Religious Expression Bill May Be Pandora's Box

It looks like the Religious Expression bill will soon become law in the state of Texas. It has been passed by both the House and Senate, and now sits on the Governor's desk. Since the Governor has publicly said he supports the bill, it is expected that he will sign it into law.

This law means that Texas school children can now freely express religious views in their schoolwork, artwork or speech. They cannot be punished or rewarded for doing this.

This law was proposed and passed by evangelical christians so they can try to use our schools as fresh ground on which to proselytize for their religion. But they may have opened a pandora's box which will have unintended consequences.

While the law will allow them the opportunity to push their own religion, it also gives every other religion the same right. The bill also protects the other major religions such as hinduism, moslems, taoists, confucianism, etc.

But it also protects a long list of minor religions that the evangelicals may wish they hadn't protected -- religions such as satanism, wicca, santeria, voodoo, animism, scientology, and even atheism, not to mention many others too numerous to list.

The House tried to amend the bill to say the religious expression could not discriminate against others, but that is not in the final version. That means that religions that preach hate and bigotry, such as christian identity and the black muslims are also protected.

High school is the place where many students begin to express their independence. It would not surprise me if many of them test this law by expressing opinions that christians do not approve of, and if they try to stop this, school districts will find themselves in court. This law will assure that they'll lose that court fight.

Christians were trying to push their own religion when they asked for this law, but it might come back to bite them in the ass.