Inseperable

There is a tremendous emphasis on religious practice that we see in the history of our nation. And, in a time in which ideas and actions that are detrimental to our country are being perpetrated, we need to take advantage of every opportunity to speak God's truth. 1st Peter 2 states:
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--
16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Take a country with a rich religious heritage and attempt to separate it from that heritage, from the principles upon which it was founded.  That's the situation you have in modern-day America. 

But lawmakers across the nation are attempting to recapture that foundation, and in so doing, reminding Americans, hopefully, that they cannot successfully remove one key component of our nation and completely secularize it.  You don't practice religion - you don't have to in America.  We have freedom of religion baked into the Bill of Rights.  But, if you do, you have that right, and your freedom to express should not be restricted.

There's a refreshing trend in Texas, in which school officials are actually embracing the teaching of Biblical principles.  According to the Texas Tribune website, the Texas Education Agency, or TEA, has proposed a "curriculum that would insert Bible teachings into K–5 reading and language arts lessons." This comes after legislation passed that would allow it to do so.

And, while the article stokes fears that people will be ostracized by the inclusion of these materials, each district is given the option whether or not to implement Biblically-infused curriculum.

The article notes:

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told The Texas Tribune in May that the curriculum as a whole — which consists of lesson plans for K–12 students and spans other subjects that don’t include religious references like math and science — is based on extensive cognitive science research and will help improve student performance in reading and math.

Morath noted that religious references only make up a small “but appropriate” fraction of the content pie and that the textbooks mark a shift from a skills-based curriculum to a more “classical, broad-based liberal arts education.”

Comments from a representative of a pro-family organization were included in the article, which said:

Megan Benton, a strategic policy associate at Texas Values, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to the Judeo-Christian faith, family and freedom, said her group supports “an objective reading of the Bible and other religious texts” in public schools.

“In fact, they'll elevate the quality of education being offered to all Texas students by giving them a well-rounded understanding of important texts and their impact on the world,” Benton said about references to religious texts.

Now, there's the obligatory mention of, well, you know: "...critics worry the TEA’s proposal is a symptom of a growing Christian nationalist movement, the belief that the United States’ founding was ordained by God and that its laws and institutions should favor Christians."  That's an interesting definition of the nebulous term.  But, suffice it to say, removing religious references from the classroom because of unfounded fears is most certainly the denial of a free exercise of religion.  

The Texas Tribune also says:

Efforts to infuse more Christianity in schools across the nation are currently facing several legal challenges, but legal experts note that recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority have eroded decades of precedent and made it unclear what state actions are unconstitutional. In its 2022 ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton, for example, the high court found that a Washington high school football coach did not violate the First Amendment by conducting personal prayers on the field after team games.

In doing so, the Supreme Court put an end to what was known as the Lemon test, a standard the court used to assess whether the primary purpose of a government action was secular, whether it promoted or inhibited religion and whether it represented an excessive entanglement between church and state.

During the same term, justices also ruled that states could not exclude religious schools from programs that use taxpayer dollars to fund private education.

Good!  For so long, we have found those who embrace secularism hiding behind the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and have tipped the scales against free exercise.  Religious content has been singled out for extinction.  You simply should not attempt to separate religious elements of American life.

We do recognize that our rights come from God - yes, that's been described now as Christian nationalism, the weaponized term that marginalizes Christian Americans. But, misplaced government interests have been found to diminish or even eliminate those rights.  Religious freedom is a core principle of our nation, and we should be able to speak according to our deeply held beliefs and have an expectation of the leaders we select to uphold that freedom.  You cannot remove what is ingrained in our founding principles.