Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is urging public schools to implement a dedicated time for prayer and reading the Bible in the wake of the state’s new law allowing the activities to take place.
The newly enacted bill, Senate Bill 11, allows the “board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school that is not operated by or affiliated with a religious organization” to “adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day.”
“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton said. “Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society. Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”
Addressing students, Paxton encouraged those considering implementing prayer to “begin with the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ,” which says:
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
Paxton has also directed all Texas Independent School Districts (ISDs) not covered by a federal judge’s order barring the Ten Commandments from classrooms to display them in compliance with state law.
