The Freedom From Religion Foundation is deeply troubled about the Department of Education’s just-announced partnership with Christian nationalist groups to turn history curricula into propaganda.

The “America 250 Civics Education Coalition,” named for this country’s approaching 250th anniversary and unveiled yesterday on Constitution Day, is being led by the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College and dozens of other extremist advocacy groups, many of which are dedicated to advancing the false notion that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Also included are organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom, First Liberty Institute, the Orwellian and hypocritically named Moms for Liberty and the Heritage Foundation — all of which have long track records of working to erode church/state separation and impose religious beliefs through governmental authority.

“These are not neutral academic partners,” warns FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “These are most of the national organizations leading ongoing Christian nationalist attacks on public education, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights — and the very concept of a secular democracy. The Department of Education should not be handing them a megaphone to bowdlerize and rewrite our nation’s history in their own Christian nationalist image.”

Turning Point USA’s education arm openly declares that its mission is to advance “God-centered” curricula while Hillsdale College is at the center of efforts to push ideologically driven charter school programs into communities nationwide. Many of the coalition’s other partners are committed to substituting mythological “Christian nation” claims for evidence-based civics instruction.

The mission statement of Hillsdale College, a small ultraconservative Christian college in Michigan, includes a promise to furnish a “theological education” and maintain “‘by precept and example’ the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.” It was founded by individuals “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings [and] . . . the perpetuity of these blessings.” The college has been in the spotlight in recent years for playing a part in rewriting Florida’s public school civics curriculum with a historically inaccurate, Christian nationalist narrative. Seventh graders, for example, have been required to “recognize the influence of the Ten Commandments on establishing the rule of law in America,” which, actually, is none at all, since there is no reference to the Ten Commandments or a deity in our foundational document, i.e., the Constitution.

FFRF warns that the coalition’s materials will promote religious indoctrination and historically inaccurate narratives that elevate Christianity while erasing the secular foundation of the Constitution and our nation.

“The Founders explicitly created a godless and secular Constitution,” adds Gaylor. “Any government partnership that suggests otherwise is indoctrination, not education.”

In light of this troubling announcement, FFRF will be filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain more details about the Department of Education’s role in this initiative, including what funding or resources may be involved and whether religiously motivated groups will be shaping official curricula or programming.

“Students deserve an accurate social studies education grounded in facts — not propaganda designed to enforce religious conformity,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “The Department of Education is legally barred from controlling school curriculum, yet this coalition puts the government in league with Christian nationalist groups to distort history. It’s a direct threat to genuine social studies education and to the separation of church and state.”

Other partners in this coalition include the American Center for Law & Justice (founded by evangelist Pat Robertson), the Center for Renewing America, the Liberty Council and PragerU, which is not a university but an entity producing video propaganda.

FFRF urges the Department of Education to withdraw from this unconstitutional partnership and recommit itself to supporting genuine, evidence-based civics education that reflects the true diversity of the United States — a country belonging equally to people of all religions and of no religion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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