Christianity in American classrooms? : Lawmakers push plans, Trump could step up efforts

WASHINGTON: Conservative lawmakers across the United States are pushing to introduce more Christianity into public school classrooms, testing the separation of church and state by inserting biblical references into reading lessons and requiring let teachers display the ten commandments.

These efforts come as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office by pledging to defend the First Amendment right to pray and read the Bible in school, practices that are already allowed as long as they are not not government sponsored.

Although the federal government is explicitly prohibited from directing states about what they should teach, Trump can indirectly influence what is taught in public schools and his election could embolden activists at the state level.

Trump and his fellow Republicans support school choice, hoping to expand the practice of using taxpayer-funded vouchers to help parents send their children to religious schools.

But there is a parallel trend to incorporate more Christianity into traditional public schools that serve the overwhelming majority of students, including those of other faiths. And with the help of judges appointed during Trump’s first presidential term, courts have begun to endorse the notion of more religion in the public sphere, including in schools.

“Even though Trump is president-elect, let alone president again, Christian nationalists are emboldened like never before,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Many Americans believe that the founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation. A smaller group, part of a movement broadly called Christian nationalism, advocates a fusion of American and Christian identities and believes that the United States has a mandate to build an explicitly Christian society.

Many historians argue otherwise, saying the founders created the United States as an alternative to European monarchies with official state churches and oppression of religious minorities.

Efforts to bring more Christianity into classrooms have occurred in several states.

In Louisiana, Republicans passed a law requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments, which begin “I am the Lord your God.” You will have no other gods before me. Families filed lawsuits.

In Texas, authorities in November approved a program combining language arts and Bible lessons. And in Oklahoma, the state superintendent of education required that classes integrate the Bible in grades 5 through 12, a requirement that schools have refused to follow.

Utah state lawmakers designated the Ten Commandments a historic document, in the same category as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, so teachers could display them in their classrooms. Many other states have passed legislation that would allow them to attend more classrooms. And attorneys general from 17 GOP-led states recently filed a brief supporting Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate.

Schools are allowed – and even encouraged – to teach religion and expose students to religious texts. But some say the new measures indoctrinate students instead of educating them.

Critics have also expressed concerns about the proliferation of lesson plans. Some states have allowed teachers to use videos from Prager U, a nonprofit founded by a conservative talk show host, despite criticism that the videos positively highlight the spread of Christianity and include Christian nationalist arguments.

During his first administration, Trump commissioned the 1776 Project, a report that attempted to promote a more patriotic version of American history. He was criticized by historians and scholars who said he attributed many positive turning points in U.S. history to Christianity, without mentioning religion’s role in perpetuating slavery, for example.

The project was developed into a curriculum by the conservative Hillsdale Middle School in Michigan and is now taught in a network of publicly funded charter schools supported by the college. It also influenced South Dakota state standards.

Challenges to some state measures are now making their way through the courts, which have become more friendly to religious interests thanks to Trump’s judicial appointments.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach who was fired for praying with players at midfield after a game, saying the school district violated its rights to religious expression. The dissenting judges noted that some players felt pressure to join the coach. But the high court said a public school cannot restrict an employee’s religious activity simply because it could be construed as an endorsement of religion, reversing five decades of precedent.

The ruling could open the way for conservatives to introduce more Christianity into public schools, said Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina.

“Donald Trump-appointed judges have encouraged states” to test the separation of church and state, he said.

Following the football coach’s case, courts are now analyzing the separation of church and state through the lens of history, said Joseph Davis of Becket, an interest law firm public focused on religious freedom that defends Louisiana within its mandate of the Ten Commandments.

The Supreme Court has endorsed the idea that “it’s OK to have religious expression in public spaces,” Davis said, “and that we should kind of expect that… if it represents a large part of our history.

Critics say some moves to introduce more historical references to Christianity in classrooms have gone too far, inserting biblical references for free while erasing the role Christianity played in justifying American atrocities. , such as the genocide of indigenous peoples.

These are some of the criticisms leveled at the new reading program in Texas. Created by the state, districts are not required to use it, but they receive financial incentives to adopt it.

“The authors appear to go out of their way to integrate detailed Bible lessons into the curriculum, even when they are both unnecessary and unwarranted,” religious studies scholar David R. Brockman wrote in a report on the material. “While religious freedom is vital to American democracy, the program misrepresents its role in the founding of the nation while underestimating the importance of other fundamental freedoms Americans hold dear. »

Texas Values, a conservative think tank that supported the new reading curriculum, said in a statement that the court’s decision to allow more Christianity in schools and allow more taxpayer money to flow to religious institutions was corrective.

The football coach’s case rightly restored protections for religion and free speech in public schools, said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values.

“Voters and legislators are tired of attacks on God and our legacy of being ‘One Nation Under God,’” he said.