this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Texas Republicans may regret mandating Bible in classes (www.salon.com)
submitted 1 day ago by VetOfTheSeas@discuss.online to c/atheism@lemmy.world
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It’s also likely to backfire on the religious right. They better hope that the kids skip the assigned reading, much less actual discussion and debate about it in class. As many an ex-evangelical can tell you, direct exposure to what the Bible actually says is often the first step to walking away from Christian fundamentalism altogether.

There’s a reason conservative Christians prefer quoting solitary Bible verses out of context: Not only does this allow them to twist the meaning for their own personal or political ends, but it also makes it much easier to avoid the critical thinking that engaging with longer passages can provoke. On my YouTube show “Standing Room Only,” the scholar and former evangelical Brad Onishi pointed to 2 Chronicles 7:20, a passage Christian nationalists often deploy to argue that America is meant to be a Christian nation by relying on the verse’s violent implications of God promising to “pluck” the unbelievers “up by the roots out of my land.” The larger context reveals that this story is about the ancient king Solomon, and it has nothing to do with the modern nation-state, much less one on a continent unknown to the writers of the Bible.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago

I suspect the new law was not actually considered at length but was, as Dan McClellan might suggest, used by legislators as costly signaling to show their campaign contributors that they are true white Christian nationalists and therefore worth the money being thrown their way.

But yes, kids will get impatient at bible passages just as much as they were impatient with Animal Farm or The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas or To Kill A Mockingbird

(I speak from experience. I was introduced to classics in elementary grammar school and entirely unable to appreciate why they were so profound until much later in life when I could think about them critically.)

And yeah, those kids smart enough to think about bible passages critically will be on the fast-track to personal faith deconstruction.

[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 77 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I've heard nothing encourages atheism better than Catholic School.

People learn nothing makes sense and everything is a sin. So why bother anymore?

[–] Taco2112@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Turned me into a Orthodox Agnostic

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Read the Bible in full the summer before sixth grade because, well, it's the actual word of God, and eternity is infinitely more important than some 70-odd years. Besides, I'd already read Genesis and Exodus, and those were pretty interesting on their own.

I did not spend sixth grade as a Christian.

Edit: I will say, though, that Genesis has some crazy red flags I sort of just glossed over at the time, like the Levite's concubine.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

YMMV. There's layers to this cake. One of the most notable is in how it's deliberately excluding other religious beliefs. If you are a practicing Muslim, for instance, you get singled out and tormented by state officials if you demonstrate any kind of piety that isn't state-approved. Similarly, outspoken atheists (or squishy liberal Methodists or Unitarians) become lightening rods for school admins looking to prove they're zealous enough in their Christianization to drop the hammer on non-believers.

All lot of the second order effects of this won't be just annoying students with Christianity until they dislike it as much as they dislike Math. It's going to be opening up naked harassment and bullying of non-Christians, while turning the school bureaucracy against anyone who is outwardly non-conforming.

I vividly remember this happening in my own Middle/High School life, way back in the 90s, when Evolution and Gay were the whipping kids of the religious right. The end result was lots of good people being purged from the system for petty and arbitrary reasons, while a lot of utter assholes got cushy positions in the school board and upper wings of the administrative offices to rubber stamp the abuse.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately, I can confirm this.

[–] joeljoelle@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago

catholic school turned me into a idealistic hippie xD

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 day ago

I, an atheist, was forced to study the bible in a Catholic school I attended. First, it turned me into an atheist. Second, it made me realize that Jesus was a hard core anti establishment communist.pacifist.

[–] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

When I was 12 it was customary in my family's religion to become baptized. It isn't done for babies but for older children and adults to decide for themselves. I decided I should read the whole Bible before I committed. I ended up leaving the religion. My parents were starting to question it as well and also left around that time. Many of the people I know who have left that or other Christian religions have done so after they finally read the Bible themselves and not the select verses in church services. Not everyone who reads it leaves, some find what they need to stay, but from personal experience it is many more leaving than staying.

[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Christiofascists HATE when you quote the actual Bible to them

[–] Quasit@beige.party 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

@switcheroo @VetOfTheSeas
I have quoted the Bible to some people online who leapt to the conclusion that I was Christian. When I told them that I was not, they generally freaked out. One of them threatened to kill me.

[–] honesthenery@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Texas is such a fly over state...

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 22 hours ago

There's a lot of guns there, make sure you fly at a higher altitude so they don't try to make you join them.

[–] homes@piefed.world 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I can personally attest to this. Once I critically engaged with the Bible, I almost instantly became an atheist.

But it wasn’t until I read Milton’s paradise lost that I saw the Bible more as a piece of literary work, and really related to the character of Lucifer and engaged with the philosophy of rebellion

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’m very happy my kids watch Jake Doubleyoo on YouTube, where he rightly places Christian mythology on the same level as other world mythologies.

[–] homes@piefed.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I took an AP level world theology class my senior year of high school, and it was taught by the senior priest at my school. She, thankfully, taught it from a quite just dispassionate point of view, placing Christianity on an even level with every other religion we discussed, showing it both no favoritism, and positioning it, alongside the others, with no particular validity.

She could clearly see that I was quite quickly progressing towards a position of atheism, and I was very much getting the feeling that it was a position she, even as a priest, held as well. There was a silent understanding between us. And I felt a bit of camaraderie with her.

I learned an awful lot from that class. About different cultures and different societies and how different belief systems were formed. About how and why different people came to believe the things they do and why. It taught me a lot about different people and different perspectives. It might’ve been the best humanities course I ever took. and, because I was the only one who took the course, it was pretty much one on one.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The more you learn about religion in general, the clearer it becomes that it is entirely a mechanism to control the people. It is such a good mechanism for it, in fact, that literally EVERY culture throughout history has employed it for that very use.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 19 points 1 day ago

I don't think conservatives have the, like, object permanence, to regret their decisions

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

That would require self-awareness and reflection. Never gonna happen. Not in Texas.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Obviously they need to use the new "Bible According to St. Trump", not that woke old thing.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)
[–] honesthenery@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 day ago

He looks like a baby who shit his pants

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Holding it upside down, such a perfect metaphor. He probably didn’t know how to hold it because he doesn’t know what the fuck a book actually is.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago

They plan on teaching them out of context and only including those about obeying. This will be like going to a mega church.

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

When you force students to read something, there is no book so good the students won't hate it. The Bible is miserable to read even when you're not forced.

Actually, Tess of the D'Urbervilles wasn't so bad, I guess.

[–] SparroHawc@piefed.world 3 points 1 day ago

I also quite enjoyed Mary Renault's "The King Must Die" in high school.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Twud be hilarious if that's what they needed this whole time in order to be more Christ like. 12 years of homework to read their one book.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

As soon as they get to Numbers or Judges students will see some big problems with American Christianity.