Bible stories become required reading for Texas schools
An education panel in Texas has approved plans to make Bible stories mandatory for all five million public school students in the state, sparking debate over the separation of church and state.
Required readings, which will not come into effect until 2030, include passages from the Bible about Adam and Eve and passages from the book of Exodus in which God speaks to Moses from inside a burning bush.
Critics say the new reading offerings, which include Dickens and Shakespeare, violate religious freedoms and lack diversity.
The Republican-controlled State Board of Education approved the measure on a 9-5 vote, with one Republican voting against Democrats.
“We’re bringing the Bible back to schools this week for the first time in 60 years,” Brandon Hall, a Republican member of the board of education, said this week.
Supporters say schoolchildren should learn Judeo-Christian traditions, which they argue were essential to the founding of the nation.
The new reading list includes classics of English literature such as Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
But it was the mandatory religious texts that attracted the fiercest opposition from education and civil liberties groups.
Felicia Martin, executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, a left-wing activist group, said in a statement before the vote that the reading list “centers Christianity above all other religious beliefs and traditions.”
“[It has] “It is a very Western-centered worldview that ignores the contributions and histories of black, brown, indigenous peoples, and other religious beliefs and traditions that are critical to the overall understanding of our history.”
Friday’s approval was the latest example of a move by conservatives to support the presence of Christian beliefs in the Texas education system.
Last year, it became the largest state in the United States to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments — a set of Biblical laws that some Christians believe God mandated for humans — in classrooms.
In April, a federal appeals court upheld the law mandating the exhibit after a legal challenge.
