By Thomas Ultican 11/7/2024
Christian Nationalists are hard at work ridding the US of that pesky first Amendment or as Thomas Jefferson stated it, “A wall of separation between church and state.” We have gone from the admonitions of Jefferson and Madison to witnessing a year in which Lawmakers in 29 states proposed at least 91 bills promoting religion in public schools. Reuters reports, “The movement is fueled by opposition to what conservatives call liberal curriculums, including a focus on diversity and LGBT rights, and by the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent as it moves American law rightward.”
Central to this attack on the first amendment is a fairly new organization with powerful connections, National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). The chemical symbol for salt, NACL, is why they chose the name. It symbolizes their Christian members being the salt of the earth.
An Arkansas politician and Christian preacher, Jason Rapter, founded NACL in 2019 and soon recruited influential figures of the Christian right, including Mike Huckabee, Bob McEwen, and Tony Perkins, to join the group’s advisory board. Their 2021 and 2022 tax form 990s (TIN 84-1804670) both indicated multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. All proceeds going toward supporting their Christian nationalist agenda. At their coming December gathering, the featured honoree and speaker will be Charlie Kirk.
To Arizona’s News21, Rapert stated, “We believe that with all the troubles facing our country, with Democrats and leftists that are advocating cutting penises off of little boys and breasts off of little girls, we have reached a level of debauchery and immorality that is at biblical proportions.” Preacher Rapert is clearly sincere about his faith but someone like him from Crazy-Town should not be designing model legislation.
New Texas Christian Curriculum
A new Texas program called Bluebonnet Learning containing multiple stories from the Bible is generating negative waves in non-evangelical circles. At September’s Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting taking public comments on the new curriculum, parent Sharyn Vane called Bluebonnet Learning, “wildly problematic in its depictions of Jews and Judaism.” She pointed to the second grade lesson on Queen Esther in which Haman, a Persian official, cast lots to decide when to kill Jews. Part of the lesson includes students playing a game with dice. Vane declared:
“This is shocking, offensive and just plain wrong. Do we ask elementary schoolers to pretend to be Hitler?”
Many parents and Texas residents see Bluebonnet Learning as an unhealthily effort to promote a particular Christian philosophy. However evangelical Christians have encouraged their networks to bombard school board members with emails calling for approval:
“The TX State Board of Education is trying to adopt a new curriculum that replaces secular humanism with the Christian values upon which our nation was founded. Email them at SBOEsupport@tea.texas.gov with this message: Please adopt HB 1605 Curriculum without any amendments.”
It seems that some school board members came into the meeting having already decided to support Bluebonnet Learning. Andrea Young a member from Houston wrote in her summer newsletter:
“Much of Western Literature is woven with references to people, characters, metaphors, and themes from the Bible. Texas students will experience a richer reading experience if they have a passing acquaintance with stories and vocabulary from the Bible.”
Bluebonnet Learning was adapted from Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts reading program. Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs controls Amplify which seems to have a corrupt connection with the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Amplify recently was awarded a $50 million dollar contract by TEA.
The new curriculum was released amid a broader push by Texas Republicans, who control state government, to put more Christianity in public schools. During the Texas GOP convention last month, delegates voted on a platform that calls on lawmakers and the SBOE to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance.”
Rice University scholar, David Brockman, notes that Texas is home to a litany of well-known purveyors of Christian nationalism or related ideologies, including Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who claims the United States, is “a Christian nation” and that “there is no separation of church and state. It was not in the constitution.”
The Texas GOP or at least much of it is opposed to “godless secular education.” Secular education is a system of teaching not affiliated with any religious doctrines, focusing instead on academic subjects and critical thinking. This approach emphasizes neutrality in matters of religion, ensuring that students receive an education based on reason, science, and humanistic principles. The web site Fivable makes five points about secular education:
- “Secular education emerged in the United States during the 19th century as a response to the growing need for a system that could accommodate a diverse population with varying religious beliefs.
- “The establishment of public schools as secular institutions aimed to provide a common educational experience free from religious influence, which was seen as crucial for social cohesion.
- “Supreme Court rulings, such as Engel v. Vitale (1962), reinforced the idea of secular education by prohibiting school-sponsored prayer and other religious activities in public schools.
- “Secular education promotes critical thinking skills, encouraging students to question and analyze information rather than accepting beliefs based solely on tradition or authority.
- “Many educators argue that secular education helps prepare students for a democratic society by fostering tolerance, respect for different beliefs, and an understanding of civic responsibilities.”
This is the education model that Christian Nationalists are striving to overturn.
Not Just Texas
This summer, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom. Governor Landry stated, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses.”
In addition, Landry signed laws that authorize the hiring of chaplains in schools, restrict teachers from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity and prevent schools from using a transgender student’s preferred names or pronouns unless granted permission by parents.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom of Religion Foundation announced plans to challenge the law that requires a specific text of the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed. Their joint statement stated, “Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”
In June, Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved a plan to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in a 3-2 vote. This plan was rejected by the Oklahoma Supreme Court but the Catholic Church and supporters of publicly supported Christian schools are pinning their hopes on the United States Supreme Court to override Oklahoma’s court.
A few weeks later, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced that every teacher in the state will have a Bible in their classroom and teach from it. He said, “”Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.” The Oklahoma Education Association claimed the order was illegal and stated, “Public schools cannot indoctrinate students with a particular religious belief or religious curriculum.”
Conclusion
In order to meet the demands of the anti-federalists and ratify the constitution, the Bill of Rights was added as constitutional amendments one thru ten. Amendment one states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Replying to a question about the establishment clause from Danbury Baptists, Jefferson wrote:
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
It is clear that the people who wrote and enacted the first amendment believed it divided government from religion. Current speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, who is a Christian Nationalist, believes Americas’ rights come from “God himself” and claims that the separation of church and state is a relic of the 1960s. It is unlikely that he will defend the constitution of the United States or secular education and I would not expect much help from President elect Donald Trump either.
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