Texas’s State legislators deserve a lot of praise for consistently writing and passing legislation, especially over the last few years, that aims to strengthen the Christian Faith in their State. It is precisely these efforts that have caused the anti-Christian opposition to reveal itself so completely.
The Texas chapter of the ACLU, for instance, has raised objections to the following bills, which are not radical proposals for a predominantly Christian nation like Texas:
- Senate Bill 1515, which requires the display of the Ten Commandments “in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school.”
- Senate Bill 1396, which authorizes school boards to require a period of prayer and Bible reading in public schools.
- Senate Bill 1556, which emboldens public school employees to claim a right to pray at any time, without interference or objection from the school.
- Senate Bill 763, which allows so-called “chaplains” to serve as school counselors.
The Texas Tribune provides more objections from other people and organizations:
Andy Wine thinks most children can understand the Golden Rule. Talking over your peers is rude. Insulting others is mean. Don't hurt people. In short, it’s common sense, Wine said.
That’s why the 43-year-old parent of two, who is an atheist, finds it appalling that the Texas Education Agency wants to incentivize public schools to teach the Golden Rule as a core value in the Bible.
“We teach kids to be nice to each other and to share,” said Wine, a member of the Freethinkers Association of Central Texas, a social organization of religiously unaffiliated people. “You don't need to bring up any religion in order to do it.”
Religious and nonreligious groups have raised concerns like this since the TEA proposed a curriculum that would insert Bible teachings into K–5 reading and language arts lessons. . . .
“It's a question of inclusivity,” said Jackie Nirenberg, regional director of Anti-Defamation League Austin, an organization fighting antisemitism and bias against Jewish communities. “It's also a very slippery slope. Because once we open the door to that kind of content, it's much easier to get more and more religious content into the curriculum.”
. . . “What I hear a lot in Texas is parental rights — that we have the right to be able to make decisions about our children's education,” said Nabila Mansoor, a Muslim who is the executive director of Rise AAPI, which primarily serves Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. “And yet, this particular faith tradition is being superimposed on children who come from many different faith backgrounds and whose parents would find it very offensive.”
Most of these folks who object to the Texas State government’s attempts to reintroduce Christianity into the public school curriculum extol multiculturalism. Because Texas isn’t monolithically Christian, they argue, she shouldn’t advocate for one faith over another. Per the Tribune:
Texas is one of the most religiously diverse states in the nation. Seventy-seven percent of adults adhere to some form of Christianity, according to a study conducted in 2007 and 2014 by the Pew Research Center. Non-Christian faiths, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, constitute 4% of adults, while 18% are not affiliated with any religion.
There are two things that should be taken into account on this point. First, those who are new arrivals in a place with an established culture (and Texas does have a long-established Christian culture, as we shall see) are expected to conform to the culture of the place into which they are settling. The Muslims, Buddhists, and others who want Texas to scrap her Christian school proposals are demanding the opposite, that the host conform to their demands. It is an immoral demand, but in the age of Revolution it is not too surprising to see it made.
Second, we have a duty not simply to do justice to the present generation, but to the past generations as well. To use the worn-out secular Enlightenment terminology, that means that the dead also have ‘rights’ that we must respect. Texas’s ancestors established a Christian culture; their descendants are bound by a commandment of the Lord Himself (‘Honor thy father and thy mother’—Exodus 20:12) to uphold the good things their forefathers raised up and passed on to them as a precious inheritance. The newcomers ought not to demand that Texans break this commandment of filial piety and love for the sake of their false multicultural utopian ideal.
. . .
The rest may be read here:
https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/texas-fights-for-a-christian-identity
Or here:
https://thehayride.com/2024/09/garlington-texas-fights-for-a-christian-identity/
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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