We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God, because He wrote the Constitution.
—Dan Patrick, national Christian fascist leader, and Lieutenant Governor of Texas
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Photo: @danpatricktexas
The Republican Party in Texas is a well-financed gang of theocratic, fascist lunatics. Many of them believe they are literally engaged in “spiritual warfare” with “demonic, Satanic forces.” These hateful and utterly demented fascists have dominated Texas government for about 30 years, and for the past decade they have completely controlled it.
Marching Shoulder to Shoulder with Trump’s MAGA Fascism
In sync with the incoming Trump/MAGA fascist regime, they are poised to further develop and deepen the complete takeover of the state that already serves as a cornerstone of an emerging Christian fascist heartland. In particular, this year they want to make good on their pursuit of one of their main prizes, and a longstanding core goal of Christian fascists nationally—further crippling public education, on the way to its outright elimination.
In his Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, Bob Avakian (BA) points out that today’s powerful movement of Christian fascists began coalescing in the early 1960s when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prayer could not be imposed or encouraged in public schools. Fundamentalist Christians think this marked a time when “God was thrown out of school,” and the country began accelerating in directions they regard as intolerable. Jerry Falwell, a now-dead founder of biblically-based Christian fascism, wrote in 1979, “I hope I live to see the day, when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!”
Gutting School Funds, Pushing Vouchers
That day is very close indeed. Texas Christian fascists have pushed massive cuts in financing public education for years. This has gutted school districts statewide. Many rural and small town school districts across the vast state are already in “financial ruin.” State fascist leaders have imposed their handpicked leadership on Houston’s school district, the largest in the state. In the school year beginning in June 2023, they removed, replaced, or drove to resignation more than 150 principals from Houston schools.
Diane Ravitch, a prominent historian of education, wrote that the goal of leading Christian fascists in Texas, like Patrick and Governor Greg Abbott, is to “eliminate property taxes [which are a big part of public school funding] and completely privatize education.” Leading fascists instead want to direct money for public school education towards “vouchers.” This would mean using public funding to pay for the private, usually Christian, schools, which have sprung up across the state, especially in and around the major cities. Relentless undermining and underfunding of the public education system has already presented many parents and guardians with difficult decisions about whether to continue sending their kids to crumbling, underfunded, and understaffed public schools, or trying to find the money to send them to a private academy.
For just a couple of examples of the impact of these measures: last school year 4,700 teachers in the Houston district left their jobs or were fired in the face of continuing cutbacks and an increasing workload. The Spring Branch district, which includes large parts of Houston, was forced to close several schools and crowd more children into fewer rooms, as well as discontinue many school programs. Millions of people in Texas have, one way or another, expressed opposition to the Republi-fascist measures promoting vouchers, and many have demonstrated in favor of public education, in Houston and other places.
A Big Problem—Putting the Ten Commandments in Classrooms
The Christian fascists are also moving to require that the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom in the state. Dan Patrick vowed to push a bill requiring that this year, saying this would express the “historical tradition of recognizing America’s heritage, and remind students all across Texas of the importance of a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law: the Ten Commandments.”
As Bob Avakian (BA) said in his @BobAvakianOfficial social media message REVOLUTION #59, “The Ten Commandments—a Weapon of Christian Fascism”:
Revolution 59 @BobAvakianOfficial
This brings us back to what’s wrong with commanding obedience to the Ten Commandments.
One big thing that is wrong, right off the bat, is that this is a way of indoctrinating children with a particular religious viewpoint—the Christian fascists’ murderous version of religion.
And a very big problem is what’s actually in the Ten Commandments themselves: They uphold and insist on all kinds of horrors, including slavery.
Fighting the imposition of Christian fundamentalist fascism in schools is a crucial part of the fight to form a force determined “to build a movement so massive and powerful that it can create a political crisis profound enough to prevent Trump from implementing his fascist program.” The fight against attacks on public education, and the intrusion of Christian fundamentalism, is not limited and must not be confined to Texas and a few other “Bible Belt” states.
As BA concluded that same social media message,
… with what these Christian fascists are doing:
We can recognize the looming shadow of a situation where not just school children, but everyone in society, will be required to pledge allegiance to a white Christian fascist America.
If you have a hard time believing what I have said here—or you want to get into this deeper—you can find analysis of this in Part One of my book Away With All Gods!—particularly the sections “The Bible, Taken Literally, Is a Horror” and “What About The Ten Commandments?”
Yes, people should have the right to religion—and this right is upheld in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have authored, putting forward a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different, truly emancipating system.
But that is very different than the government of this system brainwashing children with a murderous version of religion and forcing everybody to bow down to that.
And fundamentally, what is needed, to really be emancipated from every form of oppression, is a revolution to get rid of, and move beyond, this whole system of capitalism-imperialism—a revolution guided by a scientific, not a religious, approach and method. In the words of the final section of my book Away With All Gods!, what people everywhere need—to really, finally get all the way free—is “Liberation Without Gods”: the only real liberation there is.
The following excerpt from We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System gives a picture of what education will be like under a new socialist system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. For a fuller discussion of this, go here for the section from that Constitution on education.
Education to Actually Educate and Empower the Masses of People
The purpose of the educational system in this new socialist society will be to enable people to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, and in this way to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity.