{"id":371358,"date":"2026-07-13T17:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371358\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:46:11","slug":"texas-tells-students-that-the-bible-is-part-of-our-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371358\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tells Students That the Bible Is Part of Our History"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 26, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted on the new K-8 social studies standards<\/a>. These revised standards remove critical race theory, reject disputed claims about Islam\u2019s influence on the Alamo, restore instruction on classical Greek and Roman influences<\/a>, and\u2014most controversially\u2014include instructing students about America\u2019s Judeo-Christian heritage.<\/p>\n

The motion passed 9-5. As you can probably guess, the vote fell along party lines. All five Democrats voted against the rewrite, nine Republicans voted in favor, and one member was absent. Finally, after four years of debate and delay, Texans have preserved history in their classrooms for the decade to come.<\/p>\n

Public criticism began almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Negative media coverage from outlets like BBC, CNN, Texas Monthly, and The New York Times echo the same criticism heard in Monday and Tuesday\u2019s public testimony. Critics claim that the social studies standards are not diverse enough, and that including Biblical readings in public school curricula violates the Constitution\u2019s Establishment Clause, turning public education into indoctrination.<\/p>\n

\u201cBible lessons<\/a> should be taught on Sundays,\u201d said SBOE member Tiffany Clark in a comment to CNN. \u201cNot all of us believe the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Clark is not alone in her concern, she\u2019s presuming the only reason someone would ever study the Bible is a religious one<\/a>. She is mistaken; we can see why by understanding what these standards are actually trying to ensure students are taught.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThese standards teach the actual story of America and Texas, \u201cTexas House Representative Alan Schoolcraft said while testifying before the SBOE in favor of the curriculum rewrite on July 6.<\/p>\n

Schoolcraft offered the crucial distinction clearly: Expecting students to graduate high school understanding a few important Biblical references is not \u201cabout our religion, it\u2019s about our intellectual history. You don\u2019t have to be a Christian to recognize that the moral vocabulary and concepts that the founders used are rooted\u201d in our \u201cJudeo-Christian heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schoolcraft captures everything that has been missing from this debate. Heritage is not religion; it is a question of roots. The roots of the American order stretch across time, cities, and cultures. One of our earliest roots undeniably reaches back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Our nation\u2019s founding documents are rich with biblical references and Christian vocabulary. Even a casual perusal of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, George Washington\u2019s Farewell Address, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, or many other American historical documents encourages no doubt about our Christian heritage.<\/p>\n

Before even setting foot on the New World, John Winthrop and his fellow immigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony composed \u201cA Model of Christian Charity.\u201d This writing served as a primitive constitution, permitting the Protestant religion that had been oppressed by the English crown and laying out the blueprint for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop argued that the colony\u2019s devotion would set it apart, like a \u201ccity on a hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

That phrase alone\u2014a \u201ccity on a hill\u201d\u2014is heard time and time again from the White House. Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and, yes, even Barack Obama all explained American exceptionalism with reference to the country\u2019s status as a \u201ccity on a hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Winthrop didn\u2019t coin the term. The phrase comes directly from Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the new social studies standards, Texans in the fifth grade will learn that their country began as a \u201ccity on a hill,\u201d And they will understand that Winthrop\u2019s words are a model of religious freedom. Stripping students of religious reference only leaves them bereft of knowledge.<\/p>\n

Expecting students to understand American history while totally ignorant of the Bible<\/a> is like expecting them to study Homer while removing all references to the Greek gods.<\/p>\n

Just as Representative Schoolcraft said in his testimony, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a Christian to recognize\u201d that our country is rooted in \u201cJudeo-Christian values.\u201d Biblical references and Christian vocabulary belong in social studies because they are an objective part of American history.<\/p>\n

American history cannot serve present opinion, or we risk removing anything we find uncomfortable. Far too often, our nation\u2019s Christian roots have been \u201crooted out\u201d due to fear of supposed Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Christian nationalism was never on the table here. The vote on Friday was about returning our Judeo-Christian heritage to Texas textbooks. It was about preserving American history\u2014the whole story.<\/p>\n

And that we did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 26, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted on the new K-8 social studies standards.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-371358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}