AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Two Baptist ministers joined about two dozen other religious leaders in a May 12 press conference at the Texas Capitol to decry school textbook standards they say would weaken instruction about religious liberty and the separation of church and state.
"Our Founding Fathers understood that the best way to protect religious liberty in America is to keep government out of matters of faith," said Roger Paynter, pastor of Austin's First Baptist Church. "But this state board appears hostile to teaching students about the importance of keeping religion and state separate, a principle long supported in my own Baptist tradition and in other faiths."
The event, one week before the State Board of Education begins final debate on proposed new social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools, was sponsored by the Texas Faith Network, a coalition of more than 600 mainstream and progressive clergy and project of the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund.
In March board members voted 10-5 along party lines to amend textbook standards to correct what a bloc of social conservatives view as hostility toward Christianity and traditional values.
Proposed changes to the curriculum include downplaying the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers and requiring teachers to cover "Judeo-Christian" influences on the nation's founding.
A group of historians said many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders. Texas is one of the two largest textbook purchasers, giving publishers incentive to tailor their curriculum with that market in mind.
Republican board members defeated an amendment that would have required students to examine the reasons the founders "protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others."
Also speaking at the press conference was Larry Bethune, pastor of University Baptist Church in Austin. "We don't want to be the laughing stock of the nation and certainly don't want our children to be taught a very narrow religious agenda," Bethune told television station News 8 Austin.
"We think it's very important that Texas children understand religious liberty and its place as the First Amendment of our Constitution and Bill of Rights," Bethune said.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.