Religion Dispatches
…the new language. In addition to the issue of supplemental materials, the Texas Education Agency is now scrambling to complete its end-of-chapter tests, which are based on the new standards. Since the vote, church and state watchdog groups have been contemplating their next step. In the meantime, the Texas American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties organizations are urging members to contact publishers asking them to not kowtow to t…
Read More…s. However, Shawn’s case may run into another, less obvious legal barrier: Texas’ “anti-sharia” law, which went into effect in 2017. Texas’s H.B. 45 (codified at § 22.0041 and § 22.022 of the Texas Government Code), states that “litigants in actions under the Family Code involving a marriage relationship… are protected against violations of constitutional rights and public policy in the application of foreign law.” The bill doesn’t explicitly refe…
Read More…inability to publicly speak out for or against a potential subject for the Texas curriculum would be construed or perceived as the State’s endorsement of a particular religion.” The full decision can be read here. Steve Schafersman of the Texas Citizens for Science, a bulldog on these issues, disagrees with the court’s decision. The National Center for Science Education’s coverage is here. Meanwhile, fast forward a few years, the Texas Board of Ed…
Read More…new social studies curriculum, The Thomas Fordham Institute has handed the Texas Board of Education a ‘D’ and a stern lecture. But the far-right learning Christian fundamentalist board members, who rewrote the curriculum last year to create a version of American history in their own image, can’t honestly dismiss the study as the work of pointy-headed liberal elites. The Fordham Institute is a conservative think tank that advocates for school choi…
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…tate more clearly, the message that state officials wish to communicate to Texas schoolchildren, which is that Texas is a state for White, heteronormative, conservative Christians. Texas, however, is much more religiously diverse than this message would suggest—and far more diverse than it was when I grew up there in the 1970s. According to the Pew Research Center, only 31% of adult Texans are evangelical Protestant, the constituency that would mo…
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…ents, booked an on-campus venue, and began to advertise the event and sell tickets. Then, 11 days before the drag fundraiser was set to take place, WT President Walter Wendler, who has a record of inserting his right-wing Christian bias into his public roles, unilaterally canceled the performance via a pedantic email. Seidel tells the story of the drag show cancelation at West Texas A&M (clip=5.5 minutes): Much of the moralizing communique was cou…
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…We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping, whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee, we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless in…
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…e success either. The opening weekend saw sales of more than $6 million in tickets. That’s the kind of number that will inspire others to try and figure out the formula for the faith-and-family blockbuster. Yet, with the cost of the film reportedly exceeding $30 million, it’s an open question whether or not the Left Behind reboot will get a second installment. The marketing problem of evangelical movies is still, stubbornly, a problem. The general…
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…ou’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept Lakers tickets in lieu of apologies, but I think that particular era is done.) This whole book is a result of a profound evolution, and needs to be seen as such. American Muslims have gone through a lot over the last few decades. We were never the caricature Islamophobes made us ou…
Read MoreAt oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. v. Sebelius this morning, the Supreme Court justices spent a great deal of time questioning the lawyers in the case about whether corporations have a religious conscience, and whether Congress intended to protect it when enacting the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What was most striking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia So…
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