12/03/2024
The Texas Board of Education just narrowly voted 8-7 to teach the Holy Bible in elementary schools across the state - and everything from the Sermon on the Mount to the story of Moses to passages from the Book of Genesis are in the recently approved lesson plans and coursework.
The vote set off a firestorm of controversy all across the state, with critics swarming school board meetings and decrying the new lesson plans as thinly-veiled proselytizing, but advocates argue that a thorough understanding of Christian theology is necessary to understand the history and legal framework of the United States.
Did public school just get one step closer to Sunday school?
Education or Indoctrination?
The state-developed curriculum was the subject of much scrutiny and debate for months ahead of its November 22 passage. Scores of parents and the state’s largest teacher’s union both objected to the Bible-based curriculum, which will inject Christianity into thousands of classrooms across the state and be taught to children as young as five years old.
Advocates of the curriculum say that the history of this country and the Christian faith are inextricably intertwined, and that a thorough understanding of Christian theology is necessary to understand the legal framework the United States was built upon.
"The [religious] materials will… allow our students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution," said Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a proponent of the new faith-based education standards.
But critics say that inserting Jesus into the classroom is just Christian nationalism barely masquerading as education.
"The curriculum targets the youngest, most impressionable elementary students, starting by introducing kindergartners to Jesus," argued Freedom From Religion Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Religious instruction is the purview of parents, not proselytizing school boards. This is a shameful ruse by Christian nationalists in Texas who see the schools as a mission field."
A Lesson of Their Own
Texas may also be laying a lesson plan of their own for other states on how to bring Christianity to the classroom. The solution? Money.
Louisiana lawmakers recently passed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments in every single public school classroom across the state, and Oklahoma education head Ryan Walters is similarly putting Bibles in classrooms across the state. And President-elect Trump even said one of his top education priorities is bringing prayer back to schools.
Though the curriculum is by no means mandatory for schools to teach, there is a financial incentive for districts to do so. It’s no secret that many public schools are woefully underfunded, and the additional funding promised by teaching Christianity - upwards of $40 per student - will be a difficult carrot for schools to ignore.
The curriculum is planned to go into effect at the beginning of the next school year, in August 2025. But it seems almost certain that it will experience legal challenges between now and then.
What do you make of putting the Bible in schools - and offering a financial incentive to do so? Does Jesus belong in the classroom, and to what extent? Do advocates of the new curriculum have a point that we can’t divorce the history of the United States and the Christian faith… or is this just Christian nationalism at work?
