The 86th session of the Texas Legislature is history. Lawmakers left town on Monday following a session that, generally speaking, had fewer of the culture war fights we’ve come to expect. You can attribute that to elections, and it seems the results of last November have elected officials worried about their fates at the ballot […]
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)
- The National Day of Prayer Task Force: Turning a Day of Faith into a Rally for the Christian Right (2005 Report)
- 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)
- Turning Texas Public Schools into Sunday Schools? A Review of the State’s Proposed K-5 Reading Curriculum (2024 report) | Executive Summary
TFN STATEMENT ON THE END OF THE 2019 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
We just sent out the following statement on the end of the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature. […]
Texas House Committee Advances Bill on Posting Ten Commandments in Public Schools
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 […]
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: […]
