The Texas State Board of Education has adopted a new curriculum for elementary school students infused with stories from the Bible.
In participating school districts, kindergarten students will learn Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and art lessons will focus on works inspired by the Book of Genesis.
A year later, they’ll learn “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” from the New Testament, and by fifth grade they’ll have studied the life of Jesus, the focus of Christianity in the Roman Empire, and a psalm from the Old Testament distributed as a lesson on poetry.
This state-sponsored religion is a direct violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution. It also goes against the “parental rights” platform Republicans have based their education policies on.
Parents of public school students will not decide whether their children receive this new Christian curriculum. Their school district will decide for them — and they’ll get paid if they choose to teach the Bible.
Texas House Bill 1605, passed by Republicans and signed into law by Gov. Abbott, reimburses school districts up to $60/student for supplying new textbooks and other resources in line with the state-approved curriculum.
To be clear, this is not just an alternative educational curriculum. It’s another mile marker on Christian nationalism’s marathon to turn the halls of education into an assembly line for indoctrinated youth — and your state could be next.
Both Texas and Indiana have passed laws allowing public schools to replace certified, qualified mental health counselors with religious chaplains.
Indiana also just elected a lieutenant governor — Micah Beckwith — who has publicly advocated for Christian nationalism, civil war, and killing LGBTQ+ people. He’s currently threatening to defund school districts for not inviting him to share his views in classrooms.
In Louisiana, Republicans are in court attempting to follow through on a new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be on the wall of every public school classroom. The Texas legislature is pursuing their own law with the same objective.
A similar policy from Oklahoma’s Heritage Foundation-backed superintendent, Ryan Walters, is also being challenged. Walters wants to require the Bible, specifically the Donald Trump version of the Bible, in public schools.
Speaking of that Bible, a new MAGA version was just released that comes with Donald Trump’s name ENGRAVED in the cover.
According to Heritage Foundation President and Council for National Policy member Kevin Roberts in his book Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington, the future of public education depends on prioritizing religion and “our Western traditions” over teaching science and critical thinking.
Students, he says, should no longer feel forced to learn but instead be treated as “precious beings made in the image of God.”
This is a clear difference between Christians and Christian nationalists. A Christian knows that children can both be educated and believe in God. A Christian nationalist demands one over the other.
Republicans like to believe that Christian nationalism is a conspiracy theory by the left, but you can find it described clearly by the GOP mega-donors who want to rebrand it as the New Conservative Movement or National Conservatism.
The first is the name adopted by J.D. Vance and Kevin Roberts for today’s Republican Party. The second, National Conservatism, is partly the work of J.D. Vance’s top supporter, Peter Thiel. Its doctrine states that “where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.”
Asking for a Kleenex is the same as asking for a tissue. And whether you call it “National Conservatism” like Thiel, the “New Conservative Movement” like Vance, or “Christian nation-ism” like Russell Vought, what you’re supporting is Christian nationalism: imposing your religious rule over all other Americans.
This issue cannot be ignored. Christian nationalists are in the final stages of a nationwide takeover, one state at a time. Education is arguably their most important target.
Kevin Roberts’ book reveals that the efforts to Christianize education are far more advanced than we realized.
Religious institutions and extremists have already introduced their own test to replace the SAT and ACT, started printing their own textbooks, and even concocted a plan to form new Council for National Policy / Hillsdale College-controlled private schools across the country. School choice / voucher programs will surely fund these new institutions.
It is absolutely devastating that our leaders and our media have not done more to combat groups like the Council for National Policy, the Heritage Foundation, and Project 2025.
They have been planning this for over four decades, and so few Americans understand what Christian nationalism is that we still have to explain it in order to talk about it at all.
In two months, our country as we know it will begin to be written away. We’re doing all we can to make sure people understand what’s coming and why. Your support makes our work possible.
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Deprogram America