Advocates at State Affairs Hearing Push Back Against Arguments That Anti-Discrimination Laws Threaten Religious Liberty FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUSTIN – Religious and civil liberties groups today warned Texas senators that religious freedom has never meant the right to use faith as a weapon to discriminate against others or to ignore laws that everyone else must […]
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
So Is Ted Cruz Running for President or Priest?
Here is Heidi Cruz on Wednesday, putting husband Ted Cruz’s race for president in, well, godly terms: “When I thought about doing it for our country, it became very clear to me that our family must be in this race. We are at a cultural crossroads in our country, and if we can be in this […]
Far-Right Texas Pastor Jeffress: Obama Is ‘Defender-in-Chief of Islam’
Robert Jeffress, the far-right Dallas pastor who thinks President Obama is paving the way for the Antichrist, is troubled that the president visited a Baltimore mosque this week to express his opposition to bigotry and discrimination targeting Muslim Americans. After Jeffress spoke on Fox News today, the network tweeted some of his comments, including: .@robertjeffress: Pres. […]
2015 in Quotes: The Real War on Religious Freedom
Religious-right activists have been chipping away at the wall separating church and state for decades. Now we hear elected officials who are just as shameful in their attacks on this fundamental protection for religious freedom in America. Indeed, their own words reveal a depth of support for religious freedom that’s almost paper thin. Here’s what we heard from […]
The Religious Intolerance of Greg Abbott
With the holidays upon us, religious righters and the politicians who pander to them are looking for any excuse to scream about a mythical “war on Christmas” and dream up new “threats” to religious freedom. The latest example comes to us from the city of Orange in Southeast Texas. Orange city officials have decided to remove a Christmas […]
