This coordinated and well-funded campaign to exalt God in the halls of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District, or GCISD, has divided local residents and raised alarm among religious liberty advocates who oppose what they view as a growing embrace of Christian nationalism in America.
The race has, in effect, split the community in three. There’s a slate of school board candidates backed by a far-right Christian cellphone company that’s affiliated with Cruz and Barton. There’s another group of candidates supported by a political action committee and local nonprofit opposed to religious indoctrination in schools. And there’s a third slate of moderate conservatives who say they oppose the influence of PACs of any kind in local elections.
At a series of recent candidate forums, the debate over religion and education rarely came up, with candidates instead focused on recent teacher departures, shoring up the budget and changes to the district’s dual-language program. But behind the scenes, on social media and inside churches, the issue has been at the forefront.
Danielle Villasana for NBC News
Kimberly Phoenix, a Grapevine-Colleyville parent who’s running with the support of organizations opposed to forcing religion in schools, has campaigned on a promise to reverse recent changes in the district, including restrictions on discussions of gender and race. She believes outside groups have sowed division in the community by stoking baseless fears about teachers indoctrinating students with ungodly values.
“I believe in the separation of church and state,” said Phoenix, a Christian who has primarily voted for Republicans in past elections. “Everyone deserves to come to a public school and feel safe and feel like they fit in.”
In response to that stance, a conservative voter recently accused Phoenix on social media of supporting “gay porn in our school libraries” and “counselors convincing our kids” to change genders.
“It’s gotten ugly,” Phoenix said.
The bitter division in Grapevine-Colleyville is emblematic of a broader nationwide battle over LGBTQ inclusion in education and the role of public schools in imparting religious values.
As Grapevine-Colleyville voters head to the polls, state lawmakers in Texas are debating a bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom, and another that would force schools to schedule time for students and teachers to pray or read the Bible. States across the country are contemplating legislation that would give parents public funds to send their children to private religious schools. And in Oklahoma, Roman Catholic organizers are pushing to open the nation’s first publicly funded Christian charter school — a bid designed to challenge the separation of church and state before the U.S. Supreme Court.
David Brockman, a scholar of religion at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said these efforts are rooted in Christian nationalism — the belief that America was founded as an explicitly Christian nation and that Christians are called on to re-establish God as the head of government and society.
“If they want to take the nation back, take our country back as they put it,” Brockman said, “one particularly effective way would be to educate the next generation to share their beliefs.”
The fight over faith and politics in Grapevine-Colleyville can be traced back to a year ago, when Patriot Mobile Action, a political action committee bankrolled by a far-right Christian cellphone company, spent $600,000 backing a slate of 11 school board candidates across North Texas, winning every race and gaining majority control of four area school boards, including GCISD.
Afterward, Grapevine-Colleyville officials hung “In God We Trust” posters donated by Patriot Mobile in every district building, and the board voted 4-3 to adopt a sweeping policy banning lessons on systemic racism, prohibiting teachers from discussing “gender fluidity” and limiting the rights of transgender children to be called by their preferred names and pronouns at school.
“We’re not here on this earth to please man,” Leigh Wambsganss, Patriot Mobile Action’s leader, said in a radio interview last year celebrating the election victories and policy changes. “We’re here to please God.”
This spring, Patriot Mobile — which has openly embraced the label of Christian nationalism — is once again backing a slate of three Grapevine-Colleyville candidates, with the goal of solidifying and expanding its influence on the board. The PAC has spent $130,000 on flyers and get-out-the-vote efforts in GCISD, including more than $88,000 paid to a pair of heavy-hitter GOP consulting firms that have worked on campaigns for Ted Cruz and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — once again bringing sophisticated national-level political strategies to a local school board race.
This time, a coalition of progressive parents and disillusioned conservatives have deployed a political action committee of their own, the Texas Nonpartisan PAC, which has spent about $30,000 supporting candidates who are promising to move the district in a different direction.
Richard Newton, a former Colleyville mayor running for school board with Patriot Mobile’s backing, said he supported the board’s policy on gender fluidity and student pronouns because it gave teachers clarity on how to handle difficult situations, and because he said it protected students who “may feel very uncomfortable about what other students want to do.”
“Public schools are there to give every student, not just some, every student across the whole spectrum, an opportunity for a great education,” Newton said when approached outside an early voting site. “The other thing … is to teach the students what it is to be a great citizen, a good citizen, and to teach the founding documents.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
