At a time when the Southern Baptist Convention has fallen completely under the control of religious fundamentalists who seek to use government to promote their own ideological views, it might be hard to remember the long tradition of Baptist support for separation of church and state. Many Baptists still support it. Take, for example, the […]
Whether on prayer in public schools or creationism in science classrooms, we heard plenty from politicians and activists who see no problem mixing religion and state. Our review of what the far right had to say in 2012 continues. You can read more quotes from 2012 and previous years here. “In 1962 we kicked prayer […]
It didn’t take long for religious-righters to use the horrifying tragedy in Connecticut last week as another opportunity to bash America for supposedly ignoring God. Today, for example, a Texas-based group with too many names — Liberty Institute presently, formerly Free Market Foundation, and now with a special offshoot called Texas Values — proclaimed its […]
We’ll give this to him: he’s persistent. On the first day (today) that lawmakers can file bills for the 2013 session of the Texas Legislature, state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, has proposed a bill — House Bill 49 — requiring public high school students to take a course on the U.S. Constitution. Seems reasonable? Of […]
During the Texas State Board of Education‘s debate over science curriculum standards in 2008, supporters of sound science education succeeded in killing a provision that would have required students to learn creationism-inspired arguments about the “weaknesses” of evolution. But nine Republicans in state board races apparently will insist that new biology textbooks include those bogus […]
This column is cross-posted from Texas School Administrators Legal Digest Online. It is written by Texas attorney Jim Walsh, the managing editor of the Digest and co-author of The Educator’s Guide to Texas School Law. Your school superintendent did the right thing. When he ordered the Kountze ISD cheerleaders to cease putting scripture verses reflecting […]
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to determine whether a Texas church has violated federal tax law by posting a public sign urging people to “vote for the Mormon, not the Muslim.” According to AU, the pastor of the Church in the Valley in Leakey, Texas, posted […]
Florida voters don’t seem to be buying into a proposed constitutional amendments that would fling open the door to public funding for religious institutions. The defeat of that amendment, which is on the November ballot, could discourage efforts to pass similar measures in other states, including Texas. A Suffolk University/7NEWS(WSVN-Miami) poll found that just 28 […]
The following guest post is by Tom Spencer, CEO of Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT). “Satan runs across the world with his doubts and with his untruths and what have you, and one of the untruths out there that is driven is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena.” […]
The following post by Joe Deshotel is cross-posted from Burnt Orange Report. Deshotel is a BOR staff writer. His post notes two recent incidents — a dispute at a public school district and remarks by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a conference call with pastors – that illustrate the continuing efforts by some to blur […]
