MAGA Republicans ramp up plan to 'indoctrinate' public schools with Christian nationalism

06 December 2024

Back in the early 1980s, a prominent liberal and a prominent conservative — television producer/People for the American Way founder Norman Lear and right-wing Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) — aggressively criticized the Religious Right and warned that the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the Christian Broadcasting Network's Pat Robertson, and others in that movement wanted to turn the United States into a theocracy.

Goldwater viewed the Religious Right as terrible for conservatism. Yet the Religious Right only tightened its grip on the Republican Party.

More than 40 years later, the Religious Right is celebrating Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential race. And far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalists, according to HuffPost's Nathalie Baptiste, are ramping up their push to turn public schools into evangelical schools.

"From displaying the Ten Commandments to demanding that teachers use the Bible in their classrooms," Baptiste reports in an article published on December 6, "conservatives seem determined to blur the lines between church and state by infusing Christianity into public schools. And with Donald Trump headed back to the White House and a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, reshaping the country's education system is looking increasingly feasible."

Baptiste notes that in late October, the Texas State Board of Education "approved a Bible-based curriculum for public school students in kindergarten through 5th Grade."

"Texas schools will not be forced to use the curriculum, but those that do will be rewarded with extra funding — up to $60 per student," Baptiste explains. "The material uses the Bible in a variety of lessons, including directly quoting from it, as well as teaching about creationism — the Christian belief that God created the Earth in one week — and the crucifixion of Jesus."

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Baptiste observes, far-right State Education Superintendent Ryan Walters has "mandated that all public schools must begin teaching the Bible." And in Louisiana, the reporter adds, the GOP-controlled state legislature "passed a law, in June, requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments."

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, warns that the Religious Right has "globbed onto schools as a place to indoctrinate students."

Laser told HuffPost, "They want to raise the next generation to learn false history, illegitimate science, and to favor Christianity over other faiths and nonreligion."

Heather Weaver, an ACLU attorney in Louisiana, is applauding the federal judge who struck down the Louisiana law as unconstitutional.

Weaver told HuffPost, "This ruling should serve as a reality check for Louisiana lawmakers who want to use public schools to convert children to their preferred brand of Christianity. Public schools are not Sunday schools, and today's decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed."

Read HuffPost's full article at this link.

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