Regardless of how you slice it, last week’s elections sent a message that people are taking notice of what is happening around them — and they will not stand for it any longer.
While most of the media coverage focused on high-profile races like New York City’s mayoral race (insecure Christian nationalists are losing their minds over this one!) and the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, many down-ballot races also signaled a major shift in public opinion. For instance, voters in one of Texas’ largest school districts sent a decisive message to their school board: Public schools are not Sunday schools.
In a sweeping rebuke of Christian nationalist influence over their school board, residents of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (Cy-Fair ISD), a district just outside of Houston, voted out three incumbent school board members who openly aligned themselves with a local church’s religious agenda. This move flipped a board with a 6–1 conservative into a more balanced, reasoned body.
The incumbents, openly backed by Glorious Way Church in Houston, campaigned as part of an effort to “get God’s mission accomplished in that school board.” The church’s support was direct and public, with church leaders speaking to their congregation about how to influence the outcome. Their approach openly defied IRS rules prohibiting churches from endorsing candidates. One of the ousted trustees even claimed she was on a divine “assignment” to dismantle what she called the “overinterpretation of separation of church and state in our schools.”
During service at the church, James Andrew Buntrock, the Senate District 7 representative for the Harris County Republican Party advisory board, said, “This school district represents about 35 percent of the conservative vote in Harris County. If we lose this, we risk Harris County. We can’t lose this fight. We can’t lose this race.”
Voters were not hoodwinked by his plea and instead chose a slate of three candidates on a “pro-public education” platform, signaling to the board their preference for a focus on education.
During their tenure, the three now-ousted board members used their majority to take a series of actions that alarmed educators, parents and public school advocates alike. Our friend at the Friendly Atheist compiled a list of the crusades that the three ousted members undertook:
- Removing 13 chapters from science textbooks covering topics such as climate change and vaccinations.
- Firing half the librarians, causing many libraries to close.
- Passing an unnecessary and overly burdensome policy requiring any library purchases to go through a 30-day public review process first, so that parents could theoretically complain about books they didn’t like.
- Granting the board the authority to ban books from libraries.
- Voting not to hire chaplains, instead opting for trained social workers and counselors. The only two dissenters — both recently ousted incumbents — opposed the decision.
- Approving bible-based electives as options for high school students to take.
By the way, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has sued over a Texas law requiring them to put up Ten Commandments posters in every classroom.
Voters clearly were not persuaded by the church’s attempt to influence this election, and they resoundingly rejected another round of the same theatrics by the board.
The Internal Revenue Service’s announcement in a lawsuit that it will no longer enforce most of the Johnson Amendment undoubtedly left leaders at Glorious Way Church feeling empowered to endorse candidates from the proverbial pulpit. For the record, President Trump’s direction to the IRS to ignore the Johnson Amendment does not repeal the amendment.
Despite the church’s public endorsements and campaigning in the election, voters chose reason over a continued theocratic assault on their public schools. The pro-education slate defeated the incumbents, winning on promises to restore transparency, support teachers and librarians — and keep religion out of the classroom.
Why it matters
The election outcome in Cy-Fair ISD is a local story with national resonance. Across the country, Christian nationalist groups have identified school boards as fertile ground to implement their divisive agenda. However, their attempts to insert themselves into curriculum decisions, ban books for trivial reasons and blur the line between public education and private faith have started to backfire.
When a school board turns its public schools into Sunday schools, every student’s freedom of religion and conscience is at risk. Students with disparate religious beliefs, and those who have no religious beliefs at all, are made to feel unwelcome in taxpayer-funded classrooms.
The Cy-Fair ISD school board election demonstrates that voters can push back against harmful agendas that do nothing but divide our classrooms, when the focus should be on fostering a healthy and welcoming learning environment for all students.
A call for advocacy and engagement
I, along with colleagues, celebrate this outcome for several reasons. First, there is the obvious: Any time people who are causing so much harm and strife to children are voted out of office, it’s a good day. Additionally, all advocates of secular government should be thrilled that voters rejected a religiously motivated attempt by a church to infiltrate an election.
This victory reaffirms that Texans — and Americans — value true religious freedom. It makes clear that families can decide their beliefs without government interference or favoritism in public schools. Cy-Fair ISD voters affirmed that classrooms should be for learning, not proselytizing, and that schools should show respect for the Constitution’s promise of a secular government and welcome students of all faiths and none.
Ultimately, this outcome should inspire secular advocates across the nation. It demonstrates that when communities are informed and engaged, they can stand up to powerful religious networks attempting to capture public institutions. FFRF will continue to work to expose and oppose these efforts wherever they arise, and to defend the simple yet essential principle that religion and government must remain separate for the benefit of all.
Photo by Monica Sedra on Unsplash
