“We think we can really set a trend for the rest of the country.”
“We think there can be a restoration of faith in America, and we think getting Ten Commandments on these walls is a great way to do that,” former state Rep. In Texas, they believe they can create a national model for infusing Christianity into the public sphere. In legislative hearings, lawmakers have called church-state separation a “false doctrine," and bill supporters have blamed it for school shootings, crime and growing LGBTQ acceptance. Meanwhile, there are numerous efforts to eliminate or weaken two state constitutional amendments that prohibit direct state support of religious schools and organizations, a key plank of the broader school-choice movement. Supreme Court decisions and the growing acceptance of Christian nationalism on the right, Barton and other conservative Christians could see monumental victories in the Texas Legislature this year.Īlready this legislative session, the Texas Senate has approved bills that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms and allow unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant the role of school counselors. Now, Barton’s once-fringe theories could be codified into Texas law.Įmboldened by recent U.S. “It’s hard to say that anything is more traditional in American education than was the Ten Commandments.”įor nearly four decades, Barton has preached that message to politicians and pews across the country, arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that is disproven by centuries-old texts, like the school book he showed senators, that reference the Ten Commandments and other religious texts. “This is traditional, historical stuff,” he told a Texas Senate Education Committee last month.
Waving a copy of the Ten Commandments and a 17th-century textbook, amateur historian David Barton recently argued that Christianity has always formed the basis of American morality and thus is essential to Texas classrooms.
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