Texas Democrat sparks firestorm after he blasts Bible-related education in schoolshttps://nypost.com/2026/08/15/us-news/texas-democrat-sparks-firestorm-after-he-blasts-bible-related-education-in-schools/Texas state representative and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign responded after a resurfaced video of his comments on the Bible and education sparked outrage.
A clip resurfaced this week of Talarico, a Christian seminarian, speaking in a video hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2025. In the clip, the host asked Talarico about his legislative battles with “Christian Nationalists,” meaning people who consider America to be an inherently Christian nation.
The portion that went viral recently when Talarico blasted the “most insidious” legislation he fought to stop while serving in Texas government, claiming one bill required schools in the state to teach Bible stories as historical fact. He argued that this amounted to pushing “propaganda” on children and was not just bad for state schools, but for society overall.
“It was a new state curriculum that would teach Christian Bible stories as historical fact, as the only truth to our youngest students, and I mean kindergarten, first graders,” he said. “These are kids who aren’t able to think for themselves yet. They haven’t formed their own worldviews.”
He further warned that the alleged effort to “push propaganda, to push indoctrination on those youngest students is deeply immoral and should trouble all of us.”
"(T)each(ing) Bible stories as historical fact" is propaganda? The (Pharaoh) Merneptah Stele proves that Israelites were in Canaan in the 1200s BC, and archeologists have been excavating at the major Phillistine cites for decades, but "(T)each(ing) Bible stories as historical fact" is propaganda? Moabite, Assyrian, and Babylonian monuments and records establish the existence of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and record the names of some of the kings, but "(T)each(ing) Bible stories as historical fact" is propaganda?
I could keep going wrt Bible historicity, but will leave it at much of the OT, Gospels, and Acts has been confirmed as historical fact and/or consistent with know historical facts. Just as important, even if you overlook the God parts, they demonstrate the characters, mistakes, and intelligence of humans, from which kids can learn. As for kids being able "to think for themselves", how is withholding historical and cultural information from them not hobbling their ability to do that and indoctrinating kids against one of the core idea sets in American culture??
Whether Talarico is
this ignorant and bigoted or was just playing on his Prog audience's,
and don't much care.
