The Texas State Board of Education recently passed a bill mandating the inclusion of Scripture in public school literature curricula. The selected Scriptures won’t appear in classrooms until 2030, yet many Christians rightly feel hesitant about this new bill. As a Christian mother in Texas who has homeschooled my children, you may wonder why I’m sharing my thoughts on this. While I’ve homeschooled up to this point, as of this fall, one of our three children will receive a public school education (online from a local charter school).
As one who dearly loves Jesus and my children, I want them to accurately understand who He is, and this can only come from rightly knowing and therefore loving the Bible. I’ve benefited from the blessings of understanding and loving the Bible and have experienced the consequences of misunderstanding and misapplying it. What we believe affects how we live and worship. Since we as Christians love God, one way we can delight in Him is by rightly handling His word (2 Timothy 2:15).
Many public school teachers are Christians, yet many are not. I don’t know who my child’s teachers will be in 2030, and I’m hesitant about sacred Scripture being taught by someone who may not understand and treasure it. Another of my hesitations about Scripture’s inclusion in public school curricula is that the Bible will appear as one text among others, when it’s not only a text; it’s the only authoritative one. The Bible isn’t just literature; it’s the living and active word of God (Hebrews 4:12). In requiring it to be read in public schools, this crucial consideration has been neglected.
While the required reading of Scripture feels new, there truly is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). One of the reasons public schools were established in America was to instill Bible literacy in students. The Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647 mandated that literacy skills be taught so students could understand the Bible to avoid falling prey to Satan’s devices. While not knowing God’s word poorly positions us to stand firm in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-19), this act, like the new bill, seems to fall short in its motivation for teaching Scripture. Our primary motivation for approaching Scripture and wanting others to shouldn’t be fear of Satan (who one of my pastors says is, at best, a dog on a leash) or anything or anyone else, but love of Christ and longing to be more like Him.
Some don’t mind the new bill as reading Scripture may encourage moral behavior, but when Scripture is rightly understood, the outcome is much bigger and more beautiful than that. It results in hearts being delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:13) and being transformed from one degree of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18). When the Bible is used solely as a guidebook for eliciting moral behavior, we risk teaching a false gospel by making it seem like we can earn our righteousness by our moral performance.
The only way to receive right standing before God is through repentance and faith in Jesus, who earned that right standing for all who forsake their sin and believe in Him (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9). When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to know and cherish Scripture, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t rely on our moral performance to earn favor with God, but knowing Jesus earned God’s favor for us compels us by the Holy Spirit’s power to worship Him in every area of our lives, including our behavior. Wanting to motivate moral behavior isn’t necessarily a bad goal, but it is a small one, and it’s not the Bible’s primary purpose.
The word is sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), yet it is not a weapon for wielding against those who don’t yet treasure it to produce moral behavior. It is how sinners find hope for salvation by trusting in Jesus, who lived a perfect life we never could, defeated death and sin, and resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He is the only God who doesn’t require us to earn our righteousness, but earned it for us, and He’s the only One who’s alive (Matthew 28:6)!
One common reason for the passage of this new bill is the desire to return to America’s roots, but the Bible’s purpose isn’t advancing human agendas of any kind. While much of America’s founding was heavily influenced by Christian values, the Bible has often been misused throughout its history. Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, created his own version of the Bible by removing what he didn’t prefer and retaining what he did. In doing this, he failed to account for the truth that all of Scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and, sadly, he missed the urgent warning of Revelation 22:19. Much like the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, America’s history contains dark moments, and we are not helped by ignoring them.
Ignoring sin never erases its effects. It is good and right to identify sin as sin because it is so serious that it cost Jesus His life. In America’s past, Scripture was misused to justify chattel slavery, and we still experience the effects of this today. Far too many people have been mistreated, abused, and murdered because God’s word was not rightly handled. Misuse of Scripture in this way neglects the beautiful reality that God’s kingdom contains people from all tribes, tongues, and nations (Revelation 7:9) who are created by God and bear His image (Genesis 1:27). God’s word must never be used in ways that don’t align with His character. It’s a precious treasure that requires wise handling.
It is where we meet the Word made flesh (John 1:14) and come to know and love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). Requiring Scripture to be read apart from its metanarrative risks causing students to miss this. Anyone who understands how literature works, especially those teaching it, knows that divorcing passages from their full context is not the most faithful way to understand and interpret them. Context truly is king. I’m sad that students may not experience the joy that results when Scripture is rightly handled. As first graders “read” Peter Spier’s mostly wordless version of Noah’s Ark, the first required reading of “Scripture,” I’m sad that they may not learn how Noah points to Jesus. I own and respect this retelling of Noah’s Ark, especially considering Spier’s illustrations. It’s award-winning for a reason, yet ironically, it’s not the Bible.
Requiring the reading of select Scripture passages in Texas public schools is not the wisest or best stewardship or scholarship. My preference would be teaching Scripture in its entirety and helping students mine its riches so that they might come to know and treasure Christ. I’m not a fan of this new bill, yet I’m also not fearful of how it will affect the gospel’s advance. In thinking about this new bill, I was encouraged by the apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 1:15-18. He wrote, “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
While Texas’s approach to reading Scripture in schools raises valid hermeneutical concerns, I’m still hopeful, as it will not stop God from advancing His kingdom. Regardless of my hesitations about this matter, God’s word is living and active, and unlike any other literary work, it lasts forever (Isaiah 40:8). Even its misuse is not powerful enough to thwart God’s plan of redemption. God has continued to draw people to Himself, even with minimal exposure to His word.
Philip’s encounter with the eunuch in Acts 8 is proof of this. The eunuch had only two verses of the Old Testament, and the Holy Spirit moved as Philip helped him understand those verses, which led to the eunuch’s conversion (Acts 8:27-39). While requiring Scripture to be read in public school classrooms may harden hearts, God has the power and ability to take hearts of stone and turn them into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). I’m living proof. If, like me, you don’t love requiring select passages of Scripture to be read in public schools, don’t lose heart. Often, what humans use wrongly, God uses for good (Genesis 50:20).
American Christians, perhaps you were born for such a time as this (Acts 17:26-27)! Having easy access to the full canon of Scripture should compel wise stewardship of it. It is God’s timeless, transcendent truth that the Spirit uses to introduce us to Jesus, the truth (John 14:6). May love of Christ compel us to know the word, and ultimately Him, better so that when teachers and students (and their parents) are exposed to Scripture, we’ll be ready like Philip to help them see how it points to Jesus.
This is a great opportunity for us to know and cherish our Bibles better as a means of adoring Jesus, the Word of God (Revelation 19:13). Things may change between now and 2030, which wouldn’t surprise me, but we can rejoice regardless, knowing that God’s word and His power to save sinners never will.
For Further Consideration
I’m sharing these articles to share various Christian convictions on this matter in addition to my own. Featuring these articles here isn’t an endorsement of every single element of each author’s convictions.
- Texas should ask not whether to require Bible reading in schools — but why – Karen Swallow Prior’s Substack
- Unpopular Opinions: The Bible Doesn’t Belong in Public Schools – Courtney Reissig’s Substack
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