The Bible is one of the most influential books in human history. No educated person can fully understand Shakespeare, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., or much of Western literature and history without some familiarity with its stories and language. Public schools should not ignore that reality.
But that is not what the Texas State Board of Education has done.
By voting to require millions of public school students to study specified Bible stories and passages as part of the state’s mandatory English and literature curriculum, Texas has crossed an important constitutional line. The issue is not whether students should learn about religion. They should. The issue is whether government should decide which sacred texts children must study, in what form and through whose religious lens.
Supporters argue that the curriculum merely recognizes the Bible’s literary and historical importance. If that were all Texas were doing, there would be little controversy. Schools have long taught biblical references as part of literature and history.
Instead, Texas has mandated particular Bible stories, prescribed specific translations — including the King James Bible — and incorporated them into required classroom instruction. Parents who choose to opt their children out may still find those students tested on the material. Teachers with little background in religious studies will be expected to explain sacred scripture. Religious education has traditionally belonged to families and houses of worship. Texas has decided that public schools should assume part of that responsibility.
For American Jews, that should be deeply troubling.
History teaches Jews to be wary whenever government acquires the power to favor one religion over another. The extraordinary success of Jewish life in the United States did not occur because government promoted religion. It occurred because the Constitution largely prevented government from choosing among religions. That principle has protected religious minorities for nearly 250 years by ensuring that today’s majority cannot use the machinery of the state to advance its own faith.
Nor will this end with one curriculum vote. The new standards are not scheduled to take effect until 2030, and constitutional challenges are virtually certain. Courts will again be asked to determine where teaching about religion ends and government promotion of religion begins. Other states may follow Texas’ lead, while others move aggressively in the opposite direction. Public schools risk becoming yet another front in America’s culture wars.
Ironically, this controversy is entirely unnecessary. Students should understand the Bible because it has materially influenced literature, history, art and the American political tradition. But there is a profound difference between studying the Bible and having the state prescribe which sacred texts every child must read. Once government assumes the authority to shape religious education, it inevitably begins making religious judgments.
America’s founders understood that genuine religious liberty depends not upon government promoting faith but upon government remaining neutral among faiths. That principle has made the United States the safest and most successful home Jews have ever known outside the State of Israel. Texas has blurred that line. In doing so, it has not strengthened religious freedom. It has weakened one of the constitutional safeguards that has protected believers of every faith — and the freedom of every parent to guide a child’s religious upbringing — for generations.
