Thread by @JuddLegum

1. The Florida Department of Education is training thousands of teachers to indoctrinate students in the tenets of Christian nationalism

We have receipts 🧾

Follow along for details

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2. A three-day training course on civic education, conducted throughout Florida in the summer of 2023, included a presentation on the "Influences of the Judeo-Christian Tradition" on the founding of the United States.

According to speaker notes accompanying one slide, teachers were told that "Christianity challenged the notion that religion should be subservient to the goals of the state," and the same hierarchy is reflected in America's founding documents.

3. The next slide in the deck quotes an article by Peter Lillback, the president of Westminster Theological Seminary and the founder of The Providence Forum, an organization that promotes and defends Christian nationalism.

The group's executive director, Jerry Newcombe, writes a weekly column for World Net Daily — a far-right site known for publishing hundreds of stories falsely suggesting Obama was a Muslim born in Africa.

4. Lillback, a favorite of right-wing pundit Glenn Beck, is not a prominent historian. But Lillback is one of the original signatories of the Manhattan Declaration, a 2009 document calling for civil disobedience if the United States fails to adopt the views of right-wing Christians on abortion and same-sex marriage.

5. The slide quotes an article by Lillback that argues that there would be no freedom, no republic, and no constitution without religion. The slide's speaker notes emphasize that "the separation of Church and State did not mean the separation of God and government," and all the founders were "steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

6. Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty said the presentation's "focus on the mythological founding of the country as a Christian nation [and] use of cherry-picked history… is very much a marker of Christian nationalism."

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7. According to Taylor, the aim of the presentation is "to solidify this ideology that equates being American to being Christian." Tyler noted that the presentation does not address why, if religion was so essential to the structure of the government, the Constitution does not mention God at all.

8. Robert P. Jones, the president of the Public Religion Research Institute, agreed, saying that the language in the slide deck is similar to what one would hear at "Christian nationalist rallies."

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9. Myndee Washington is a Florida middle school teacher who attended the in-person Florida Department of Education civics training in 2022 and 2023. Washington told Popular Information that, in one session, the presenters used King James Bibles to illustrate their points.

Washington said that there was a heavy emphasis in the training on "dispelling the separation of church and state." Teachers attending the training were told, according to Washington, "that there was no such thing because the founders were Congregationalists."

Washington believes that the training "emboldened" some Florida teachers to incorporate religious texts and dogma into their lessons.

10. Other slides in the teacher training claim, without any citations, that the basis of law in the United States is the Ten Commandments ("Decalogue") and that the phrase "all men are created equal" is derived from the biblical concept that "man is made in the image of God."

11. Andrew Whitehead, an associate professor at Indiana University-Indianapolis and the author of a book on Christian nationalism, said the materials produced by the Florida Department of Education are part of "the Christian nationalist project."

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12. Along with the in-person training, the Florida Department of Education offered a 50-hour online civics training. Teachers who successfully completed the online training received a $3K bonus. Popular Information spoke to a Florida teacher who completed the training in 2023.

13. Overall, the teacher said, "there was a real emphasis and focus on the idea of the 10 Commandments underlying our governmental principles." She noted that most of the online instructors were "from private Christian colleges outside the state of Florida."

14. A session on "The Political Thought of America's Founders" was presented by Hillsdale College Professor Matthew Spalding. Hillsdale College is a right-wing Christian institution seeking an overhaul of K-12 education that aligns with its conservative ideology. Former President Trump named Spalding as the executive director of the 1776 Commission.

15. According to the teacher's contemporaneous notes, Spalding said that "Protestant Christianity" had the "greatest influence" on the political thought of America's founders.

Tyler says that claim is indicative of Christian nationalist ideology.

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17. Thanks to @AmandaTylerBJC, @robertpjones, and @ndrewwhitehead for reviewing the presentation and lending their expertise

And @FLFreedomRead for finding these documents and sharing them with me