Fifteen-year-old Habiiba Quresh recently went before the Texas State Board of Education to protest the way its new history standards describe Islam.
“I shouldn't have to defend my religion in the middle of history class because of one sentence someone on this board wrote,” she told the board.
The board voted in June and September to overhaul what Texas public schools teach in social studies, from the earliest grades through high school. It also approved a required reading list for English classes. The decisions will eventually reach more than 5.5 million students and change which periods children study, how much time they spend on Texas and the wider world, and which parts of religious history the state singles out for instruction.
Supporters argue that the new curriculum gives students a coherent account of America and the traditions that shaped it. To critics, the state is putting its preferred version of history into the requirements that guide lessons, textbooks, and tests.
Taken together, the series of decisions that have snowballed into this overhaul could have tremendous consequences for the civic understanding of young Texans.
What Texas Put on the List
The adopted reading list and the high school history standards are separate decisions. Together, they require schools to cover the following:
- Bible passages in English class. The new required reading list includes biblical stories and teachings at multiple grade levels. Seventh graders are assigned the Beatitudes, Jesus’ blessings for the merciful and peacemakers, as well as the 23rd Psalm. Their list also includes Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, a poem by Jewish resistance fighter Hannah Szenes, and The Outsiders. We covered the Bible reading vote when it happened in June.
- Christianity’s influence on society. World history students must study medieval Christian monastic communities, missionaries, hospitals, and orphanages. They must also learn how abolitionist William Wilberforce’s Christian faith informed his campaign against the slave trade. U.S. history students are asked specifically to examine the biblical imagery in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
- Early Islam through conflict and captivity. The standards direct students to learn about Muhammad’s “brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes,” the normalization of slavery, and female captives as “harem slaves.” Another requirement links jihad, a word with spiritual and sometimes military meanings, to the conquest of Christian lands. In U.S. history, students must identify the September 11 attacks as “motivated by radical Islam.” On the other hand, lessons covering Muslim scholars’ contributions to algebra and astronomy were dropped.
- Israel’s founding in 1948. High school students must identify the year the modern State of Israel was established in what the standards call the Jews’ “ancestral homeland,” and learn that President Harry Truman recognized the new state. That new requirement says nothing about the Palestinians who were living there or what happened to them as a result of Israel's establishment.
The changes extend beyond religion. The board also eliminated the existing sixth-grade "World Cultures" course as part of a new sequence that puts greater weight on Texas state history. It calls the larger project a chronological story of Western civilization and the development of American self-government. These decisions establish which history every district must find time to teach.
Why Is Texas Doing This Now?
Texas periodically revises its learning standards, but the last sweeping social studies rewrite was in 2010. Another attempt faltered in 2022 amid disputes over how schools would teach race and American identity. In 2024, the board formed a committee to plan a new approach. It approved the course framework in 2025 and the new standards this year. The high school history standards discussed here are scheduled to take effect in 2033–34.
State laws helped set the work in motion. A 2023 law required a literary work for each grade’s reading list. Earlier legislation called for instruction in “informed patriotism,” while 2025 laws added particular civics and history requirements. Lawmakers did not write the contested sentences about Muhammad or choose the phrasing “ancestral homeland” to describe Israel. Board members made those choices during the revision.
The board’s stated ambition is much larger than updating dates and names. Chair Aaron Kinsey says students will “finally get the full story” by following events in chronological order. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative group that supported the overhaul, argues that the previous courses separated Texas, American, and world history and failed to explain America’s moral foundations. Its preferred framework connects those subjects into a single account of national development.
Critics see the same structure very differently. The American Historical Association says the revision gave teachers and historians too little meaningful input and narrowed the time available for world history and cultures. Its concern reaches beyond religious content: now that the government has laid out its preferred central story, people and events outside of that narrative become easier to leave out.
The Fight Over a Few Words
At the board’s September meeting, member Brandon Hall opposed removing the word “brutal” from the description of Muhammad’s campaigns. He argued that the change would gloss over a consequential part of history. Fellow member Will Hickman pointed out that the standards used no such adjective in describing any other wars.
Andrea Hutchison, a curriculum coordinator appointed to advise the board, found another problem with the wording. “Harem slaves,” she wrote, applies a term from a much later Ottoman context to seventh-century Arabia. She proposed language that still covered Muhammad’s teachings, military campaigns, and conquest. The board kept its version. Other appointed advisers also questioned the historical support for the description.
Then there is September 11th. Al-Qaeda carried out the attacks, and its leaders invoked their interpretation of Islam. The Texas standard names “radical Islam” without naming al-Qaeda. “When you use such broad terms, people don't see ‘radical,’” Sameeha Rizvi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told ABC13. “What they're going to see is ‘Islam.’”
At the September protest, Austin student Abdelrahman Azami described what people have said to him: “Oh, you’re a bomber. How many bombs did you drop today?” He was born ten years after the September 11 attacks.
That is the class Quresh was imagining. A teenager could find herself explaining a state-approved description of her religion to other teenagers. The omitted algebra and astronomy requirement matters in that setting: students are required to study Muslim slave raiders, but may never get to learn about Muslim mathematicians.
One Year, Two Histories
Texas’s final U.S. history requirement tells students to identify 1948 as the year the modern State of Israel was established “in the ancestral homeland of the Jews,” and President Harry Truman as the first world leader to recognize it. A world history requirement also calls the land the Jewish people’s “ancestral home.” Neither requirement mentions Palestinians.
Jewish history has deep roots in the land. The question is what students will understand from the state’s description when they are given no account of the Palestinian Arabs who lived there, many in towns and villages their families had known for generations.
In 1947, the United Nations voted to divide British-ruled Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Palestinian Arab leaders rejected the plan as unfair, and fighting began. Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948; Truman recognized it the same day. Neighboring Arab armies entered the war afterward.
For many Jews, Israel’s founding after the Holocaust meant refuge and self-determination. For Palestinians, the war brought the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe.” About 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. Many were prevented from returning, and the Arab state proposed in the partition plan was never established. Those events are absent from the history Texas mandates be taught.
That absence has immediate meaning during a period of renewed displacement. Nearly a year after the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire announcement, the United Nations was still reporting Israeli strikes, widespread destruction, and restrictions on essential supplies.
What Happens After the Vote
A state standard is not a script a teacher must recite. Districts select materials, and teachers can bring in additional evidence. But Texas’s standards shape textbooks, teacher training, and state assessments, and every required topic claims a share of limited classroom time.
That is why the board’s choices extend beyond a dispute among historians. A student may learn about Christian hospitals and Wilberforce’s faith without learning how other Christians defended slavery. She may encounter Muhammad first through a description that the board’s own advisers challenged. She may study 1948 as a homecoming, without hearing why another family remembers the same year as the loss of its home. Those are plausible consequences of the requirements Texas adopted, even though teachers may work to provide a fuller account.
The Rev. Natalie Webb, senior pastor of University Baptist Church in Austin, stood alongside Muslim families protesting the standards before the September vote. She spoke about her Baptist tradition’s own struggle for religious freedom. She warned that “no one’s religion is safe while anyone’s is being prioritized.”
At the ULC, we ordain people of many faiths and none. Our ministers may lead a wedding where two families pray differently, or a funeral where mourners disagree about what comes after death. Knowing someone’s faith only through wars, terrorists, or a list of approved heroes is poor preparation for meeting that person at the altar, in grief, or anywhere else.
The History They Will Carry
The winners of a fight over curriculum get to decide which stories millions of children meet first. Over time, those choices can pass for the whole story. Students carry them into voting booths, public office, and judgments about neighbors whose families remember the same events differently. A dispute over a few words can shape public life long after the board members who chose them have left office.
Quresh asked the adults in charge to imagine someone like her sitting in that classroom. When those students grow up and begin making decisions that affect one another, whose histories will they have learned to see?
77 comments
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James G. Ward
Texas! How dare you teach such hateful things. The extremists in the Islamic faith number in the few. I have met and enjoyed the company of many Islamic people and they were all about peace and love. We as Americans need to remember that this country was a place for people of alternate Christian beliefs to escape from the tyranny of more mainstream Christian churches and people. Islam is another belief modality and should be respected as free to practice and pray in a country where religious freedom is supposed to be celebrated. If a state messes with history classes as bad as Texas has then perhaps the diplomas for those students should not be acknowledged by other states as valid. The truth should be taught not hatred.
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Minister Dixon
I am a Texan born and raised. I love Texas history and consider myself to be knowledgeable concerning the subject. The street where my family has lived for decades is populated evenly with those of all faiths and races.
This is my experience and speaks for itself.
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Carl J Smith
I beleave school u less religious should be nietral and factual separation of state and church. Educatio should be just that not dogma. We all beleave differently and school should be educatio ot dogma. Or beliefs. Who knows what the truth realy is . As far as religoi go by your religious leaders and faith blessed be
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Patti Anne Lisenbee
I've never seen such hatred on this site before. There's always been some, but damn! The hatred towards Muslims is terrible this time. I've known Muslims - they just want to live their lives as they want, just like the rest of us. I've had an Imam ask my advice on a bad situation, and he really listened and took it into account. Muslims were brought here as slaves and continued their religion, not them immigrating with the intent to take over. Stop the hate! We ULC Ministers should be better than that.
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Ari Joseph Bertine
I don't understand why some of these commenters even chose ULC to bring such an attitude into when the mission of this church is clearly written in the website. I can only guess that they did not read about the church when they signed up here.
https://www.ulc.org/about
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Lion on the Beach
Crats, libs and commies can't stand it when children are being taught the truth and not being indoctrinated.
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Michael Hunt
Except they're not being taught the truth, their being taught a white-washed version of history that puts Christianity above all other religions. If we want our children being taught the truth, we shouldn't be indoctrinating them into a religion, Christianity or otherwise.
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Lester
Then teach them about the atrocities committed by the church as well...
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Steven Ferrell
A simple study of islam, shows they have only one goal and that is to force the world into islam and its laws which treat women as property, give them to cover from head to toe, so that men are not tempted. There is no responsibility for temptation to be the responsibility of the male.
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Ari Joseph Bertine
Christianity has similar goals depending on the denomination. It isn't Muslim religious leaders in the US suggesting that we take away women's voting rights. Every religion has sects that represent very poorly.
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Lester
I was going to say much the same thing. Is it not the goal of Christianity to spread?
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Patricia Sydney Solis
This is pure totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is the control of all thought, and it starts in school. Kids are being indoctrinated, raising serious First Amendment concerns about compelled speech in the classroom. History teaches us well how religious narratives get weaponized. Let's look at the Crusades. Pope Urban II diverted peasants' anger against the church and nobility by directing it toward an external enemy. Peasants murdered Jews and Muslims, then were themselves slaughtered in distant wars, all to heal a political schism within the papacy. The Reconquista in Spain was a mini Crusade that followed the same pattern. Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in relative peace in Spain until Ferdinand and Isabella unleashed the Inquisition and got their thumb screws out. Torture seems to be a sacrament in the Christian religion. And here's the irony they won't teach: you can thank your Muslim neighbors for the Renaissance. While Europe languished in the church's Dark Ages, Muslim scholars preserved classical Greek and Roman thought. Philosophy, mathematics, medicine abd science would otherwise have been lost. They transmitted it back to Europe through Spain. Without Toledo's translation houses and Córdoba's libraries, there is no European revival. In a bitter twist, the same expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain that ended that transmission now echoes in Texas classrooms where Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy, even the alphabet have been deleted from the standards. Texas is a mess. There's a reason critics call it the "Texas Taliban." They're the same extremist ideological enforcement we see in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers in Gaza are cutting down Palestinian olive orchards, murdering civilians and seizing land. Even biblical narratives acknowledge King David conquered Jerusalem from the Canaanites. This is hardly a divine mandate for exclusive ownership. It's pure theft and it's been institutionalized as "religion." Who among these policymakers actually practices Christian teachings? We witness performative piety, the kind Jesus condemned as hypocrites who pray on street corners for appearances while ignoring the Beatitudes they're now mandating for seventh graders. As Rev. Natalie Webb warned, "no one's religion is safe while anyone's is being prioritized." When the state decides which religious narratives receive official sanction and which get erased, we've crossed from education into ideological control. Thomas Jefferson said students should be learning Latin and Greek, not religious indoctrination. Students must learn history with its contradictions intact and not some sanitized versions serving political agendas in the name of Caesar.
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Robert Berry
Such nonsense to clean up and polish history into something it wasn't. That's far more than just perspective, it's deliberately teaching outright fantasy and lies. That can only serve to produce ignorant misinformed and calloused adults.
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Thomas Lee Kirchner
The crying history changers are welcome to leave n live in a theocracy. Like Iran or Saudi , where religion is taught. The USA Constitution plainly states a separation of church n state. If they cannot follow the law, please leave our country.
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Rev. Lindsay
The root of this is Islam isn't a religion, at least not a real one. The bible says that Jesus Christ was born as God incarnate. Islam's Quran was written 550 years after Jesus Christ and tries to disprove that after the fact that he was God or even born of God and only a prophet. It seems this was done intentionally to discount Christ's birth which makes the Quran itself an anti-God writing though Islamists have no clue this is the case. Whether it was intentional or not the Quran which they base their belief in is contrary to what we know is true. Worse still there are some violent contexts in the Quran which is clearly not religion to commit acts of violence which discredits Islam itself at this point from really being a real religion from violence being condoned in it's pages as a method of trying to protect Islam from contrary opinions through violent force.
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Lester
The argument that the Bible is older is a poor one. There are religions far older. If age is an indication of truth, perhaps you should be Hindu...
As for the Quran promoting violence, maybe you should read the Bible again....
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Robert Berry
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Mrknowitall
If you don't like what they say about Islam, then get out of the U.S. Who on earth would defend Islam and it's beliefs against America and Christianity ; Satan and his demons ( Democrats and gays )
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Ari Joseph Bertine
Why are you even here? There are plenty of fundamentalist Christian forums to hang out in, yet you choose a church that welcomes all religious walks to invade and preach against other religions? Don't you have something constructive to do?
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Lester
I will gladly stand against Christianity.
Inquisitions Crusades Witch hunts Divine right Need I say more???
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Roy S. Thorpe
The problem is an old one! Politics and religion don't mix, no matter crock of baloney you use! Just like politicians there are so many versions of the Bible and religions it is asinine to even try to discuss them! Every person who reads the Bible has a different opinion of the Word. Most politicians lack the mental capacity to handle small problems let alone the enormity of religion!
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Patricia Ann Gross
All I remember from my 30 years living in Texas and raisinng two kids there is that they cannot deciide what to teach or how to teach it, except, perhaps, that football is the ONLY sport worth watching or playing. (BTW, both my kids had their college education largely paid for by a bat and glove instead of a pigskin, but that is a topic for another thread). My daughter was called into the office for carrying her Bible to class with her textbooks, and instructed to leave it in her locker. She pushed back and won, stating she was only using it during time after she finished all of her work and needed something to do. She promised not to get up and read anything from it, so it was that, or she could bring in a comic book with questionable content that included nudity and violence. They told her she could bring in hir Bible instead. Now they are trying to make it required reading. Go figure. By the time 2033 gets here, they will probably change their minds two or three more times anyway. Who knows, by then they may declare themselves their own country again.
Too often we forget that history is written by the winners. In most cases we don't teach in the history of the westward migration, that tens of thousands of Native Americans were displaced and slaughtered, except for some footnotes regarding the trail of tears. We are also trying to erase the atrocity that the country was also complicit in the slave trade during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (part of that while we were still an English colony, of course), so leaving Palestine out of the narrative of Israel in 1948 isn't that much of a stretch.
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Brian Hand
Muzzies don’t belong here. It’s as simple as that.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
There goes freedom of religion.
“Hey, ya’ll. How ‘bout we’uns pass one of dem der laws that says ‘No Muzlims’?
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Lester
Who are you, to make such a decision?
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obere mchugh
sounds like texas is just white-washing history and being very pointed and very one sided, all be it that is pretty standard for those who write history and the like always from the side of winner's about the loosers.
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
Texas-historical revisionism has reconstructed the Alamo to be one of the best-known exemplars of USA patriotism and freedom. This, although the Alamo was fought over the issue of slavery. Those defending the Alamo, supported slavery, while those opposed to slavery were the enemies of freedom, Christian values and ergo “The Divine Right of Kings” — the Alamo was really fought about in the first place — as the majority of patriotic Texans are still fighting about now; thanks, Jim M.
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ServantOfJudgement
Silly talk.
The Alamo was a fight for dirt. I'm not sure how you came to slavery but I'll bet it had nothing to do with reading or thinking.
Dirt. That's what the fight was over. Dirt.
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James Riggle-Johnson
Yes, it was about land, but...
The Institution of Slavery: Mexico officially abolished slavery in 1829. Many Anglo settlers bypassed this rule through loopholes, and a major driver for their rebellion was the desire to preserve chattel slavery against the anti-slavery laws of the Mexican government.
Two things can be true at once.
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ServantOfJudgement
Meanwhile the Mexicans are chunking slaves through any crack they can make or find.
Save the junk for junk peddlers.
Respectfully of course...
I'll bust down anybody who thinks they got the high ground on slaves.
All's all y'all are using tablets and telephones made by slaves from minerals mined by slaves.
Hang all that junk up when I show up.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Actually, SOJ,
The Alamo was a fight for the Republic of Texas. Once they eventually won against Mexico, it was it's own country for just a few years (I think seven or eight) before becoming the first state to be added to the US by treaty. That treaty specified that they could become a country again (secede) by a majority vote of the citizens, and they would be allowed to fly their flag at the same height as the US flag (breaking custom with all other states in the country). Once they seceded and became part of the confederacy, and the lost the Civil War, that "popular vote back to their own country" was not allowed going forward, but, ironically, you will find that in all places that fly the Texas flags, with the exception of federal buildings, and I presume military bases, that there are two flag poles, and the Texas flag is flown at the same height as the US flag. That's about how much respect they have for the "good ole USA".
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James Richard Munro
Reminds me of an old Texas saying. I'll tell you the truth four or five different ways before Id lie to you. Jim M
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Father Frederick
History is not meant to be rewritten to comfort people, nor should it be related the way we want it to appear. History is long filled with events which are both wrong or very uncomfortable. If one is Jewish, history in 1930-1945 German was certainly not good, and I wonder how they would feel if we sanitized all the texts to make it read as if nothing evil ever happened.
The same questions should be asked of the student. Are you in denial, and do you wish for all references to be stricken from historical texts? And to add to this, what would be the reaction to a Christian going to a Muslim nation and wanting all the uncomfortable rhetoric in their texts taken out, and not taught in schools.
Perhaps if Habiiba Quresh doesn't like what is said, she should study multiple texts or multiple religions and then see what ownership she has in history. And if it's so offensive, rather than inflicting her will over America to change for her comfort, simply pack up and go back to the mid-east where she can reside with people who have the same mindset.
The idea of one coming here, not liking what history has to say about their religion and its sins is basically insane. It only provides evidence as some Muslim and Islamic cultures profess that you can take over a nation simply by populating it and then imposing your religion over the Christians and the Jews.
Perhaps is
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Michael Hunt
This took a quick turn from, "we shouldn't rewrite history" to, "she should go back to where she came from" all because a Muslim student objected to her religious beliefs being singled out and vilified. This isn't someone asking for her beliefs to be treated differently or trying to whitewash Islamic history, she wants her religious beliefs treated with the same respect as every other religion. This curriculum whitewashes the atrocities committed by Christians and fails to acknowledge the contributions made to society by Muslims.
You're also assuming that because she is Muslim, she's not from America or not really "American" which is simply Islamophobia. Plenty of US born citizens are Muslims and they're not coming to America to impose their religion over anyone. The main religion forcing their beliefs upon Americans is Christianity and this ridiculously pro-Christianity curriculum is just one of many pieces of evidence..
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James Riggle-Johnson
Amen, Michael.
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Mrknowitall
If your Muslim you support death and hatred, quit trying to separate good and bad Muslims, there's no such thing because the book of Islam was written by Satan end of story.
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James Riggle-Johnson
I have spokemn to Muslims. I have friends who are Muslim, and none of them are hateful. None of them are disgusted by my being gay. None of them have killed anyone.
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obere mchugh
Wow mrknowitall, what a very hateful and bigoted notion there. ive known many muslim and not a one hateful. all have been very devout and respectful of any/everyone not try and convert or kill or anything else. they even understood that there holy-book was what it is a guide and not 100% literal truth. something most christians seem to lack the basic understanding of. this is why id never be apart of a faith group that literally believes a book 100% as in the end its written by faulty humans in there own interpretation.
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Lester
This is false. I have met quite a few Muslims. And yes, there are those who hate us, and would see us converted or dead. (Preferably dead) But it is not ALL, or even a majority. I would also point out that there are plenty of Christians with the same attitude...
And judging by your comment......
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Rev. Dr. Dennis Chevalier, Ph.D; DD
Father Frederick,
Amen Father.
Dr. D
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Najah P Tamargo
Najah Tamargo-USA
Yet another "white wash" of history! Can noone ever tell the TRUTH? When I went to school, we learned World History, both good and bad. It gave me perspective. And if Texas wants to tell the TRUTH, why not teach them how this country was REALLY founded, by the genocidal actions against the Ingenious Peoples that were already here, before the invading Europeans showed up?? I am glad I don't have children in Texas!!!!
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ServantOfJudgement
Here's some truth. More Christians were chopped up and dismembered by Islam in the Congo the other day.
For some reason the religion of peace just can't stop chopping up people.
Do you think they like it when they behead for Allah? Hmmmm, I wonder...I'll bet they're thrilled and excited.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
BTW - have you listened to Talarico? What upsets you about him? Not hellfire and damnation enough for you? - With a salary of ~$170K, and having been a senator for about ~15 years, that’s where his salary came from.
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ServantOfJudgement
What upsets me about thakarico is that he's a willing liar.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Explain? Making the statement ‘He is a liar.’ is quite different from ‘I think he is a liar.’
I have a card I got from somewhere many, many years ago. It states ‘Methinks thou art a sh*thead.’ And over the years I have been known to use that phrase.
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Doctor Loyal
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Doctor Loyal
Sorry for my typo loaded deletion.
It's the Religion of Pieces...
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
“ While Talarico uses scripture to defend his progressive framework, traditionalists contend that this approach reinterprets historic doctrines to fit modern political ideologies rather than adhering to traditional historic theology. Political Rhetoric does NOT follow Protestant Christian Standards, either Biblically or Historically.”
Was this your comment I received in an email notice of a response. If so, I think ‘traditionalist’ need to pull their heads out of the sand(or more personal dark place) and reconsider their views. These ‘traditionalists’ may believe that their Bronze Age beliefs should be legislated into the lives of others but the constitution says otherwise.
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Doctor Loyal
Correct, that was my comment. The comment is in reference to the Episcopalian Sect of which Talarico is a member. They have substituted Woke and Liberal political references for Biblical statements intimating that the politically woke version is their version of Christianity. They have gone to some lengths in this process, including publishing their personal version of the Bible. A portion of their membership's philosophy claims that God is Trans. While I am not a "Rock Bound" Traditionalist, this strikes me as being outside the mainstream or even "progressive" Christianity. In addition, I would never seek to impose my beliefs on others, that is a violation of their own right to "Free Will".
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Talarico fought against putting the 10 commandments in Texan public schools. That is the sort of ‘forcing/legislating beliefs onto others’ that I’m concerned about.
Your concerns actually had me chuckling. I guess you like the KJV version? That was cherrypicked to suit the desires of exactly who? You might as well be arguing about whether color of the ‘real’ Superman’s costume (late 50s???) matched the color version seen in the ‘78 movie. Confusing fiction for reality.
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Doctor Loyal
So, you have no concerns that a lot of their ministers claim God is Trans ?
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
That’s cute. The entire issue revolves around people who argue about whether Batman or Spiderman would win in a fight. Much ado about nonexistent entities.
But if your Mr. Magic existed? Well the God of the Old Testament probably wouldn’t like them very much. The God of the New Testament on the other hand, he wouldn’t care. What I find really amusing, outside of the fact that people take this nonsense seriously, is that people that believe in the new testament still subscribe to the hateful, psychotic, murderous sshle god of the old testament.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Dr. Loyal,
That makes you 0-2 in the last two comments. Progressive pastors or priests are NOT claiming that God is trans (which means God changed from one gender to the other), unless you consider what they REALLY teach, even in the Catholic Catechism, that God has NO gender, but made a man and a woman in God's OWN image. All this means is that God has many of the same aspects as both men and women and gave them to the humans.
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Doctor Loyal
Perhaps you discount the source which is "The Western Journal in reference to multiple statements by Bishop Mariann Budde, the first female to hold that position in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Dr. Loyal,
I just did a search on Marriann Budde on the Western Journal website, and the first message I got was from my antivirus program which said, "We tested this page and blocked content coming from potentially dangerous or risky sites. Allow this content only if you're sure it comes from safe sites." Trusting that you wouldn't lead me astray and damage my computer,I checked out a couple of the articles, and btw, none of the articles were interviews of or written by Budde herself, all of them were commentaries by conservative hacks that praised Joy Bahar and labeled Budde as "Woke," and "one step away from universalism and humanism (as though those were "bad" things). Not a single article I read anywhere did it say Budde considered or characterized God as a transgender, so if you saw it somewhere, please provide me a link because even Snopes cannot find it.
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SDA
The word is indigenous, not ingenious. No doubt some of them were quite innovative when in their methods of farming, animal husbandry, tactics, and societal management, but calling them ingenious as a whole is probably inaccurate. Unless you can identify the first people to occupy a given parcel of land, it is misleading to identify the peoples encountered by later settlers as indigenous. The native peoples had long histories of dispossessing one another of territory. Also, while I certainly abhor the way the native peoples were treated by the United States government, that is not the whole story of the founding of the country. Those genocidal actions are part of the story, and one I learned going to school in Texas in the 1970s. History is written from the perspective of those in authority that hold the power to write it. Is it important to point out that al-Qaeda members committed the despicable terrorist acts of 9-11? Absolutely. That should be done while also mentioning the fact they justified it through their Islamic beliefs.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
‘Unless you can identify the first people to occupy a given parcel of land, it is misleading to identify the peoples encountered by later settlers as indigenous.’
No, it’s not. Indigenous does not ordinarily mean that these peoples were literally the first humans ever to set foot on the continent. It refers to populations descended from the peoples inhabiting these lands before European conquest and settlement and whose societies developed there independently of the later colonial populations.
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ServantOfJudgement
That's a very Hard truth you've laid down SDA.
What mankind species is truly indigenous to anyplace?
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SDA
Good question. And, if I had a firm answer then that might actually be my "hard truth". I do not have that answer. People are quick to decry the removal of indigenous people by some later arrivals. History often reveals the people being removed are simply the most recent occupiers of land which they dispossessed others from. The United States will forever have a moral stain on it's historical conscience caused by its treatment of the native peoples it encountered on its way across North America. That is a sad and hard truth. It's also one I learned about attending school in Texas in the 1960s and 70s. It was taught then and it should be taught now.
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SDA
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Doctor Loyal
Stop trying to edit / re-write History. We don't need any emphasis on Islamic culture in our schools, it is already sufficient. How about a focus on known core principals we know are already neglected!! Religion is NOT a core concept when the History, Science, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Syllogism, Civics, and Logical Thought Processes are swept from the classroom. The junk left is Indoctrination, NOT Education, and has no place in an institution of Learning and knowledge. As a TELT Certified Tutor, I find that over 70% of my students are functionally Illiterate. Unfortunately, most of those Students already have High School Diplomas.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Hopefully if James Talarico wins his Senate race some things will change. Given his strong Christian values he should get a portion of the Texan xtians, the ‘non-nutjob’ vote. He reminds me of Bernie Sanders.
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ServantOfJudgement
Yes, a liar and hypocrite, just like the millionaire Sanders. Two pigs in their poop.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Bernie is worth between $2-3M dollars. Over $2M of that came from writing a book.
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ServantOfJudgement
That's 2-3 million dollars more than the rest of us have. I suppose his tax the rich philosophy starts in just over 2-3 million dollars....
All of the socialists are liars and the ones who aren't are dead broke lemmings.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Actually his proposed tax increases started after $250K so a large number of families would see no increase. But there is a flat 4% income tax on EVERYBODY to fund free healthcare.
Additionally there was a wealth tax based on total wealth. This address the ultra-wealthy. Notvevenbthe top 1%, but the top 0.1% with the total addtl revenue being about $450B/year.
Any plan for a free healthcare has to have funds coming from somewhere. That means taxes. In Japan essentially everybody pays a percentage of their income to fund the healthcare program. It’s not free even then. With Japan’s program’s sliding scale to determine how much a family pays tops out rather low, so the wealthiest sectors are paying a trivial amount of money. That cost a reasonable. And includes dental. I stayed in the hospital once actually two different occasions for 30 days each for rotator cuff surgery. These are operations that the medical system in the United States would probably have sent home same day, outpatient basis. My total out-of-pocket? For any given calendar month for a given problem you’re out-of-pocket tops out somewhere around ¥180,000, or approximately $1100. Affordable but not free and nobody has turned away for healthcare. Even that is one percent 2% of the population that doesn’t have insurance. You’ll get treated. Well, there are drugs/procedures that aren't approved. So if you catch the Uga-Booga Fungus while traipsing around the Congo, you may get SOL, but the exceptions are exceptions bc they are rare.
Bernie wanted to tax the ultra rich. He had a fair plan for everybody. I don’t know how much money you make from but I think making $170,000 a year like Bernie isn’t a large amount of money because a teacher makes $60,000 or so a year now. From what I hear at least he isn’t trying to hurt wealthy people. The wealth tax start somewhere above $25 million. That’s far far above what his wealth is, but I guarantee he didn’t pick that number because of the bracket was in. It’s a plan to tax the filthy rich. This used to be done and he is simply proposing to do it again.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
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James Riggle-Johnson
Yes, and Ken Paxton is a beacon of honesty, free of hypocrisy and certainly of corruption. Oh yeah, and he’s poor.
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Pix Edward
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Brian Hand
The “non nutjob” vote? Sanders & Talarico are the epitome of nutjobs. Socialism has no place here and neither does islam.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Do you understand what ‘Social Security’ is?
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Doctor Loyal
While Talarico uses scripture to defend his progressive framework, traditionalists contend that this approach reinterprets historic doctrines to fit modern political ideologies rather than adhering to traditional historic theology. Political Rhetoric does NOT follow Protestant Christian Standards, either Biblically or Historically.
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ServantOfJudgement
Absolutely correct Dr Loyal. The illogical left is absolutely willing to be deceived by anyone or anything that says what they want to hear. They're incapable of self analysis and the feedback loop it provides.
Talarico's Christianity would be contrasted by an Lgbt2qia++ movement that forbids the pride flag, recognizes the only two proper genders, forbids cross dressing, forbis child indoctrination in schools and under all circumstances keep all sexual deviance private other than telling ones conversation therapist.
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Michael Hunt
"The illogical left is absolutely willing to be deceived by anyone or anything that says what they want to hear. They're incapable of self analysis and the feedback loop it provides."
This is an incredible level of projection, even for you SoJ.
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Rosemary West
"The illogical left," is what people say when you exit the room.
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Patricia Ann Gross
SOJ,
I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but Talarico, as a Presbyterian, is supportive of LGBTQIA++ issues. Many friends, and progressive pastors I know support him in this race. I guess you would support another adjudicated felon over him and one that would support a 60-day sentence for a convicted child predator? How about someone who can't keep his hands out of someone elses's till? There's a long list of corruption going back to 2005 on Paxton. : https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/
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Doctor Loyal
Correct, that was my comment. The comment is in reference to the Episcopalian Sect of which Talarico is a member. They have substituted Woke and Liberal political references for Biblical statements intimating that the politically woke version is their version of Christianity. They have gone to some lengths in this process, including publishing their personal version of the Bible. A portion of their membership and Clergy's philosophy claims that God is Trans. While I am not a "Rock Bound" Traditionalist, this strikes me as being outside the mainstream of even "progressive" Christianity. In addition, I would never seek to impose my beliefs on others, that is a violation of their own right to "Free Will".
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
They publish their own version of your comic book? KJV. The ‘V’ stands for something that should tell you that your ideas about the bible aren’t the only ones around.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Dr L.,
James Talarico is a Presbyterian, going to a Presbyterian seminary.
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The history shows that God made everything and people are trying to change and rewrite history is wrong. Leave well enough alone.
Just for some clarity, Shawn, history shows that mankind has created a variety of deities throughout the eons of time, none of which have ever been demonstrably proven to exist, so we don’t in fact know how the universe, and everything in it, came into existence. There are of course many creationist theories posited by mankind, but until we have any cast-iron demonstrable evidence, theories are all we have.
So, saying “God made everything….” is just basically a wild assumption used by religionists, mostly based on a book of compiled manuscripts written by many who possibly didn’t know where the sun went at night.
Interesting thought though, so thanks for your comment.
🦁❤️
History shows what????
LMAO 🤣