(RU) Richard Ostling–Texas’ Bible Curriculum Revives Debate Over Religion In Public Schools

Texas trains a tenth of the nation’s schoolchildren and the reading list includes many familiar school selections: “Stuart Little” and “The Cat in the Hat,” “Julius Caesar” and “Hamlet,” “Great Expectations” and “Animal Farm,” speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., poetry of Dante and Eliot, the diary of Anne Frank and “Night,” Elie Wiesel’s powerful Holocaust memoir. Oddly omitted is the popular “To Kill a Mockingbird” with its themes of race relations and justice. Ideology emerges with Ayn Rand lauding untrammeled capitalism and Margaret Thatcher eulogizing Ronald Reagan.

Predictably, the new Texas Bible mandates, said to be unique among the states, are one of those social issues that rouse intense partisan debate. The board’s Republican majority approved the new curriculum in a 9-5 vote, while inclusion of the Bible is opposed by many Democrats and liberals. Christian clergy are similarly divided; most Jewish leaders are strongly negative; and critics note the omission of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim texts.

President Rachel Laser of Americans United insists that “public schools should not force children to read Bible stories,” accusing politicians of “pushing Christianity on public schoolchildren.” Karen Swallow Prior, an evangelical literary scholar formerly at Liberty University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, says “teaching key passages from the Bible is an excellent idea” if the purpose is truly cultural. But she’s opposed if this seeks “to elevate one religion over another” or is “a ham-fisted attempt to advance a Christian nationalist agenda.”

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Texas mandates biblical readings in public school curriculum — @DavidMartinDavi @TPRSource @TPRNews https://t.co/5GO581HlLw

— Jon Taylor (@ProfJonTaylor) July 20, 2026