Coming to a Public School Near You...
The "Bible Infused" Curriculum
Texas, due to its sheer size of population, has always been the harbinger of educational trends. Most of the time that meant white-washed history textbooks and boundaries of church and state separation that get thinner and thinner.
On Friday of last week, the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by Republicans and Christian Nationalists (hard to tell the difference these days), approved a new “optional Bible infused curriculum” for elementary grades by a vote of 8-7. Over 5000 Texas students will now be exposed to Christian proselytizing whether they want to be or not. Sound familiar?
Gov. Greg Abbott called the vote “a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.” I’m curious what evidence suggests that exposing children to Bible stories improves educational outcomes. I wonder if it works for the non-Christian students. Or how about the atheist students?
This move represents a new phase in the Christian Nationalist program of turning the country toward God, whether they want to or not. These followers of the Republican Jesus nationalist religion have used an “incremental” approach by offering less onerous proposals over the past 5 or 10 years.
The driver for these “less egregious” violations of church and state separation has been a playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups. It has provided state-level politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian “model bills”.
In 2017-2018, politicians across many states followed the playbook by proposing “In God We Trust Bills,” which emblazoned the phrase in public corridors and buildings. It was designed to be “Christian Nationalism” lite. Nothing too outrageous, just push the boundaries. It was the first step.
Samantha Sokol, who studied the bills for the Americans United for Separation of Church and State campaign group, said:
“In God We Trust bills are the most common. I think that it is due to the promotion of Project Blitz. They have sent this playbook to state legislators and told them that these In God We Trust bills are the first step.”
“Some would see these bills as very trivial and unimportant, but even the most simple or trivial bills would really undermine American religious freedom and separation of church and state, and undermine the promise of our public schools that kids are welcome, whether they are religious or non-religious, whether they are evangelical Christians or not.”
It is no surprise one of the main architects behind Project Blitz is David Barton, the Texas-based founder and pseudo historian of an organization called WallBuilders, which takes its inspiration from the Old Testament in describing a mission of “rebuilding our nation’s foundations”. For Barton and others in Texas, the separation of church and state is a myth. It doesn’t exist, and therefore, they are free to “infuse” as much religious teaching and proselytizing in public schools as possible.
Phase two of the Project Blitz Playbook include bills for a range of proclamations or resolutions – declaring a religious freedom day or Christian heritage week that can then be used to get religious teaching into schools. The playbook adds: “If any legislator opposes this, it will be helpful to get him or her on the record against this heritage and freedom.”
Just this year, Governor Reynolds of Iowa announced a “Read the Bible in the Public Square Proclamation.” It wasn’t enough to just encourage people to read the Bible in the privacy of their home or church. It must be done on the steps of all 99 county courthouses throughout the state. Again…push the boundary.
If you oppose these symbolic measures then you are “tarred and feathered” metaphorically, as an anti-Christian secularist who is out to destroy Christianity. And, as Barton suggests, you are also anti-heritage and freedom. This is code for anti-Christian supremacy in the public square.
Frederick Clarkson, senior analyst at the Political Research Associates, first highlighted Project Blitz, said:
“It’s a Christian supremacist agenda, the idea that God intended and mandates Christians to lead and control the United States for the religious vision that they hold and the policy implications that flow from it. If you are a more liberal Christian, a Jew, or a Muslim, or a non-believer of any sort, or whatever you happen to be, you’re a second-class citizen at best.”
I believe we are now seeing a third and much more aggressive phase of tearing down the wall of separation by “infusing” Christian teaching into public education. Texas is on the leading edge of what I believe will be a new nation-wide push to “infuse” curriculum with the Bible at all levels and in every state.
It is coming to a public school near you. The recent election sweep by Christian Nationalist Republicans has given them confidence and assurance that they have a mandate to move to a new level of “taking the country back for God.”
So, what does the Texas “Bible infused curriculum” look like? How will it overcome decades of case law that forbid public schools from promoting religion? As usual, the Christian Nationalists on the Texas State Board are using a bait-n-switch tactic. They have declared the new curriculum to be “optional” so what is the harm. But they have also attached funding for schools that choose to use it….ah, there it is. Money!
Most public schools have been deliberated underfunded in states where Republicans control the purse strings. Iowa is a perfect example. Steal millions from the public schools and give them to families so they can send their kids to private religious schools on the public dime. Then, when offered a great new curriculum that will pay the school money, infuse the Bible. Cash-strapped public schools will jump at the chance.
Then there is the title of the new curriculum….they call it the “Bluebonnet” curriculum. How innocent and inoffensive is that? The bluebonnet is the Texas state flower and has deep significance and is a source of pride in the state. It grows everywhere. Naming the new curriculum by this moniker was no mistake.
Beyond the incentives, here is how the Bible is infused into lessons in literature or history. In the newly approved kindergarten materials, one lesson on helping one’s neighbor instructs teachers to talk about the Golden Rule using lessons from the Bible. It also instructs the teachers to explain that the Bible is “a collection of ancient texts” and that its different parts are “the core books of the Jewish and Christian religions.”
It doesn’t mention the almost universal nature of the Golden Rule in all or most religions. It is taught as exclusive to the Jewish and Christian religions. It isn’t, but no matter. Accuracy and details never got in the way of a good Christian Nationalist.
In a third-grade lesson about the first Thanksgiving, the material directs teachers to discuss how the governor of Plymouth said a prayer and gave a speech that included references to “several passages from the Christian Bible in the book of Psalms.” Teachers are then instructed to tell students the book of Psalms is a collection of songs, poems and hymns “that are used in both Jewish and Christian worship.”
Because the curriculum is “optional” and the lessons are framed around the heritage of Judaism and Christianity, it is passed off as non-sectarian. It isn’t. The goal is clear, and the objective is to proselytize young impressionable minds into thinking that there is only one legitimate religion: Christianity, and not just Christianity writ large. It is a particular version of Christianity that views that Bible as the infallible and inerrant word of God. In other words, evangelical Christian Nationalism.
The Christian Nationalist agenda hides behind the cloak of “cultural literacy” as a reason to include Biblical stories and references. Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas said, “The problem, of course, is that sometimes the legitimate reason of cultural literacy is used as a smokescreen to hide religious and ideological agendas.”
Here is another smokescreen. This is from a 5th grade lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” The lesson highlights, out of the dozens of allusions that King uses in his letter, the story of Daniel as an example of standing up to power.
The writing prompt reads, “Why did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., reference the story of Daniel in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail?”
The prompt will make sense if it includes other more prominent examples such as King’s mention of Socrates and Aristotle? Why did King bring up Brown v. Board of Education? Why did King bring up Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln?
Instead, the big takeaway for the Christians writing this curriculum was to make sure kids understood the biblical reference. The full context of King’s writing is ignored in the interest of elevating one allusion, a minor one at that. They used a minor reference to the Bible and blew it up to centralize it within a discussion of King.
In another unit on “Fighting for the Cause,” the curriculum highlights stories about great people who stood up to power and fought for righteous causes. The leaders mentioned in the unit included Jackie Robinson, William Wilberforce, William Penn, Dolores Huerta, Rosa Parks (great choices)… and wait for it, the biblical character Queen Esther.
Since there is no evidence that Queen Esther actually existed, her appearance in a list of people who actually did exist elevates her to a historical personage by implication. Again, you can see the sly juxtaposition of placing Esther in this group and declaring silently, the Bible is historically true in all it says because it is God’s divine word. Christianity is treated as a fact.
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty who opposes the rise of Christian Nationalism, said,
“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories. Children who would read the material are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”
Texas of course is not the only state attempting to “infuse” the Bible into the classroom. Texas’ plans to implement Biblical teachings in public school lesson plans is just the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into the classroom.
In Louisiana, a law to place the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June, prompting a group of Louisiana public school parents of different faiths to sue.
In Oklahoma, the state’s top education official has tried to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in fifth through 12th grades. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the Republican state superintendent’s plan and his efforts to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for public schools.
That is the pushback. Parents and educators who understand what is going on and take action legally to stop it. Get ready my fellow Iowans…Christian Nationalism is coming to a classroom near you sooner than you might think. Let’s get ready to act.
Watching Christian Nationalism get more and more power is so scary and disappointing. I wish more people who are Atheists, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and any other religion would stand up and require that their religion be included in the public schools also. It is sad to know that Christian Nationalism has plans to undercut the public school system, and now we are seeing this beginning already.