April 2026
Across the United States, Christian Nationalist ideologies are increasingly permeating public education, intensifying concerns about the erosion of the separation between church and state.
Even in Colorado, school board elections have become a target of Christian dominionists. In 2021, the Truth & Liberty Coalition—a nonprofit based in Woodland Park, Colorado, dedicated to mobilizing Christians—secured control of the Woodland Park, Colorado, School Board. This led the district to become the first in the country to adopt the controversial American Birithright social studies standards, which the Colorado State Board of Education rejected in 2022. In 2023, the Truth & Liberty Coalition launched Transform Colorado, a statewide initiative that brought together Christian leaders to advance biblical values in public life. Through Transform Colorado, the organization actively recruited and trained school board candidates and distributed church election guides for 30 school board races across Colorado.
In 2026, far-right Conservative-Christian views are increasingly influencing public education nationwide. State legislatures are introducing and passing bills that embed Conservative-Christian viewpoints in schools. Recent laws in Texas and Louisiana require public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. In Ohio and Indiana, bills support expanding religious instruction from LifeWise Academy. Other states, such as Florida, Oklahoma, and Arizona, are considering the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act, while Iowa and South Carolina are pushing to expand Turning Point USA Club America in high schools. These developments illustrate an urgent, nationwide shift challenging the separation of church and state in education.
In addition to far-right Christian legislation, several States are also injecting Conservative-Christian views into state social studies standards. For example, the Texas Board of Education has even appointed former Hillsdale College employee Jordan Adams and Evangelical Christian author and political activist David Barton to the Texas Social Studies Curriculum advisory panel. Jordan Adams is responsible for creating a patriotic curriculum for both Hillsdale College and President Trump. In 2023, the Pennridge, PA school board ended a controversial contract with Jordan Adams’ Education consulting firm, Vermilion Education, because of Jordan Adams’ ties to the far-right Hillsdale College. He was also a major player in Florida, where he helped rewrite the state’s civics standards and curriculum to align with Hillsdale’s Christian-Conservative views. David Barton is known for promoting the idea that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation. He is the founder and president of WallBuilders, an organization dedicated to presenting a version of American history that emphasizes its “moral, religious, and constitutional heritage.” In 2012, David Barton’s publisher, Thomas Nelson, pulled Barton’s book, The Jefferson Lies, from shelves for factual inaccuracies.
What can public school parents and teachers do?
To protect public education, parents and educators must resist Christian nationalist propaganda and defend the separation of church and state.
One solution is to read Warren Throckmorton’s newest book, The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History, which teaches readers how to debunk seven myths that Christian Nationalists propagate in History. Warren Throckmorton is the coauthor of Getting Jefferson Right, a book that primarily serves as a point-by-point refutation of claims in David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies. He is also the host of an educational podcast series, Telling Jefferson Lies.
In his new book, The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History, Throckmorton picks a fight with fables about the past told by those trying to erase the separation of church and state. Did the Puritans actually establish a covenant with God, and were all the founders evangelical Christians? Are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution based on the Bible, and did the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia actually kneel for daily prayers? With keen attention to primary sources, Throckmorton dismantles the myths, piece by historical piece. And he asks: How are the genocide of Indigenous people and enslavement of millions of Africans not definitive repudiations of some righteous Christian past?
The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History will be available to purchase on May 19, 2026. To pre-order, visit www.christianpast.com.
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