Texas Republicans may regret mandating Bible in classes
cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/42004497
It’s also likely to backfire on the religious right. They better hope that the kids skip the assigned reading, much less actual discussion and debate about it in class. As many an ex-evangelical can tell you, direct exposure to what the Bible actually says is often the first step to walking away from Christian fundamentalism altogether.
There’s a reason conservative Christians prefer quoting solitary Bible verses out of context: Not only does this allow them to twist the meaning for their own personal or political ends, but it also makes it much easier to avoid the critical thinking that engaging with longer passages can provoke. On my YouTube show “Standing Room Only,” the scholar and former evangelical Brad Onishi pointed to 2 Chronicles 7:20, a passage Christian nationalists often deploy to argue that America is meant to be a Christian nation by relying on the verse’s violent implications of God promising to “pluck” the unbelievers “up by the roots out of my land.” The larger context reveals that this story is about the ancient king Solomon, and it has nothing to do with the modern nation-state, much less one on a continent unknown to the writers of the Bible.
https://www.salon.com/2026/07/01/texas-republicans-may-regret-mandating-bible-in-classes/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
31 replies
Hopefully the teachers will maliciously comply as much as they can. Teaching the parts Republicans hate.
Teachers probably have enough to deal with without irate parents screaming at them.
Parents already scream at them over nothing. I think they would enjoy doing something to actually earn it for once. Especially by complying with this stupid law.
I think you underestimate the level of bullshit that they already deal with.
And the stupidity of Americans, which is exemplified by the stupidity of Texans
Amen to that
give me an Amen!
Matthew 6:24
Leviticus 25:23
Ezekiel 16:49
James 5:1-6
James 2:14-18
1 John 4:20
Proverbs 31:8-9
Leviticus 19:33-34
Exodus 22:21
Deuteronomy 10:19
Deuteronomy 27:19
Thank you for listing all af the passages that these schools will avoid sharing with the children.
Not to worry + I'm sure they'll have highly redacted versions published for school use. Or an AI-generated one that will contradict itself even more than the actual Bible does.
Then there's always the issue that the premise of this article relies upon the idea that the bulk of kids will be well-versed in using critical thought - something (sometimes literally) beaten out of southern kids via bullying from their own families.
I feel like you don't need much critical thought to find it unfair that an entity would create you for the sole purpose of torturing you for eternity (Romans 9:19-21), or that the mass killing of women, children, and animals is unambiguously evil (1 Samuel 15:3) or that we shouldn't kill people for working on Sunday (Exodus 35:2)
You'd have to read it, understand it, & the critical part: know how to apply it to your own life. I come from a family where I was bullied - you are trained early on not to even think of "backtalking" authority for fear of your own safety. They just won't allow themselves to go there. There's a reason the right is so irrational: they never learned to question anything because they weren't allowed to. So their arguments are just a random combo of shit they were trained to "believe" and whatever sounds like a good bully argument. It's attack, or be attacked & that's their primary concern deep down.
I only escaped the clutches because my parents separated while the family was in a foreign country. I was the youngest & "Mom's baby", and my mother was absolutely clueless on how to parent & ultimately didn't. I wound up l spending a huge chunk of my life trying to figure out how the world worked on my own, which definitely had some huge drawbacks, but at least on the positive side it allowed me to see the world for what it actually was. Eventually.
This is cope. The unconstitutional mandate is still a bad thing and needs to be stopped.
The best book to read in order to stop believing is ... The Bible. Have at it and enjoy!
I was so very religious until I got sent to a Juvenile Detention center as a kid and actually read the bible.
You are right.
Sunday school did it for me. When you read about a guy against wealth, dogmatism and organized religion and realize where you are.
Here, religion is part of the curriculum and we sent our kids to catholic class. After a few years they were like „it’s just silly stories that don’t make sense“
Here's what Tom Paine had to say about it: "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."
Expecting reading comprehension from the average Texan is quite hopeful.
We're not really what you see on tv. We have a lot of blue people who don't vote because they've been told that blue votes don't matter here.
This gives me hope- https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/article/meet-flower-mound-texas-baker-sparked-maga-uproar-22339167.php
They've been selling out and closing early every day since Libs of TikTok 'cancelled' them a couple of weeks ago.
So either dumb, or lazy and making up excuses?
Let them learn about the kindness that Jesus preached. Except to the money changers using temples as places to make money. Hmm.
This is why Mormons control the teaching of seminary, even to the point of building classrooms off school ground so they can teach seminary class.
Bible stories in the classroom sounds great, if teachers can use A/V aids like this:
The Goon Bible Project - Book of Job
Kids will love it.
Reading the Bible is the best way to become an atheist.
Still, this should not be a mandated thing. That is inhumane, cruel, against god and against freedom.
Onishi and his co-host, with their "Straight White American Jesus" podcast, have been hitting it out of the park lately. Last week there was an episode about the Job story where their analysis made the God character come off as a real dick, and also showed how the Satan character is misunderstood badly - in the Job story he kind of works for God as part of his administration and they cooperate on certain projects such as the Job one. Also last week was an analysis of the Garden of Eden story and on the concept of Original Sin. It seems that the poor snake is not some kind of embodiment of the Satan character at all, at least according to the Bible.
Just listened to the Job episode. Excellent. Thanks for the recommendation.
Huh, i thought everybody knew in the original Bible (ot) satan job is always being a demon who tempts human, he never fell or anything.
And that the serpent is different guy.
And of course we're mandating bible classes instead of critical thinking classes.
Oh yes indeed, most of the Bible is very explicit and rated R. However, they do sell those watered down kids versions that I’m sure they will require.
@FoxtrotDeltaTango Any religious fanaticism throughout the world will produce negative results because people in general treasure their 'freedom of choice'. Furthermore, there is a question of validity over the existence of the Bible. Jesus was a Jew, He observed the Sabbath, circumcised etc. It was Paul who opened the door for the 'uncircumcised' to enter the fold. So just what kind of 'Bible' classes are we going to have?
The Christian nationalist kind