WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative lawmakers in the U.S. are pushing to introduce more Christianity into public school classrooms, challenging the separation of church and state by including Bible references in reading lessons and requiring teachers to write down the Ten Commandments.
The efforts come as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and promises to stand up for the First Amendment right to pray in school and read the Bible, practices that are already allowed as long as they are not sponsored by the government.
Although the federal government is explicitly prohibited from directing states to what to teach, Trump can indirectly influence what is taught in public schools and his election can embolden activists at the state level.
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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 push to incorporate more Christianity into the mainstream public schools that serve the overwhelming majority of students, including those of other faiths. And with the help of judicial appointees from Trump’s first presidential term, courts have begun to bless the idea of more religion in the public sphere, including in schools.
“The effect of even Trump being president-elect, let alone president again, is to embolden Christian nationalists like never before,” said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Large numbers of Americans believe that the founders intended the US to be a Christian nation. A smaller group, part of a movement commonly known as Christian nationalism, advocates a merging of American and Christian identities and believes the US has a mandate to build an explicitly Christian society.
Many historians argue the opposite, claiming that the framers of the United States created the United States as an alternative to European monarchies with official state churches and oppression of religious minorities.
Efforts have been made in several states to introduce more Christianity into classrooms.
In Louisiana, Republicans passed a law requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments, which begin with “I am the Lord your God.” You shall have no other gods before me.” Families have filed a lawsuit.
In Texas, officials in November approved a curriculum that interweaves language arts and Bible lessons. And in Oklahoma, the state superintendent of education has called for lessons that incorporate the Bible from grades 5 through 12, a requirement that schools have refused to follow.
Utah state lawmakers designated the Ten Commandments as a historical document, in the same category as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, so teachers could hang it in their classrooms. Many other states have seen legislation that would put them in more classrooms. And attorneys general from 17 Republican Party-led states recently filed a brief in support of Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate.
Schools are allowed – and are even encouraged – to teach about religion and introduce students to religious texts. But some say the new measures indoctrinate students, not educate them.
Critics have also raised concerns about the ever-expanding 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 emphasize the spread of Christianity and include Christian nationalist talking points.
During his first administration, Trump commissioned the 1776 Project, a report that attempted to promote a more patriotic version of American history. It was panned by historians and scholars who said it blamed Christianity for many of the positive turns in American history, without mentioning, for example, the religion’s role in perpetuating slavery.
The project was developed into a curriculum by the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan and is now taught in a network of publicly funded charter schools supported by the college. It has also affected state standards in South Dakota.
Challenges to some state measures are now reaching the courts, which have become friendlier 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 infringed on his right to religious expression. Dissenting judges noted that some players felt pressure to join the coach. But the Supreme Court said a public school cannot restrict an employee’s religious activity just because it could be construed as an endorsement of religion, reversing a five-decade precedent.
The ruling could pave 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’s court appointees have encouraged states” to challenge the separation of church and state, he said.
In the wake of the football coach’s case, courts are now analyzing the separation of church and state through the lens of history, says Joseph Davis of Becket, a public interest law firm that focuses on religious freedom and is defending Louisiana over its mandate of the Ten Commandments.
The Supreme Court has endorsed the idea that “it’s okay to have religious expression in public spaces,” Davis said, “and that we should actually expect that … if it’s a big part of our history.”
Critics say some moves to introduce more historical references to Christianity in classrooms have gone too far by unnecessarily inserting Biblical references, while ignoring the role Christianity played in justifying atrocities perpetuated by Americans, such as the genocide of indigenous peoples, is being erased.
These are some of the criticisms facing the new reading curriculum in Texas. Districts are created by the state and are not required to use it, but are given financial incentives to adopt it.
“The authors appear to go out of their way to incorporate detailed Bible lessons into the curriculum, even when they are both unnecessary and unwarranted,” religious scholar David R. Brockman wrote in a report on the material. “While religious freedom is vital to American democracy, the curriculum distorts its role in the founding of the nation while underestimating the importance of other fundamental freedoms cherished by Americans.”
Texas Values, a conservative think tank that supported the new reading curriculum, said in a statement that the court’s pivot to allow more Christianity in schools and more taxpayer dollars to flow to religious institutions is corrective.
The football coaching case rightly restored protections for religion and free speech in public schools, said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values.
“Voters and lawmakers are growing tired of attacks on God and our legacy of ‘One Nation Under God,’” he said.
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Associated Press writers Sara Cline, Kimberlee Kruesi and Peter Smith contributed.
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