Thread by @dogemperor

And so, it would seem, Texas is trying to go for Massive Resistance 2.0, possibly in an attempt at undoing the Supreme Court rulings in the late 60s that led to the initial voucher programs in the US being ruled illegal and BJU losing their tax-exempt

A thread:

I say "Massive Resistance 2.0", of note, because Christian Nationalism in its modern form arguably got its start via the fight against desegregation by unreconstructed Confederate-sympathisers, and the FIRST round of "private voucher programs".

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(Yes, this is going to be one of those little history lessons.)

So after Brown v BOE, and subsequent rulings that mandated schools be desegregated...a lot of Southern "Jim Crow" states were exceptionally Salty about this, and so basically set out a plan or three...

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To whit: First ordering schools to not desegregate, and to ignore orders to desegregate.

When the US government started sending in the National Guard to enforce these orders, the chuds in chief proceeded to double down by the equivalent of shooting themselves in the jimmy:

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Namely: "If we can't have segregated schools, then we just won't have schools at *all*".

On the cruder end, this involved chuds (including the KKK 2.0) blowing up schools that had the courage to integrate and threatening families that attended:

segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/beyond-…

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And on a legislative end, you had stuff like the Stanley Plan, which...ordered the defunding, and closure, of any school system that integrated in VA (similar mini-Stanleys were in place throughout the South) in what was called "Massive Resistance" segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/massive…

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And basically when schools were ordered to integrate, or when school boards decided to stop fighting the march of progress...the school systems would be shut down, and vouchers given to private, Protestant schools which coincidentially didn't admit African-Americans

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These "Segregation Academies" (as they got to be called) were founded by "Southern" branches of churches, many of which would later become part of Christian Nationalist and/or neo-Confederate movements (like the Southern Baptists and the PCA)

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and at least two of them (Pensacola Christian College and Bob Jones University) would become major players in Christian Nationalist curricula...and pretty much the shape of Christian Nationalist pro-Confederacy apology (including slavery revisionism) was formed there

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So basically when a school system would get shut down, white kids would get vouchers to go to the local Protestant "segregation academy" (and it was almost always Protestant); African-American kids got sweet FA as far as education in most cases.

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It was so bad, and went on for so long, that there are populations of African-Americans who grew up in the mid- to late-50s who almost never got to attend school unless they were in an area where the Society of Friends had set up "freedom schools"

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because the specific wording of these voucher laws generally prohibited giving vouchers to most integrated schools, but there was enough of a loophole for religious schools that the Quakers took advantage of it (and bless them for it).

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And this kept on until a series of court decisions starting in 1964, which ordered the desegregation of schools and the reopening of Prince Edward County's school system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_v…

Which led to...modern voucher programs (seriously).

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Because the NEXT end-run was "OK, fine, we'll desegregate...but we're still handing out vouchers for segregation academies. As part of 'school choice' programs" *wink wink*.

Which was even referred to as "passive resistance".

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And *this* eventually led to another Supreme Court ruling, this time in 1968, which pretty much Officially Called Them On Their Bullshit, told them to Stop That, and ruled that state tax dollars for segregation academies was unconstitutional en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_v._…

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And there were subsequent rulings after that (some of which led to the first school busing programs), and the IRS also came to a decision that "segregation academies" could no longer be recipients of tax-exempt status

This caused BJU to lose its tax exempt

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And right around the time of segregation academies getting their groove on, and right around the time that schools were ordered to integrate...that's when the Christian Nationalist movement started feeling its oats and lobbying against desegregation theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

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And in fact a lot of the initial activism by Christian Nationalists was against Freedom Marches...and in support of segregation academies, many of which were now at risk of losing their tax exempt for being all racist on main slate.com/news-and-polit…

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In fact, the anti-reproductive-health stuff didn't heavily enter much of the Christian Nationalist movement until such time that "Traditionalist Catholics" (many of whom were salty over Vatican II) were recruited into the movement teenvogue.com/story/religiou…

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And that's why I've consistently been pointing out lately that the goal isn't them undoing *merely* Lawrence v Texas or Griswold v Connecticut, but *BROWN V BOARD OF EDUCATION* and pretty much EVERY decision from that point, and they're using the same playbook as with Roe

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And considering that the Christian Nationalist wing has been pretty much very mask off for the past four or five years (thereby confirming every word of what us #exvangelical folks have tried to warn you about for the past 50 years or so) one ignores this at one's peril

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