Speaker 1: So we have now a legal rights group that is
Speaker 1: urging school leaders not to adopt Texas Bible infused curriculum.
Speaker 1: Robert pass the sword. No, there is no Robert on
Speaker 1: this particular panel. But Kelly's here.
Speaker 2: Kelly Yes, Cynthia. What appears to be another win for
Speaker 2: Christian nationalism in Texas has a large group of civil
Speaker 2: rights groups coalescing together to speak out against the state
Speaker 2: school board's recent adoption of its blue Bonnet curriculum. Now.
Speaker 2: Critics say the courses, which were actually developed by the
Speaker 2: state of Texas, are too heavily infused with Christian religious
Speaker 2: views and idealism. While proponents argue that Christianity is an
Speaker 2: important part of our heritage, I'm getting a little tongue tied,
Speaker 2: and history must be told by including it for students
Speaker 2: to fully understand all of history and of the importance
Speaker 2: of the Bible itself in world history. Now, critics have
Speaker 2: also pointed out that it downplays the importance of things
Speaker 2: like slavery, racism, and civil rights. You know that stuff
Speaker 2: throughout American history. But Texas is actually giving schools sixty
Speaker 2: dollars per student to adopt this blue bonnet system. So
Speaker 2: the way it appears to me is they're actually bribing
Speaker 2: or extorting the schools to accept it, depending how you
Speaker 2: look at it, but either way, it does put the
Speaker 2: state's actions in a bad light. Now. This story is
Speaker 2: from The Texas Tribune by Jada Edison, published on January thirtieth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel some kind of way people, if
Speaker 1: you can just give me a little bit room to
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, give you my mind. Blue
Speaker 1: bonnet reminds me of margarine, And there is nothing more simple.
Speaker 3: And that's where my mind went when I heard. So
Speaker 3: I feel closer to you now.
Speaker 4: You said that because I knew that it was something
Speaker 4: and I just couldn't place it.
Speaker 2: Where do I know this from oil?
Speaker 1: Why does like a curriculum have to been like into
Speaker 1: like margarine. That's just not right. But you know, Kelly,
Speaker 1: I'm going to come back to you since you introduced
Speaker 1: this particular segment to us. Okay, So, with legal organizations
Speaker 1: warning the potential constitutional violations that you know, this particular
Speaker 1: blue bony curriculum actually like displays, how might Texas school
Speaker 1: districts weigh the risk of lawsuits against the states push
Speaker 1: to adopt the blue Bonnet curriculum.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a really good question, and I think
Speaker 2: this is something that we're seeing I'll playing out in
Speaker 2: other states too, at Louisiana with their Ten Commandments law,
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma with their mandatory teaching of the Bible and
Speaker 2: classes there. And I don't know that any of these
Speaker 2: three states have prepared for the amount of lawsuits that
Speaker 2: may come out of this, and hopefully hopefully going to
Speaker 2: see a lot of them. I don't think they're prepared
Speaker 2: for the amount of money it's going to cost them
Speaker 2: to defend these religious views that they're trying to push
Speaker 2: into the classrooms. This is I mean, this has been
Speaker 2: a big goal of Christian nationalism, is to get this
Speaker 2: back into the classes. So it's something I know that
Speaker 2: they're willing to spend money on. However, I don't know
Speaker 2: that taxpayers are willing to spend money on it. And
Speaker 2: that's why I don't. I think that's why it's really
Speaker 2: important for people like us to be out here talking
Speaker 2: about it and to getting it out there and educating
Speaker 2: people so that they know that the money that they're
Speaker 2: giving to education that they think is teaching their kids algebra,
Speaker 2: is actually teaching their kids the Bible instead. I think
Speaker 2: it's really important that we're teaching people that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a very good point that you brought up.
Speaker 1: Is that not necessarily are the states prepared for the
Speaker 1: lawsuits that are coming up, but are the constituents willing
Speaker 1: to pay for it? I would say nah. But with
Speaker 1: that being said, Lionel supportives argue that Christianity influences on
Speaker 1: history justifies as prominence in the curriculum. You know, that's
Speaker 1: always been the argument. The Bible is an historical documents,
Speaker 1: so it should be taught in school. But you also
Speaker 1: have critics on the other side to see this as
Speaker 1: a religious favoritism. So where should the line be drawn
Speaker 1: between education and indoctrination in public schools?
Speaker 4: So I feel this, and I've heard it said on
Speaker 4: the show before. I think that if we're using different
Speaker 4: a wide selection of religious texts to teach about, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: these are how beliefs can be different all around the world,
Speaker 4: and they look like some people believe different things, and honestly,
Speaker 4: like that's okay, some of them are wrong. That's just
Speaker 4: the way that it is. Not everybody not like everything
Speaker 4: isn't going to be right. Something is right here, are
Speaker 4: some things people believe, and if that's what you're teaching, perfect,
Speaker 4: that's great. And Texas Education Agency does did issue a
Speaker 4: statement trying to defend the curriculum, suggesting that that blue
Speaker 4: bone this is a quote, Bluebonna contains a variety of
Speaker 4: religious source materials, and when I look into that, I
Speaker 4: find that although it does appear that there are some
Speaker 4: non Christian references, the source materials in the curriculum are
Speaker 4: overwhelmingly Christian. So the curriculum creators then go on to
Speaker 4: defend it and say, the Bible is a foundational document
Speaker 4: of our civilization, so students must understand it to be
Speaker 4: well educated citizens, which I think it just like takes
Speaker 4: away any veil that this is just Christian nationalism. So
Speaker 4: to pretend that it's anything other and anything else, I
Speaker 4: think is silly at this point, because it's once you
Speaker 4: start to say things like that civilization or that that
Speaker 4: the Bible is foundational to civilization as a whole, you're
Speaker 4: you're no longer speaking realistically.
Speaker 2: I don't think I gotta giggle because I was thinking
Speaker 2: it's sort of like the metaphorical. Yeah, but I have
Speaker 2: a Buddhist friend.
Speaker 1: Friend, I don't know you know, it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: friend with my Jewish you know, you know, once a week,
Speaker 1: take a bag a tree. That's fun, right, But you know,
Speaker 1: you know, like if we actually look at the content
Speaker 1: of the Bible and of itself and try to compare
Speaker 1: it to a civilized document, I would argue differently.
Speaker 2: Have you read even here?
Speaker 3: And it's perfect?
Speaker 4: Cia everybody did it?
Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm run off the rails now because this is
Speaker 3: just terrible, terrible, it really is.
Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of the episode of The
Speaker 1: Naked Now when Wesley was screaming at the the chief
Speaker 1: engineer when like somebody pulled out all the isolinear chips
Speaker 1: and like these Enterprise couldn't go anywhere, and he was like,
Speaker 1: somebody pulled out all the isolinear chips. And then she
Speaker 1: said and then he said, well, an adult did it.
Speaker 1: That makes it right. For those of you all who
Speaker 1: do not understand the reference. Star Trek the Next Generation
Speaker 1: is a television show from Okay, guys, let's talk about
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, because why not?
Speaker 2: So Helen.
Speaker 1: So given me so, Given the actual recent Supreme Court
Speaker 1: rulings that have blurred the boundaries of church state separation.
Speaker 1: I think that Justice Soto Mayor Or it was famously
Speaker 1: said that the women test is did is like beyond sour.
Speaker 1: See what I did there?
Speaker 3: Yes, I did? I see you?
Speaker 1: So just beyond sour. So how my future legal challenges
Speaker 1: actually shaped the role of religion in public education.
Speaker 3: So we just did a story on this a couple
Speaker 3: weeks ago about a Muslim family wanting to go all
Speaker 3: the way Supreme Court and wanted to make their child
Speaker 3: exempt from story time due to religious privilege because a
Speaker 3: gay pro gay Brook book might be read, you know,
Speaker 3: to a child about like I don't know, like a
Speaker 3: duck go into like a prie parade, and apparently that
Speaker 3: will indoctrinate them into being queer. I didn't know that's
Speaker 3: how it worked. I don't know where career books I
Speaker 3: as a child, but that's how it happens. So this
Speaker 3: is the thing, and the concern is is that when
Speaker 3: does it stop? When do we have like do we
Speaker 3: because am I like in my brain is that yes,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of Christianity in this country. We know that,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, I know that it's fine, But there's
Speaker 3: also Jews and Muslims and Pagans and Hindus and all
Speaker 3: different sects of religions that are part of the United
Speaker 3: States because we are a multicultural, multi faith or lack
Speaker 3: thereof nation, So why do we have religious privilege for
Speaker 3: this particular brand but not anything else for anybody else?
Speaker 3: And that's the problem. And the thing is, though, like
Speaker 3: I really wish other like you know, you see electricals
Speaker 3: of it, and like the Jewish community bringing lawsuits forward,
Speaker 3: but it's not getting as much traction as it should
Speaker 3: where groups from different faiths or lack thereof are pushing
Speaker 3: to say, why is correct criculum gets to be in schools.
Speaker 3: Why can't I have like my paying curriculum, Why can't
Speaker 3: I have my Hindu curriculum? You know in these schools.
Speaker 3: Because I think you know, we saw and like the
Speaker 3: Satana Temple brings these lawsuits forwards, there's pauses.
Speaker 4: At least there's a pause.
Speaker 2: I can tell you what they're thinking is because I've
Speaker 2: heard it directly from them, is that you know, this
Speaker 2: is a democracy, and if the majority of people want
Speaker 2: Christianity being taught in the school, then that's just democracy
Speaker 2: and action.
Speaker 3: Yeah, diet is because money in politics or is it? Like,
Speaker 3: is it because of money in politics. Or is it
Speaker 3: because people don't feel like they have enough power to
Speaker 3: bring those things forward? Because if you did, a bunch
Speaker 3: of different groups got together and said, hey, wait a second,
Speaker 3: hold on mofos, you know they could that is a
Speaker 3: legitimate thin because they're violing an establishment clause.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but this one's true, so it has special.
Speaker 2: Rights, right exactly.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm sorry, I forgot. I sorry, I forgot.
Speaker 4: I forgot.
Speaker 3: I forgot that we would have to admit that maybe
Speaker 3: not every religion is true. I forgot about that. I'm
Speaker 3: so sorry, trying to just bringing up quibbles.
Speaker 2: I have a ship's social detail. Even still, sixty sixty
Speaker 2: six percent of Americans are Christian, So even if you
Speaker 2: got all those other groups together, there's still the minority.
Speaker 4: Hey, as the four of us convert right now, would
Speaker 4: it becomes sixty six point six? Like? Is it close enough?
Speaker 1: All?
Speaker 2: I would do it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that because I don't particularly
Speaker 1: like Jesus line.
Speaker 4: Ironically, just to take the screenshot and then we can
Speaker 4: come back.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine. Well, I was going to bring up that,
Speaker 1: you know, we do have our friends at uh for
Speaker 1: for for that is fighting the good fight of bubonnet faith.
Speaker 1: In fact, they are actually leading the coalition in Texas
Speaker 1: to actually fight against the blue bonnet learning okay, and
Speaker 1: matter of fact, I got a quote from Annie Laurie
Speaker 1: Gaylor shout out to Annie, and I just want to
Speaker 1: ask you girl, Hey, Annie, are you okay? But you
Speaker 1: know quotes if I'm going to quote her, she said
Speaker 1: these kinds of references the suggested curriculum use talking about
Speaker 1: blue bonnet, such as using the Golden Rule as pretext
Speaker 1: to introduce kindergarteners to Jesus. Jesus and the summer on
Speaker 1: the Mount are suitable for you know, Sunday school classes,
Speaker 1: but do not belong in our public schools. We will
Speaker 1: urge these school districts to avoid this politic size and
Speaker 1: divisive curriculum. So they are currently galvanizing the troops to
Speaker 1: fight against this. Usually, if I ever go to if
Speaker 1: I ever look at like for for first way of
Speaker 1: doing things, they normally like start out with letters with
Speaker 1: the cease and desists, and sometimes the season desists like
Speaker 1: you know, works because people get all scared. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: for for force coming after us. I always feel like
Speaker 1: somebody watching me but you know, if that doesn't work,
Speaker 1: then that's when we go through little litigation. So I
Speaker 1: would definitely hope that we can get some traction on this,
Speaker 1: especially since the old the age old argument always comes
Speaker 1: up when we're talking about like golden rule stuff that
Speaker 1: how did other societies that were not based on a
Speaker 1: monotheistic principle tame to be able to develop the same
Speaker 1: type of sentiments when they were building their particular you know,
Speaker 1: enclaims like I would conjecture that if you look at like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe like a society that's built on Buddhism
Speaker 1: or Hinduism or even Judaism, that they still had some
Speaker 1: type of ethics built into it in order to say that, hey,
Speaker 1: it's not really good going around murdering people. That kind
Speaker 1: of like, you know, uh, goes against the point that
Speaker 1: we're trying to build a society that's based on well
Speaker 1: being and actually you know, protecting people, and we shouldn't
Speaker 1: go around stealing from people, we should go around hurting
Speaker 1: people like that does not really help us, like you know,
Speaker 1: build like a community. It actually tears it down. So
Speaker 1: they came up with these particular sentiments on their own
Speaker 1: without necessarily have to get all jesusy with it. Why
Speaker 1: do nowadays, in when we're looking especially at red states,
Speaker 1: that we do this thundercat?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's just well, because this is true, you know, we.
Speaker 3: Know that argument.
Speaker 4: Fine, it's one of those things that gets mentioned all
Speaker 4: the time. It is the circumstances of your birth. If
Speaker 4: we were born in in India, then we would be
Speaker 4: potentially all, you know, having this conversation about like why
Speaker 4: Hinduism is in schools, or if we were born in
Speaker 4: Pakistan it would be about Islam, or.
Speaker 2: It could actually be a thundercat.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, So it's I think it's just one of
Speaker 4: those things that because of where we are, this is
Speaker 4: what we're saturated with. So this is you know, just
Speaker 4: a sort of bit like in in places where some
Speaker 4: of those other ideologies or those thought systems, belief systems
Speaker 4: is what I mean, what might be more prevalent, and
Speaker 4: those might be the ones that people are trying to
Speaker 4: put into their public education system. You're going to have
Speaker 4: those pockets of people saying why this, you know, why
Speaker 4: this belief system? Why not Christianity, why not Judaism, why
Speaker 4: not you know, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: You know, well Kelly, answer real me this, uh Batman.
Speaker 1: So some of the districts that happens to be in
Speaker 1: Texas are adopting only certain parts of the blupon It curriculum,
Speaker 1: while you know, some are rejecting its religious content entirely.
Speaker 1: I'm with those people. Is it a viable compromise to have, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna cherry pick like some of the particular
Speaker 1: particulars of the Blueponic curriculum and then Blay put them
Speaker 1: in here. Or is it like, no, reject all this bullshit,
Speaker 1: you know, throw it out the window, throw the baby
Speaker 1: out with the bathwater, because all of it is funky.
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. And to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: I really wanted to check out the whole Blue Bony
Speaker 2: curriculum before this, but uh, there was no way I
Speaker 2: was going to be able to go through all you
Speaker 2: know this in just a few days time. And honestly,
Speaker 2: even if I had been able to do it, I
Speaker 2: don't think I would have understand it, understood it all
Speaker 2: going through it that fast. But that's a really good point.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure that I'm sure that they're is
Speaker 2: some good stuff in there. I mean, educators did put
Speaker 2: it together. You know, I'm sure that there's some good
Speaker 2: stuff in there that that could be used. And I
Speaker 2: don't see why. I don't see why if the state
Speaker 2: spent all of that money developing this program, that some
Speaker 2: of it can't be good. I mean, the Texas Imprivate
Speaker 2: Comedy Group or the state school board did put all
Speaker 2: of this together on their own. So and if nothing else,
Speaker 2: they've shown us how to slide something in and try
Speaker 2: and blackmail schools to get a pass too.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that's what you got margin for, Kelly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for lubrication, right, for a.
Speaker 1: Good lubricated.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good idea to go ahead and
Speaker 1: wrap up this segment before it gets Leaven Altimore, The
Speaker 1: hell did you have about that? You want to get
Speaker 1: off your head to lubrication?
Speaker 4: That can.
Speaker 1: Now bab all right?
Speaker 4: I would like to notably not participate.
Speaker 1: The case isout shutting, Lina has bowed out him and
Speaker 1: Mom rod about to go about their business. But you know, like, listen, guys,
Speaker 1: you know. The controversy surrounding Blubony curriculum highlights the ongoing
Speaker 1: tensions between education and religious influence in public schools, as
Speaker 1: legal organizations call for action Life for The Debate raises
Speaker 1: critical questions about balance between providing historical contexts and ensuring
Speaker 1: the separation of church and state, with school districts having
Speaker 1: the discretion to adopt the curriculum or stakes are high,
Speaker 1: or both the rights of students and the broader implications
Speaker 1: for religious freedom in public schools. This issue is set
Speaker 1: to unfold in courts and classrooms alike, with far reaching
Speaker 1: consequences for future generations.