Before we get to the bad news, there’s some good news.
Last week, the dramatic race for the speaker of the House in the Texas Legislature concluded with a victory for Republican state Rep. Dustin Burrows, who defeated his main opponent, fellow Republican state Rep. David Cook, thanks to a bipartisan coalition. The heated fight — and the absurd reaction to it — highlighted a deep fissure within the Republican Party of Texas. This was the product of a years-long civil war, one that has been largely funded by a small cadre of hard-right Christian nationalist billionaires who seek to privatize Texas education.
Burrow’s victory marks a defeat for the hard-right and suggests that school privatization may not be a sure deal in the current legislative session, even if the megadonor-funded primary campaigns to unseat Republicans who previously voted against school privatization bills were mostly successful. The reporting on how other states (where such bills have been passed) are fairing indicates large amounts of funding have gone to wealthy families who already can afford private schools. Such legislation has generated massive budget deficits while funneling public dollars to religious schools. Burrow’s win, thus, is a sign of hope for those who don’t want to see the same scenario play out in Texas.
That said, the Republican Party still has a majority in the Texas legislature, Burrows is still quite conservative, and we still have plenty of bills to be concerned about.
For starters, there are a handful of bills that would allow for the infusion of religion into public spaces and violate the separation of church and state, something that — despite the U.S. Constitution — the Texas GOP has some concerning positions on. Texas GOP Chairman Abraham George recently said he does not believe such separation should even exist, per the Texas Tribune. One such piece of legislation is Texas House Bill 717, which would create a right for “an employee of a school district or open-enrollment charter school to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty.” There are also two corresponding bills, Texas House Bill 1425 and Texas Senate Bill 380, which would allow for the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school to “adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day in accordance with this section.” There is also Texas House Bill 1009, which would require all public schools to “display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”
Then there’s Texas House Bill 1497, which would require that the State Preservation Board erect a Christian nativity scene at the Capitol every year. Perhaps a less concerning violation, but nonetheless a part of a larger movement to infuse public spaces with a particular religious viewpoint.
In short, Republicans in Texas this session are saying loudly and clearly: Fuck the Constitution. Let’s marry the Bible. (And kill the separation of church and state.)
As I’ve reported for the Texas Observer, the religious right in Texas is increasingly influenced by charismatic megachurch leaders whose emphasis on the miraculous and supernatural lends itself toward politicization and supremacism. These church leaders embrace and preach what is known as Seven Mountains Dominionism (also known as Seven Mountains Mandate), a theology popularized by North Texas-based pastor Lance Wallnau, which calls for Christians to conquer the “seven mountains” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. That theology was on display last week in Austin at the Capitol, where a charismatic pastor — who previously told his congregation to keep their weapons “loaded” four days after the January 6 riot — prayed dominion theology over a group of lawmakers outside. Later, state Rep. Nate Schatzline co-led a worship service inside to protect the building from the “Jezebel spirit” where a pastor declared that “Jesus rules and reigns in every office.” (Editor’s note: We’re sorry to say our editor in chief is, in fact, the “Jezebel spirit,” and she will be visiting the capitol this session!)
Matthew Taylor, a religious scholar who has closely studied the increasing influence of charismatic Christianity on American politics, did not mince words in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) about the events at the Texas Capitol last week.
“I’ve studied them intensely for the past four years: this new breed of Christian extremists wants control, and they believe God has promised it to them,” Taylor wrote. “If you value pluralism, equality, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, the freedom to not be religious, the freedom to belong to a non-Christian religion, and the ability to criticize abusive churches and bad local (politicians), you do not want these (people) coming to power in your locale.”
Part of what makes Taylor’s criticisms particularly potent is that he grew up in a charismatic Christian community. From his perspective, right-wing activists have weaponized charismatic Christian experience to their political ends. When I spoke to Taylor for an article in the Daily Dot about a social networking website built by and for believers in Seven Mountains Dominionism, he described the theological framework to me as “a political theology of Christian supremacy, which uses prophecy to claim that God is commanding all Christians to strategically take over the high places in society so as to Christianize that society.”
That theology is now a key animating force of the ascendant wing of the Republican Party, whose proposed legislation aims to do exactly what Taylor suggests, or at the very least path the way toward it. All of this bears striking similarity to the era when the Tea Party was first infusing right(er) leaning Republicans into state politics, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who founded the state’s Tea Party caucus in 2010 and today rules over the state’s Senate. Patrick, as many of you are aware, helped add the words “Under God” and “In God We Trust” onto the walls of government buildings and into our pledges. Today, the biggest funder of the Republican party in Texas and the chief megadonor to school privatization efforts, oil billionaire Tim Dunn, has said that only Christians should serve in leadership positions in the Texas House and per Texas Monthly “has stated repeatedly that our democracy must be brought into line with biblical laws.” One of Dunn’s PACs recently donated more than $250,000 to the Texas GOP who then spent over $160,000 that same month on ads attacking Burrows.
It’s unclear whether any of the aforementioned bills will be passed, let alone make it out of committee, but the introduction of bills, the scenes around the capitol in the early days of the legislative session, and the fight over the speakership do help us understand where things are headed.
Moreover, the hard-right wing of the Texas GOP’s response to Burrow’s ascension to speaker portends that the Republican civil war won’t end until all dissent is stamped out and the party is pulled further to the right. Out of the four Texas House bills mentioned above, three were introduced by representatives who voted for Cook. The fourth was introduced by Rep. Jeff Leach, who may soon be censured for supporting Burrows, despite being ranked among the most conservative members of the lower chamber.
As I wrote in a previous column, Texas bipartisanship is on life support, and the Texas Republican Party has threatened to pull the plug by censuring members who voted in support of Burrows for speaker. The party wants to block any independent thinkers from running in future primary elections, essentially. After Burrows’ victory, (Texas GOP Chairman) George set a party executive committee meeting to pass a censure resolution, promising to make good on the threat.
It’s possible that some Republican representatives will fall in line — and make promises to avoid being effectively booted from the ballot, and eventually office — without even losing an election. Removing candidates from the primary ballot as a form of punishment is a move that both the GOP chairman and critics anticipate will invite legal challenges. We should hope they do not comply in advance. While the majority of the Texas population may identify as Christian, they’re not all the types seeking to Christianize the state. Many, for example, believe in the basic tenets of the Constitution. That goes for the Texas Republican party too. The rights laid out in our Constitution — and the doctrine of separation of church and state — were put in place to protect minority groups. Whether there are enough Republicans who are willing to uphold those rights, only time will tell.
Some might argue that America has always been a Christian nation and that such bills are simply returning our country to its historic roots. That (dubious) assertion has long been put forward by members of the John Birch Society, a far-right group founded in 1958 that has had a bit of a resurgence in Texas in recent years. The group recently celebrated the introduction of Texas House Bill 1281, which seems to “nullify the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), and World Economic Forum (WEF) within Texas.” In a nutshell, the John Birch Society believes there is a globalist cabal, which includes the Pope, that is systematically turning over control of America to one, big world communist government — through such international organizations. While their favorite bill may be premised on an insane set of assumptions and is unlikely to pass, the influence of their ideas in government serves as another indicator of where we are right now. Texan conspiracy theorist and defamation lawsuit loser extraordinaire Alex Jones once called President Donald Trump the “John Birch Society president.”
Let’s hope Texas doesn’t become the John Birch Society state.