A coalition of interfaith groups is pushing back on what they say is a “Christian nationalist” school movement – and it’s starting in Texas.
The first ever Religious Freedom in Public Schools summit met in Dallas this week.
Drawing more than 150 people and numerous religious, civic and community organizations from 22 states, the summit was formed by Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Interfaith Alliance. Vice President Guthrie Grave-Fitzsimmons said it chose Texas for the first meeting because the state has already passed laws allowing chaplains as school counselors, sending public dollars to private and religious schools requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments in every class — which is facing a legal challenge — and allowing districts to set aside prayer time.
"For decades, we've had a consensus in our public schools that they should be open to people of all faiths and none, that the government should not indoctrinate students with one religion in our schools,” Graves-Fitzsimmons said. “And yet that consensus is breaking down because of a concentrated, coordinated push by far-right extremists to push one version of fundamentalist Christianity through our public school.”
Graves-Fitzsimmons is himself a Baptist seminary graduate who’s back in school for more education. He said he loves teaching religion, but not in public school, and not by the government – something he fears is what’s happening in Texas. The State Board of Education last year approved the new Bluebonnet Learning curriculum for schools, which contains numerous Biblical references – along with some references to other religions – but which critics say privileges Christianity over other faiths.
Graves-Fitzsimmons said the recent summit brought like-minded people and groups together to say “no more.
“We are going to push back and rebuild the consensus,” he said. “Our public schools should be open to all students of all faiths.”
Fort Worth pastor Charles Johnson, who leads the Bread Fellowship and also the nine-state Pastors for Children, said he wants government out of public schools, for the good of religion, the schools, students and their families.
“Whether it's the Ten Commandments in the classroom or chaplains in schools or the Blue Bonnet curriculum or private school vouchers, it's Christian nationalism on steroids is what it is,” he said.
Johnson said as religion makes its way into Texas public schools, he has two main concerns: that government involvement in schools contaminates voluntary faith, and that it’s eliminating a long-understood separation of church and state.
“We have a statute in this country that founded this nation, that this government shall make no establishment of religion nor prohibit the free exercise thereof,” he said. “We don't need people in the political class advancing their own narrow brand of their private religion on the public.”
Texas elected officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, have championed bringing more Christian influence into schools. In a social media post in August. Gov. Greg Abbott said parents “can have confidence that their values are protected.
“By allowing prayer and incorporating the 10 Commandments into classrooms, religious freedom is secure in Texas public schools,” he wrote.
Earlier this month Paxton released a statement encouraging schools to begin the legal process of implementing dedicated time for prayer following the enactment of Senate Bill 11.
“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” he said.
Maggie Siddiqi, a senior fellow with Interfaith Alliance, worries the country is at a crisis because of these growing efforts that put Christianity in public schools in a new, big way. She said Muslims like her seem to be excluded by these efforts. She added that not long ago, members of congress agreed, in a bipartisan consensus, about what the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment were all about.
They kept religion, she said, out of public schools. The change, she fears, could undermine religious freedom for everyone.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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