June 5, 2023

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IntelBrief: Thou Shalt Seek Dominion: Recent Texas Legislation Reflects the Strengthening of Christian Nationalism

In late May, the Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 763, which allows Texas schools to use allocated safety funds to pay for unlicensed chaplains to perform the duties of school counselors. Proponents of the bill say it forms a part of their approach to addressing mental health and school safety concerns, particularly in the wake of several deadly mass shootings in the state and nationwide and in the absence of any progress restricting access to guns. The bill would not only allow a school district to let volunteer chaplains in Texas public schools but also allow a school district to hire a chaplain instead of a certified school counselor. The recently passed bill does not require chaplains to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification, a certification that school counselors in the state are currently required to obtain. In addition to passing a background check, all a person would need in order to become a chaplain under the new Texas bill is an endorsement from a religious organization and have some training to meet the Department of Defense chaplain standards.

Proposed amendments to Senate Bill 763, such as requiring accreditation with the state, barring chaplains from proselytizing or converting students, or requiring schools to provide chaplains from any faith or denomination required by the students, all failed. The failure to include such guardrails, or a required accreditation, further contributes to critics’ concerns that the bill would not only fail to legitimately address mental health concerns or school safety properly but also privilege a particular denomination and type of religious expression in public education. The bill’s critics believe that the Texas legislation would be a “Trojan horse” for religious activists who want to recruit or proselytize in schools and is part of a broader push by some conservative Christians to remove the boundaries between state and religion in public life. A slew of faith-driven legislation has been proposed in Texas during this session, including a bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, though not all were passed before the session convened.

The Texas Senate bill reflects the strengthening of the Christian nationalist movement on the far right and in American political and public life more broadly. A cultural identity agile enough to include militia groups, some conservative Christians, QAnon conspiracists, and election deniers, Christian nationalism often marries apocalyptic and militant language with the ultimate objective of the U.S. being declared a Christian nation and the government to promote a specific interpretation of Anglo-Protestantism as the country’s official law and framework. Such aims are antithetical to traditional views of separation of church and state, codified in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Although some Christian nationalists would deny that they want to establish a “state church,” and thus, they are not aiming to upend the separation of church and state, their push to codify a particular interpretation of Christianity into law indicates otherwise. The Senate bill, as well as the other faith-driven proposals in the U.S., reflects a concerted push by Christian nationalist activists to reassert a particular interpretation of Christianity into public schools, as well as the growing number of politicians who are not only espousing Christian nationalist rhetoric but who are also willing to propose and codify laws that promote the movement’s goals in a pluralistic society. Although debates about the role of religion in public schools and American public life more broadly are nothing new, the burgeoning network of politicians, activists, conferences, political action groups, and far-right personalities openly embracing Christian nationalism is on the rise both in the U.S. and globally.

In early May, the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held in Hungary and featured many prominent figures from far-right populist movements globally. From former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake – who openly embraced Christian nationalist rhetoric –to the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, the conference not only displayed the coalescing of the far-right populist movements in Europe and the U.S. but the growing prominence and emphasis on Christian nationalism globally. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, who is a popular face of the Christian nationalist movement, stated during his speech that “Hungary is the place where we didn’t just talk about defeating the progressives and liberals and causing a conservative Christian political turn, but we actually did it.” One panel during the conference was titled “In God We Trust” and featured avowed Christian nationalist and former deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Trump administration, William Wolfe. Wolfe has gained notoriety for not only defending Christian nationalism as a faithful interpretation of Biblical texts but has also pushed, alongside others, for a reinterpretation of how many Christians in the U.S. have viewed the separation of church and state.

Adherents like Wolfe would argue that their opposition to migration and LGBTQ issues, as well as their promotion of restrictive abortion laws, are not a violation of traditional interpretations of the separation of church and state and simply a faithful interpretation of advocating for one’s values in the public square. Yet, their rhetoric advocating for the submission of the state to a particular interpretation of Biblical values, often in militant, sometimes violent, terms, suggests that Christian nationalists have left the realm of simply promoting their values – as all political actors, as well as many religious individuals, do – in society. The continued coalescing of Christian nationalists globally, as well as the growing embrace of its values and rhetoric on the far right, indicates the strengthening of the movement beyond the context of the United States. Although Christian nationalism is a decidedly cultural and political expression dressed in religiosity, evidenced by the embrace of far-right atheist actors, such as James Lindsay, at events like the right-wing Turing Point USA Pastors Summit, there is a risk that the movement’s anti-democratic and violent rhetoric could continue to proliferate into the mainstream and inspire acts of violence or narratives that promote intolerance, xenophobia, and exclusive identities which violent far-right groups can exploit.