TIL that Texas Public School Students Will Be Required to Read the Bible

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/us/texas-schools-book-list.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tFA.kCQd.W0STle5ViQIj

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This is less “Today I Learned”, and more “News”.

There’s another post here on Israel’s use of drones on Gazan civilians.

People either don’t understand or don’t care about the original purpose of this community and the subreddit that inspired it.

Not every space needs to be used to keep the outrage machine pumping, man…

It’s because that was a rule on the reddit community and for some reason the mods here don’t have that rule.

I would argue this violates Rule 5.

Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.

Maybe. But I’m not sure that should be a rule anyway.
I’d replace it with: “No events that have happened within the last year.”





There used to be rules about this sort of thing.



Maybe it’s a good thing. Reading the Bible was what made me an atheist.

Day 1 create light. Day 4 create light source.

Sounds like a weird tutorial for a game engine.


Day 3 - things that rely on photosynthesis



I thought gay propaganda was shoved to students in schools? How the turntables.

It’s not a table turning so much as a ratchet clicking. Americans need to have the courage to release it.


I thought gay propaganda was shoved to students in schools?



if god was real, you wouldn’t have to indoctrinate children into believing it


I’m in a fortunate position to be able to send my kid to private montessori school in Texas. The public schools here are totally fucked. The state has been cranking down funding for years, and the tax recapture system the state set up takes funding from urban districts and sends it to rural districts. Then, when the urban districts languish with significant underfunding, if even one school in a district receives a failing grade on standardized assessments 3 years in a row, the state can come in and take over the school district. They’ve already done it to Houston ISD, and they’re about to do it to Austin ISD. Education in Texas is absolutely fucked

(Copied this from my comment on another thread about this)

most of the red states likely having diverted funding to “charter school vouchers” which are actually just scams that redirects the funding back to the gop campaigns. its by designed to create more incels/ bumpkins that keep voting republicans. they need to source the future generation of GOP voters/politicians. it a double edge sword, because if they make them too DUMB , they cant even be used as cannon fodder for the military.



Religion is the ultimate form of control because it perpetuates itself. Once a person is indoctrinated they are compelled to go out and infect others. It is then twisted to mean whatever the ruling class wants it to mean.

i know exactly what you mean. Ive indoctrinated myself with concepts such as human rights, privacy and linux.
Im such a nuisance to the people around me, especially with privacy as a lot feel like they have no chance and got used to it
(i try to limit the annoying to useful stuff so they are less annoyed and i can influence them more later)



The whole thing, or just select passages with an adult to tell them what it means?

Critical analysis of the text in it’s entirety might produce unexpected results.


I wouldn’t mind, if they would also be required to read important texts from other religions (eg. Qur’an, Bhagavad Gita, etc.).


Let them do it, it’s a good way to drive them from religion. Because the Bible is boring af

The books of Judges, Ruth, and Esther are actually pretty engaging for things from antiquity. Some of the nuance is lost if a person isn’t familiar with the cultures of the time. Anything from 1 Samuel about David’s Mighty Warriors (or Men of Fame, or Mighty Men, depending on translation) is usually pretty engaging as well

People don’t usually get driven from religion because it’s boring, they usually are turned off by hypocrisy. “Do this because God says so. Yes I’m not doing it, but [excuse]”. This is true of any religion. Either the person comes to terms with the gap between doctrine and behavior or they turn away from their religion of origin



This is obvious SCOTUS bait.

The genuine worry is, will SCOTUS use this to destroy the 1st amendment?

From what I’ve heard the law is written requiring rather Protestant verbage, where 6/9 justices are Catholic. Depending on flavor of Protestant, not all even consider Catholics as Christians.



Translation: Our base isn’t dumb enough. We can make them dumber!

in texas of all places. a literal desert, and overruned by feral hogs, very fitting.



They did this during the GWB admin, they quietly walked it back after kids started applying the lessons from the bible to their right wing leaders, and asking why they didn’t adhere to them.

Never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake



Seems like an opportunity to teach about words that changed meaning since the KJV by comparing to the NSVUE or something and to teach textual criticism and the like.

(Of course, I hope this whole thing gets struck down as unconstitutional).

forced reading of king james should be made illegal tbh

several groups of protestants in particular have a hard-on for it. Probably at least in part because of some interpretations that suited the patron, but also because of those language issues.


It should be required for any English literature student, and I’d also say that Pen of Iron by Robert Alter should be assigned as a companion for anyone studying American literature. The King James version is easily the most influential English language work of all time even though its influence got off to a slow start (the first edition’s spelling and punctuation were crucified by critics), and the release of the 1769 update is maybe the biggest single watershed moment in the history of the language. A translation can be a work of literature of course, but the King James Bible is also more of an original work than most translations (with a pro-monarchy slant). Not only do we use hundreds of idioms that are lifted directly from the text, but in reading it you will notice obvious and subtle references in everything from Moby-Dick to The Silence of the Lambs.

Richard Dawkins, whom I’ve never seen accused of pro-religious bias, wrote an editorial all but railing against not forcing absolutely all students to read it. Largely because of its literary value, but also because he believed that critical study of the Bible itself would loosen its grip on social mores.

i agree, my comment was more about using it to teach the book itself over easier to read and better translated editions





Thank God for bringing back God in the classrooms. Can we also unrelated to this teach them betrayal


One should point them to the interesting passages then.

the incest, rape, or rape incest?

Lot, Noahs daughters, Solomons song, one of the kings (was it David or Solomon) got virgins in his bed every night (and back then, those virgins were likely not older than 18, on the contrary).

And, to balance this out a bit, the places where Jesus teaches to love your neighbor like yourself, where rich people won’t enter heaven, where he drives those who commercialize faith out of the temple with a whip.

If you’ve actually read the bible and not just remember the few sanitized bits from some preachers with an agenda, you’ll notice there are a number of messages they don’t want you to really know.

I bet the Sermon on the Mount won’t be required reading.

Or “give away all your wealth to follow me”.




Don’t forget the genocide.




There’s that story about collecting all the enemies foreskins. That should be near the top of the To Read list


Not really in the spirit of this community. I’ve already seen the article elsewhere on Lemmy, as I expect you have.


Isn’t this how we got atheist Europe?


Great! Maybe they’ll finally notice how fucking stupid it is?… Right? Right?


Nothing wrong with that, as long as it is presented as cultural work and not divine truth

Mein Kampf is “cultural work”, should students be required to read that too?

Yes, maybe in 12th grade under strict supervision.

I think you’re being downvoted because, although facetious in comparison because of it’s clearly inflammatory and directed-hate kind of nature, the Bible and Mein Kampf both pose terrible ideas and concepts for any young mind. The murder/rape/incest/genocide/slavery-justifying stuff is all over the place, sprinkled in with stuff about how to be a good person.

Maybe if it wasn’t currently the main religious text now hopelessly tied to the political right of the nation (and not even getting into the uniquely extreme version of protestantism the US has compared to the rest of the world) and actively being used as justification for shitty beliefs/actions/legislation, I could see your point about having it as a text to study, but also probably only in the final years of high school if not just for college, and with religious studies professors/experts and not Mr. Bortner the P.E./history teacher that also coaches the football team.





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