Texas Leads The Way On Christian Nationalism

What's Happening?

What does it mean to be American? Our traditional vision centers on constitutional principles such as equality, free speech, and religious freedom. Another vision, persistent throughout American history and most notably advanced today by Trump, J.D. Vance, and figures aligned with the Christian nationalist movement, emphasizes heritage and Christianity, arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and should remain one.

Religious Liberty: But for whom?

A couple of things happened on June 26th that deserve wider attention. First, the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission released a 224-page report about the state of religious liberty in the country. The report makes twelve recommendations [1] for “Strengthening Religious Liberty for All Americans” that include alarming measures such as repealing the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits tax-exempt institutions such as houses of worship from engaging in partisan political campaigning, and expanding opportunities for private school vouchers.

The report also singles out anti-semitism as requiring protection [2], a justification that has often been used to suppress free speech and target the pro-Palestine movement. That the report’s recommendations are unbalanced is unsurprising; the Commission is led by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and is filled with figures linked to right-wing movements. Every member is Christian, except for one member who is Orthodox Jewish. (In fact, the Commission is currently facing a lawsuit from interfaith and diverse faith groups due its highly unrepresentative makeup.)

How Much Religion Should Be in Public Schools?

Speaking of Texas elected officials, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) made a set of controversial decisions on June 26th that will affect millions of students. The SBOE decisively weighed in on the Christian nationalist side when it approved what appears to be the first state-mandated reading list for the language arts. Nearly every grade includes a Bible passage, and the reading list overall primarily has texts by white and male authors in a state that is majority-minority. The SBOE’s decision follows another ongoing controversy over a highly inaccurate Bible-based reading curriculum that Texas incentivized public schools to adopt, and comes a few months after a federal appellate court upheld a 2025 Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.

While it is unusual for a state agency to actually proscribe which texts teachers should be assigning, Texas is one of three states (Utah and Oklahoma being the other two) that have enacted or tried to enact policies incorporating explicitly Biblical and Christian teachings into public school curricula. The same week, the Texas SBOE also passed a set of K through 8 social studies standards that have been heavily criticized for emphasizing Christianity, Western civilization, and narrow accounts of U.S. and Texan history over fair and representative curriculum standards. In an op-ed, SBOE Chairman Aaron Kinsey defended the standards and the Biblical content as necessary for teaching the Western "civilization that made America possible." [3]

If you have been following our Texas advocacy work, you also will have heard about the standards’ favorable treatment of Israel, the erasure of Palestinians and other non-white groups from the curricula, the whitewashing of U.S. slavery, and the implicit and explicit anti-Muslim sentiment in both the proposed curriculum standards and the SBOE’s hearings. On Monday, June 22, SBOE Member Brandon Hall made his feelings clear in an official proceeding: “we serve the one true God” and Islam would “run into a brick wall in the United States” and “not take over”, he declared to a Muslim testifier asking for fairer representation of Islamic history. [4]

Policy Perspectives

What Happens in Texas Doesn't Stay in Texas

What is happening to Texas education should concern everyone. About one out of every nine public school students in the U.S. attends a Texas public school, and Texas has an outsized impact on what content published textbooks teach. [5] Beyond just public education, what Texas is doing and what Trump’s commission is advocating for are part of a broader ideological project to define America as a Christian nation. In their version of the United States, white Christians who follow select branches of Christianity (as well as Zionists who complement their beliefs) should enjoy an elevated level of rights and privileges. Any restriction on their efforts to center public life around Christianity is an attack on their religious liberty.

Muslim Americans and other communities who do not have the religious and ethnic backgrounds sufficiently tied to this version of America’s founding do not have equal rights in this scheme. The Religious Liberty Commission Report is not shy about this: It decries decisions that keep the government removed from religion, such as U.S. Supreme Court decisions that forbade public schools from coercing students into engaging with religious practices they wished to avoid. “The concept of a ‘wall of separation between church and state,’” according to the report, is wrong because “church and state strengthen and support one another.” [6] But whose church? And what kind of state will we end up with?

Another part of the report makes that clear with the short shift given to a recent religious liberty violation upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. [7] Its decision held that a practicing Rastafarian, Damion Landor, previously incarcerated in Louisiana could not move forward with a lawsuit against prison officials who forcibly shaved his head in violation of his religious beliefs. Although both lower courts agreed with Mr. Landor, the Supreme Court blocked his lawsuit. We can only speculate what may have happened if Mr. Landor belonged to a religion the members of the Religious Liberty Commission identified with.

The debate about what kind of nation we are, what freedom of religion means, and who counts as American are about as old as our country. While more restrictive answers to all of these questions are politically powerful right now, the fight for equal rights and dignity under the law for people of all faiths is an American tradition too. The opportunity to comment publicly on the Religious Liberty Commission’s report is open until Monday, July 13, 2026. Comments can be emailed according to instructions found here to RLC@usdoj.gov.

References

1. Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report (June 2026), available at https://www.justice.gov/religious-liberty-commission/media/1449896/dl?inline.
2. Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report at pgs. 156 to 157. The commission’s recommendations include investigating “terrorism-funded activities” responsible for anti-Semitic attacks and increasing federal government responses to anti-Semitism.
3. Texas Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey on what America's 250th deserves, Aaron Kinsey (July 1, 2026), Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, available at https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2026/07/01/texas-state-education-chairman-kinsey-on-what-americas-250th-deserves/90761327007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.
4. Texas State Board of Education, Committee of the Full Board (June 22, 2026) available at https://www.adminmonitor.com/tx/tea/committee_of_the_full_board/20260622/ [11:41.21].
5. Approximately 5.5 million Texas students attend public schools. The most recent estimate from the National Center for Education Statistics estimates 49.6 million students attend pre-K to 12th grade public schools. See https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/11/texas-public-schools-see-historic-enrollment-drop/; https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cga/public-school-enrollment.
6. Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report at pg. 22.
7. Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety (Slip. Op.) (June 23, 2026). Available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/23-1197_h3ci.pdf.

ON OUR RADAR

Another Killing by ICE

A Houston husband, father, and small business owner died after an ICE officer shot him during a June 10 enforcement operation. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving to work when ICE agents in unmarked vehicles attempted to stop him. ICE says the officer acted in self-defense after Araujo allegedly ignored commands and tried to ram agents with his car, though no publicly released video has corroborated that account. Araujo, who had lived and worked in Houston for 35 years, leaves behind a wife and three children. Hundreds attended vigils demanding justice. Several Houston-area members of Congress, including Rep. Al Green and Christian Menefee, have called for an independent investigation, while the city has not. The FBI is investigating, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said Mexico is exploring legal action because Araujo was a Mexican citizen.

Maine Senate Race Update: Good riddance, Graham Platner

Following a serious allegation of rape, (former) Maine U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner announced he was exiting the race after an unlikely political rise marked both by its remarkable speed and by persistent questions concerning his past conduct and suitability for office. In an unapologetic, defiant video, Platner continued to deny the allegations against him and blamed political foes for his exit. Maine Democrats now have until July 27 to select a nominee through a party convention, Politico reported on Thursday. Potential replacements include former head of the Maine Senate and previous gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, who had campaigned with Platner and is backed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Iran War Update: The Ceasefire is “Over”

After signing a Memorandum of Understanding in Versailles last month to cease hostilities and begin re-opening the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran was “over.” The U.S. claims it began strikes on Iran following attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran did not claim responsibility for. The resumption of hostilities comes as the week-long funeral of the deceased Supreme Leader of Iran concluded. In the two days of strikes so far, the U.S. has hit infrastructure and sites including Bushehr, home of Iran’s last remaining operational nuclear power plant. Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes in Kuwait and Bahrain, which host U.S. military bases. Iran’s official casualties for two days of U.S. strikes are 14 dead and 78 wounded, including members of the Iranian military.

Protect Our Rights, Support Our Work

In solidarity,

Niloufar Hafizi
Texas Policy Manager, Emgage Action

Policy & Perspectives | Issue 20 | July 2026