Photo: Moment RF
The Texas Senate is working on advancing multiple bills aimed at protecting the religious freedoms of teachers across the state, an issue that many Texans have allowed to run on autopilot for several years now.
One of those bills is Senate Bill 810 by Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola). Its goal is to protect teachers from being forced to adhere to gender ideology. Texas Youth Summit founder Christian Collins, who himself has worked as a college professor, says this bill is incredibly important. He said, "When you're a teacher, and someone wants to be addressed by their pronouns, and you feel that violates your religious beliefs, you absolutely should not be required to accommodate in that way."
Another bill aimed at protecting religious freedoms is Senate Bill 965 by Sen. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound), which aims to ensure that any school district or charter school employee is able to pray while on duty, an issue recently litigated by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.
Don Garner with the Texas Faith and Freedom Coalition says this is a clear-cut free speech issue and added that it wouldn't violate the separation of church and state. He said, "Our founders would never have intended for anyone in any kind of government position or public school to have to restrict their speech in regard to their own faith."
Collins says SB956 is also in line with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick's mission to bring prayer back into public schools. He went on to say that "Prayer needs to be a possibility for so many kids who are dealing with suicidal thoughts, they have mental health issues like anxiety and depression. We need to bring back God in our public schools."
Both Collins and Garner echoed the idea that we cannot take our religious freedoms for granted, and they're only ever one generation away from being lost.