully at some point, Texans will grow tired of Abbott wasting taxpayer money.
“Unfortunately, powerful Christian nationalists in Texas seem to view their state as a petri dish to breed theocratic law,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “But the Texas Constitution clearly protects freedom of conscience and prohibits these unconstitutional schemes.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 40,000 members across the country, including more than 1,700 members in Texas. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
