Students in Texas public schools will soon be learning from the Holy Bible under a new policy adopted by the state board of education late last month, but more than a few teachers are vowing to resist.
The move by Texas education policymakers, approved in a 9-5 vote on June 26, adds numerous biblical texts to the required reading list for grades K-12, set to phase in starting in 2030.
This includes stories like Noah’s Ark for first-graders, David and Goliath for second-graders, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, the Exodus, the Beatitudes, and passages from Genesis, Psalms, and the Sermon on the Mount. Alongside biblical texts, students will also read classics by Shakespeare, Dickens, and others.
“These timeless works, including biblical passages, have shaped American culture and history, and have influenced generations of thinkers, leaders, and citizens, and they continue to offer valuable lessons about human nature, virtue, liberty, and civic responsibility,” explained Senior Fellow Mandy Drogin with the conservative-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Critics, by contrast, were outraged that the Bible would be read by students without similar time for Islam, paganism, and other religious texts.
“Kids of all faith backgrounds and no faith are served by Texas schools, and they should all feel welcome in Texas schools,” complained Elva Mendoza, a spokesman for the far-left Texas Freedom Network. “But this is sending the message to children that one and only one religious text—a Christian one—is worthy of making this required reading list.”
Parents can opt their children out of specific reading assignments, if they prefer.
While Texas may be among the first in recent times to resurrect Bible reading in school, it is certainly not the radical innovation critics claim. Instead, it is a long-overdue correction toward truth in education.
For centuries, American education and schooling was literally centered on the Scriptures. The very first education law in North America, the Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647 in Massachusetts, mandated that children learn to read specifically so they could study the Bible. The goal: avoid deception by the “old deluder Satan.”
Early textbooks like the New England Primer taught the alphabet through biblical truths: “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”
The Bible shaped literacy, morality, and civic virtue from the colonial era through much of the 19th and even into the 20th century. It was not until the early 1960s that the Supreme Court claimed — falsely — that the First Amendment prohibited Bible and prayer in schools.
America’s unparalleled success as a free and prosperous republic was no accident—it flowed from a biblically literate populace.
Texas is now reclaiming that heritage. Lawmakers also voted in recent years to require the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
Supporters rightly argue that Christian traditions are foundational to Western civilization, American history, and concepts like liberty, justice, and human dignity. As one advocate noted, these works have “shaped American culture and history” and offer “valuable lessons about human nature, virtue, liberty, and civic responsibility.”
Yet the backlash has been swift and predictable. Critics, including teachers’ unions, the Texas Freedom Network, and leftist outlets, scream “separation of church and state” and decry a lack of “diversity.”
The far-left media is upset, too. PBS and others frame it as a challenge to the First Amendment, while Salon gleefully predicts it will backfire by sparking doubt among Christian students.
Teachers on Reddit and social media, meanwhile, have vented frustration, with some vowing resistance or invoking Satan in jest.
One high school English teacher worried aloud about Muslim or atheist students hearing “This is a Bible story. We’re talking about God.”
Progressive activists packed hearings, with one Fort Worth teacher quoted by the Associated Press complaining the list is “very old and very white” and insufficiently inclusive of other faiths. Ironically, the biblical writers were from the Middle East.
This resistance reveals the real agenda. For decades, anti-Christian forces have used a distorted reading of the First Amendment—not found in its text but invented by courts—to purge the Bible from public life.
In its place, they flooded schools with secular humanism, evolution as dogma, gender ideology, critical race theory, and explicit sexual content.
The “wall of separation” between church and state that Thomas Jefferson referred to was meant to prevent a national established church, not to banish biblical literacy or historical truth from education. Indeed, Jefferson himself supported Bible use in schools. The Founders saw no contradiction.
Now, with Texas taking a small step back toward sanity, the same crowd that cheered “diversity” in curricula suddenly cries foul. The irony is thick.
If the First Amendment truly demands absolute neutrality, why have schools long pushed material hostile to Christianity? Why have libraries quietly replaced Bibles with Qurans in some Texas districts, as reports have highlighted?
The goal was never neutrality — it was to eliminate Christianity, as explained by one of the men involved in Robert Owen’s successful bid to have government take over education.
The novel danger here is weaponization. Anti-Christian activists and litigious groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation will almost certainly sue, claiming “establishment” of religion. But their “victory” could boomerang.
A misguided ruling by activist judges might force schools to include Islamic texts, pagan myths, Satanist materials, or New Age spirituality under the guise of “balance,” “neutrality,” and “inclusion.”
It is not a new playbook: after removing Christian symbols, activists demanded “equal time” for every ideology, effectively turning classrooms into marketplaces for spiritual confusion. In fact, it seems like every non-biblical religion is welcome in government schools today.
Texas teachers resisting the Bible on grounds of “autonomy” or discomfort with non-Christian students should ask themselves: Will they show the same zeal when pressured to teach from the Quran or facilitate “After School Satan clubs,” as some districts have tolerated elsewhere?
Social media reactions capture the divide. While many celebrate the return of moral foundations, others mock it as theocratic overreach. Progressive voices on X warn of lawsuits and claim it violates religious freedom for minorities.
Yet parental opt-outs exist under Texas law, protecting those families. True religious liberty allows exposure to our civilizational roots without coercion—something secularists rarely extend to biblical perspectives.
Historically, removing the Bible from education has correlated with declining literacy, moral chaos, and cultural decay. Test scores stagnate, family breakdown accelerates, and youth grapple with nihilism.
Texas’s move acknowledges that real education includes the greatest collection of books ever written, the Bible — not as sectarian indoctrination, but as literature, history, and ethical cornerstone. Ignoring it leaves students illiterate about their own heritage, not to mention morality and the purpose of life.
Critics demanding “inclusivity” overlook a key point: The Bible’s influence dwarfs others in shaping America. Including it does not erase other faiths; it restores balance after generations of one-sided exclusion.
Parents, not bureaucrats or activist judges, should guide their children’s formation. Local control and teacher judgment matter, but so does ensuring students encounter the ideas that built the civilization those same students have inherited.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others have long pushed these reforms. This is part of a broader awakening: Americans are rejecting the godless experiment that replaced biblical wisdom with state propaganda.
As implementation approaches in 2030, expect more lawsuits, media hysteria, and teacher pushback. But the deeper battle is philosophical. Will education form souls capable of discerning truth, or surrender to the “old deluder” once more?
Texas has taken a courageous stand. Other states should follow — not just with Bible readings, but by rejecting the false neutrality that has hollowed out education.
The stakes are the minds and hearts of the next generation. True education demands the full truth, starting with the Book that has illuminated Western civilization for millennia. Anything less is delusion.
The real solution is for responsibility over education to be placed back where it belongs: Parents and family, with perhaps a supplemental role for the church and charities. But if tens of millions of victims are going to be trapped in government schools, they need the Bible, just like everyone else.