The separation of church and state is getting blurry: Texas’ new Bible teaching policy could have sweeping impacts
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
This is an excerpt from Beatitudes, eight blessings that, according to The Bible, were recounted by Jesus.
It’s also now mandatory reading for Texas state schools after its board of education controversially voted last month to require Bible stories to be taught from kindergarten through to the final year of high school.
It could have implications nationally too. As the second-largest buyer of textbooks in the U.S., Texas holds outsized influence over what school book publishers produce. If companies want a share of the state’s massive education budget, they often tailor their materials to meet Texas’s demands. And that influence extends far beyond its own borders as other states, encouraged by religious advocacy groups, take note and push similar policies.
The result is a growing challenge to the separation of church and state, a foundational principle of the U.S. Constitution.
The new Texas curriculum, passed by a Republican-led board by a 9-4 vote along party lines, will see students as young as six hear Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Noah’s Ark, and David and Goliath, taught in English classes.
In a statement, Rachel Laser, President and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the votes were “yet another example of Texas politicians pushing Christianity on … schoolchildren.” She said state schools should not force children to read Bible stories and that the policies represented a broader movement to impose one narrow set of religious beliefs “and indoctrinate a new generation of Americans in the lie that America is a Christian country.”
Laser’s warning is clear: This isn’t just a Texas problem. In an email to The Independent, she said: “Religious extremists in other states love to copy Texas. In the years after Texas started pushing for every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments, inviting public schools to install religious chaplains, and trying to ban books and lessons that feature diverse perspectives, copycat states followed. We expect more states to require Bible readings in public schools — until the courts stop to it.”
In Tennessee, a bill introduced earlier this year would require state schools to teach the Bible as literature.
Last year, Texas passed a bill requiring all state schools to display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. A group of parents sued, but in April a federal appeals court ruled against them. The case became a flashpoint in the broader argument over whether the laws breach the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, a legal barrier designed to stop the government from privileging one faith over another. The families plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court – which in 1980 found school displays of the Ten Commandments unconstitutional – to reverse the lower court’s decision.
According to Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group that supports religious freedom, social conservatives first launched a concerted effort to take control of the state board of education in the early 1990s.
It said the board’s far-right bloc has in the past opposed teaching students responsible sex education, dismissed concerns about climate change, and demanded biology textbooks included creationist arguments against evolution.
Spokesman Andrew Freeman told The Independent that the big concern for groups like his is that the inclusion of Bible stories comes at the exclusion of other religions.
What’s more, he said one of the Texas curriculum advisors is the founder of a Christian Nationalist organization.
