More than 160 faith leaders from across the state of Texas have signed an open letter to public school board members and charter school governing bodies, urging them not to adopt rules carving out time for prayer and Bible readings. The letter comes with less than two months before a state deadline for school boards to vote on the issue, under a law passed last year.
The letter was organized by a coalition of faith-based religious freedom organizations, including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Christians Against Christian Nationalism, and Texas Impact. The letter asks school board members to vote against adopting the school prayer rules as allowed by Senate Bill 11, authored by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston.
"We believe in the value of religious instruction," the letter said. "We also understand that the responsibility for religious instruction lies with students, their families, and their local faith communities – not with public schools, and not organized or directed by the state."
"We sent it initially just this past week to all of the superintendents of all the districts in Texas, addressed to superintendents and school board members," Rabbi David Segal of Houston, policy counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee, said. "And we are also working on individual outreach to school boards by faith leaders who live in those school districts."
Houston Public Media reached out to Middleton for comment on the letter, but his office did not respond.
State Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, sponsored SB 11 last year in the Texas House. He argued that the law was designed to be completely voluntary for school boards, students, and faculty members.
“If school districts decide or charter school governance [boards] decide not to do this, then they don’t have to,” Spiller said in May, during the House debate over SB 11. “But if they do, then schoolteachers, employees can choose to participate, but they don’t have to. If children want to participate, and their parents allow and consent for them to do that, they can do that, but they don’t have to.”
The deadline for school boards to vote on school prayer policies under the law is March 1. Pearland ISD's school board has already declined to adopt the new rules.
Rev. Laura Mayo, one of the signers of the letter, is the senior minister of Covenant Church, a Baptist congregation in Houston, and the mother of two students in Houston ISD.
"One of my professors in graduate school, Reverend Dr. James Dunn, used to say, ‘As long as there are math tests, there will be prayer in school,'" Mayo said. "Students can already pray. They can already form religious clubs. This is not needed. It does not solve a problem. It creates problems."
Mayo argued that even the portions of the law designed to protect students' rights not to participate in the prayer or Bible reading sessions are problematic.
"I also used to teach school," Mayo said. "Can you imagine how onerous it’s going to be to try and keep up with who signed a waiver and who hasn’t? I mean that alone should be enough for any school board to say, ‘Hang on a second. Do we need to do this?'"
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