Focus at Four: School Choice at the pulpit
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott met with various religious leaders across the state and called for a promotion of school choice at the pulpit. Yesterday, Baptist Standard, a Baptist nonprofit media organization, put out a statement on this call for school choice Sunday. In the letter, past and present leaders of the Baptist General Convention of Texas called Gov. Abbott’s request “out of bounds” and expressed that separation of church and state is still something of value.
“This is something that doesn’t need to, bottom line, be a part of our worship services that are predominantly about how can we lean into the most important command. To love God fully and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” said Pastor Dan De Leon, a pastor at Friends Congregational who was ordained in the Baptist church.
Pastor Dan also said school choice and the church should have nothing to do with one another.
“It’s an egregious violation of religious liberty, of the separation of church and state,” said De Leon.
“The bottom line for any person of faith is that it’s inevitable that our faith does and should inform our decision making at the polls. However, the separation of church and state should make it clear that legislative agendas don’t need to be having a part in that discernment process of us figuring out how we will apply our faith.” said De Leon. “And on the flip side of that, religious organizations shouldn’t be relying on taxpayer dollars to do the practice of our faith.”
De Leon also called for children to be lifted up on Oct. 15 in the church, as Children’s Defense Fund calls for the third weekend in October to prioritize children.
“We don’t need for any legislative agenda to be determining how it is that we inform our faith and live it out.”
