The Texas Board of Education is currently reviewing the state’s social studies curriculum to decide whether God should have a bigger place in history class. On the revision committee that’s shaping the debate there’s a reverend who preaches that Hurricane Katrina, Watergate and the Vietnam War — three events surely to be found in history textbooks — are signs of God’s judgments on America’s sexual immorality.
The Wall Street Journal:
The fight over school curriculum in Texas, recently focused on biology, has entered a new arena, with a brewing debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.
The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state’s social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.
Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.
