Texas Republicans may regret mandating Bible in classes [View all]

Texas Republicans may regret mandating Bible in classes
Debating Christianity in class will likely create more non-believers

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published July 1, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) The decades-long Republican quest to force Christianity on those they see as unwashed heathens reached a new low on June 26, when the GOP-controlled Texas State School Board put Bible stories on mandatory reading lists for every level of public school student. The decision is disturbing on many levels, starting with the outright disinformation being used to justify this move by people in charge of educating children.

“Our nation was founded as a Christian nation,” board member Brandon Hall insisted during a Thursday news conference.

It’s unclear if Hall is lying or has deluded himself, but there is no excuse for indulging this falsehood about the founders, who clearly forbade the “establishment of religion” in the Constitution and repeatedly emphasized separation of church and state. It’s no surprise where this is coming from, either. The school board hired David Barton, a discredited writer who falsely claims to be a historian, as an adviser. Barton has no training and less than zero credibility, having been caught repeatedly peddling easily disproved lies. But because Republicans are pleased by his intellectually dishonest interpretation of America’s past, they continue to choose his nonsense over actual history developed by real scholars.

This is Christian nationalism in a nutshell. The use of Barton by the GOP and the Texas State School Board is not about faith or belief; it’s about power. Specifically, it’s about pushing their belief that certain people — white right-wing Christians — are the “real” Americans. In practice, it means that everyone else deserves second-class status. Forcing kids to read Bible passages signals to anyone outside the white, evangelical tribe that they don’t belong, which is a grotesque violation of American values of equality and freedom.

It’s also likely to backfire on the religious right. They better hope that the kids skip the assigned reading, much less actual discussion and debate about it in class. As many an ex-evangelical can tell you, direct exposure to what the Bible actually says is often the first step to walking away from Christian fundamentalism altogether. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/07/01/texas-republicans-may-regret-mandating-bible-in-classes/