Texas legislators this year claim they finally want to do a better job making sure public schools have the funds they need to educate our state’s schoolchildren. Well, the House Public Education Committee isn’t helping after last week approving a bill on posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. In fact, that bill is a church-state train wreck that could tie up school districts in […]
Religious Freedom
The Texas Freedom Network supports the constitutional guarantee of the separation of church and state, which protects the right of all Americans to practice the faith of their choice, or none at all, free of government interference.
Unfortunately, efforts to knock down that wall are a constant in Texas. Politicians and extremists continually work to impose their views on others, especially around issues like abortion, access to contraception, and LGBTQIA+ equality. And in a distortion of the principle of religious freedom, far-right groups have supported legislative efforts to allow people to use religion as an excuse to ignore laws they might not like and even as a weapon to discriminate against others.
Resources
- Prayer in Public Schools: A Primer (2001 report)
- The Texas Faith-Based Initiative (2002 report)NDOP_Report_2005_Revised
- A Report on The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (2005 report)
- Reading, Writing & Religion: Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools (2006 report)
- Reading, Writing & Religion II (2013 report)
- Can This Class Be Saved? The ‘Hobby Lobby’ Public School Bible Curriculum (2014 report)
Push for Public School Bible Courses Gets White House Endorsement Regardless of Serious Problems
Efforts by religious conservatives to get more public schools to teach courses about the Bible got the public support of President Trump late last month: […]
TFN Statement: Supreme Court’s Colorado Cakeshop Ruling Does Not Grant Businesses a Right to Use Religion to Discriminate
Today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Colorado case does not grant businesses a right to use religion to discriminate. We just sent out the following press release: […]
David Barton Makes the Misleading Case for Politicizing Houses of Worship
Religious-righters are upset that President Trump and congressional Republicans failed to repeal the so-called “Johnson Amendment” in last year’s big tax bill. Last week David Barton, the prominent religious-right huckster and phony historian from Texas, tried again to make the case for getting churches and other houses of worship even more involved in partisan politics. Not surprisingly, he did so by mischaracterizing […]
New Trump Religious-Refusal Policy Makes a Mockery of Religious Freedom, Endangers Vulnerable People
The Trump administration today announced a new policy favoring health care workers who refuse to do their jobs because they have religious or moral objections to certain services or to the individuals receiving them. We just sent out the following press release: […]
