Battle lines are forming in the newest “culture war” flash point in Texas: the state House of Representatives. In fact, religious-right pressure groups are working furiously to replace Republican Joe Straus of San Antonio with a hard-right Speaker of the House. Each day brings a new attack in the far right’s “scorched earth” strategy, with […]
Texas lawmakers have begun filing bills for the 82nd Legislative Session, which begins in January. Among the early legislation is House Bill 79 by state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van: POSTING OF TEN COMMANDMENTS. The board of trustees of an independent school district may not prohibit the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in […]
The Texas Freedom Network’s efforts to keep politics out of social studies classrooms this year has attracted the usual batch of right-wing hate mail. We also heard from folks who didn’t like our opposition to a State Board of Education resolution attacking Islam and falsely claiming that social studies textbooks are anti-Christian and pro-Muslim. Let’s […]
Texas Gov. Rick Perry doesn’t just pander to religious-right extremists. He’s also a big favorite of “tea party” folks (many of whom, in Texas anyway, are also religious-righters). So we weren’t surprised when Gov. Perry suggested last year that maybe Texas should consider seceding from the Union. Now he says Texas should be able to […]
Distressingly, a recent survey shows that many Americans give low marks to places of worship when it comes to dealing with homosexuality. According to the poll from the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service, 18 percent of Americans gave religious organizations in general a “D” and 24 percent gave them […]
