WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative lawmakers in the U.S. are pushing to introduce more Christianity into public school classrooms by testing the separation of church and state by inserting Bible passages into reading lessons and requiring teachers to display the Ten Commandments.
The effort comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and promises to stand up for the First Amendment right to pray and read the Bible in school, practices that are already permitted as long as they are not prohibited by the government supported.
While the federal government is explicitly prohibited from telling states what to teach, Trump can indirectly influence what is taught in public schools, and his election could embolden activists at the state level.
Trump and his fellow Republicans support school choice and hope to expand the practice of using taxpayer-funded vouchers to facilitate parents send their children to religious schools.
But there are parallel efforts to integrate more Christianity into mainstream public schools, which serve the overwhelming majority of students, including those of other faiths. And with the facilitate of judges from Trump’s first term as president, courts have begun to embrace the idea of more religion in public spaces, including in schools.
“The fact that even Trump is president-elect, let alone president again, means that Christian nationalists are more emboldened than ever,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Many Americans believe that the Founding Fathers wanted the United States to be a Christian nation. A smaller group, part of a movement commonly referred to as Christian nationalism, advocates a fusion of American and Christian identities and believes that the United States has a mission to build an explicitly Christian society.
Many historians argue the opposite, claiming that the framers created the United States as an alternative to European monarchies with official state churches and the oppression of religious minorities.
There are efforts in several states to introduce more Christianity into classrooms.
In Louisiana, Republicans passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments, beginning with “I am the Lord your God,” to be displayed in every public school classroom. You shall have no other gods before me.” Families complained.
In Texas, authorities approved a curriculum in November that combines language instruction with Bible studies. And in Oklahoma, the state education department has demanded that schools include Bible-based instruction from fifth through 12th grade, a request the schools are failing to meet.
Utah state lawmakers designated the Ten Commandments a historical document in the same category as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, allowing teachers to display them in their classrooms. Many other states have passed laws that would accommodate them in more classrooms. And attorneys general from 17 Republican-led states recently filed a brief supporting Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate.
Schools are allowed – and even encouraged – to teach about religion and familiarize students with religious texts. But some say the modern measures indoctrinate students rather than educate them.
Critics also raised concerns about the proliferation of lesson plans. Some states have allowed teachers to apply videos from Prager U, a nonprofit founded by a conservative talk show host, despite criticism that the videos positively highlight the spread of Christianity and contain Christian nationalist talking points.
During his first term, Trump commissioned the 1776 Project, a report that sought to promote a more patriotic version of American history. It was panned by historians and scholars who said it credited Christianity with many positive turns in U.S. history without mentioning, for example, religion’s role in maintaining slavery.
The project was developed into a curriculum by conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan and is now taught in a network of publicly funded charter schools supported by the college. It has also influenced state standards in South Dakota.
Challenges to some government measures are now making their way through the courts, which have become friendlier to religious interests thanks to Trump’s appointments of judges.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach who was fired for praying with players at midfield after a game, saying the school district had violated his right to religious expression. Dissenting judges noted that some players felt pressured to join the coach. But the Supreme Court said a public school could not restrict an employee’s religious activities simply because doing so could be construed as an endorsement of religion, reversing five decades of precedent.
The ruling could pave the way for conservatives to introduce more Christianity into public schools, said Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina.
“Donald Trump’s legal officials have encouraged states” to test the separation of church and state, he said.
After the football coach’s case, courts are now analyzing the separation of church and state through the lens of history, said Joseph Davis of Becket, a public interest law firm specializing in religious freedom that is defending Louisiana over its Ten Commandments mandate.
The Supreme Court has endorsed the idea that “it’s OK to have religious expression in public spaces,” Davis said, “and that we should somehow expect that … if it’s a big part of our history.”
Critics say some moves to introduce more historical references to Christianity in classrooms have gone too far, unnecessarily inserting biblical references while erasing Christianity’s role in justifying American atrocities, such as the genocide of Native Americans .
This is among the criticisms facing the modern reading curriculum in Texas. The districts created by the state are not required to apply it, but receive financial incentives for adopting it.
“The authors appear to go out of their way to incorporate detailed Bible lessons into the curriculum, even when they are unnecessary and unwarranted,” religious scholar David R. Brockman wrote in a review of the material. “Although religious freedom is critical to American democracy, the curriculum distorts its role in the founding of the nation while underestimating the importance of other fundamental freedoms valued by Americans.”
Texas Values, a conservative think tank that supported the modern reading curriculum, said in a statement that the court’s decision to allow more Christianity in schools and direct more taxpayer money to religious institutions was corrective.
The football coach’s case rightly restored protections for religion and free speech in public schools, said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values.
“Voters and lawmakers are growing tired of attacks on God and our legacy of being ‘One Nation Under God,'” he said.
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Associated Press writers Sara Cline, Kimberlee Kruesi and Peter Smith contributed.
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