The Immorality Of Texas Republicans

Moral panic, political power, and the Republican God.

Note: This is the first and probably only time I’ll quote scripture in one of my articles. I don’t write about religious ideation, but I felt it was necessary to use their book to expose their hypocrisy. If they legislate morality in God’s name, they should at least try reading the thing.

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Recently, someone said, “I’d rather drive nails into my eyes than watch ten hours straight of the Texas Legislature.” The truth is, after years of watching Texas Republicans, there is little they can do to shock or upset me. Maybe I’m numb to it, or maybe my optimism allows me to see past the “right now” of things. Mostly, I don’t let them get under my skin.

Yesterday was one of those exceptions, when they pissed me off so much, I had to call a friend and vent about what hypocritical assholes Texas Republicans are.

Many bad bills are passing through the Legislature at the moment, laws designed to harm marginalized communities, funnel taxpayer dollars into the pockets of billionaires, and generally make the lives of everyday Texans harder. But the debate during SB11 really sent me over the edge.

SB11 is a theocratic bill that promotes Evangelical Christianity in public schools under the guise of “voluntary” prayer and Bible reading. It allows school districts and charter schools to adopt a policy mandating daily prayer and Bible reading for students and staff, but only if every participant signs a consent form waiving their First Amendment rights.

This bill is about embedding organized religion into public education, using state-sanctioned peer pressure and legal manipulation to get away with it.

What is morality?

Morality is the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. It’s a system of values and principles of conduct held by a person or society.

Doing the right thing = moral.

Doing the wrong thing = immoral.

Listen to the bill layout of SB11 by David Spiller (R-HD68) and the subsequent exchange between Spiller and James Talarico (D-HD52):

It should be noted that last legislative session, David Spiller was the author of the “Show Me Your Papers” bill, which allowed law enforcement to stop a brown person in the state of Texas and ask them to prove they were a legal citizen.

The “Show Me Your Papers” bill was wrong and immoral because it racially profiles Texans based on appearance, name, or accent. It strips people of dignity, safety, and due process and empowers state violence and fear under the guise of “border security.”

Matthew 23:23

Spiller wants to wrap himself in the Bible while neglecting justice and mercy, the principles Jesus prioritized. He demands prayer in schools, but authored a law that criminalized people for their ethnicity. He preaches morality, but legislates racial profiling and institutional cruelty.

By the very definition of morality and the words of the Bible that Christian Conservatives claim to subscribe to, David Spiller is an immoral person. Yet, he wants your children to subscribe and pray to HIS religion and HIS God.

Under this bill, parents must waive their constitutional rights to allow teachers to pray to them. Spiller claims this is about freedom, but he’s replacing liberty with conditional compliance, a “yoke” disguised as morality.

Galatians 5:1

Mitch Little (R-HD65) tried to frame the Bible as a moral fix for what he perceives as America’s moral decay.

He questioned Vikki Goodwin’s (D-HD47) amendment and tried to bait her into admitting that secular society is failing, arguing that public schools should include mandatory Bible reading to reverse the trend.

Little said, “We’ve tried it your way since the 1960s, and I don’t think we’ve gotten anywhere good.”

This is a veiled attack on the entire civil rights era, a coded statement that America has declined since the courts banned school-led prayer and racial segregation ended. Little feels nostalgia for Christian dominance, not genuine moral concern.

Do you know who used to focus on Christian dominance in the 1960s? The Ku Klux Klan. The Klan’s core ideology centered on white supremacy and using distorted interpretations of Christianity to justify their racist views.

Only last month, Mitch Little voted against expanding Medicaid in Texas, condemning thousands of Texans to suffer, and many to die without access to basic healthcare services. To deny them care is deliberate cruelty, a choice to prioritize political ideology over human life.

Proverbs 31:8-9

Healthcare is a moral issue. Denying it is a betrayal of the values Mitch Little claims to uphold. By the very definition of morality and the words of the Bible that Christian Conservatives claim to subscribe to, Mitch Little is an immoral person. Yet, he wants your children to subscribe and pray to HIS religion and HIS God.

During the exchange between Little and Goodwin, Little said, “If we can do mental health counseling… gender counseling… why can’t we read the Bible?” This is a key dog whistle moment. Little is lumping in gender identity and mental healthcare as threats to morality, and positioning Christianity as the corrective force.

His line of questioning is classic authoritarian projection. He’s not defending the Bible. He’s weaponizing it. He frames Goodwin’s defense of pluralism as hostility, textbook Christian nationalist rhetoric.

Isaiah 10:1-2

Little uses religion to control. By conflating mental health support and gender identity with social decline, and suggesting that the Bible should be used to “correct” them, he’s pushing oppressive decrees that deny dignity and justice to marginalized groups. That is immoral.

Matt Morgan (R-HD26) frames morality as deteriorating, implicitly blaming secularism.

Morgan questioned Goodwin, “Do you think morals in this country are getting better or worse?” This is a loaded culture war question. Morgan is trying to manufacture a moral crisis to justify government-mandated Christianity.

Morgan equated legislative prayer with classroom prayer. This is a false equivalence. The House chamber is a room of consenting adults, not a captive audience of children under the authority of their teachers. Morgan knows this, but deliberately blurs the line.

Romans 14:10

Only a few weeks ago, Matt Morgan voted against HB50, a voluntary, no-cost public health bill that would add HIV testing to the standard STI panel. His vote was morally indefensible. Morgan chose stigma over science, cruelty over care, and politics over people’s lives. HIV is a public health emergency. Catching it early saves lives, reduces transmission, and lowers long-term treatment costs.

Ezekiel 34:4

The Bible directly condemns leaders who neglect the sick and abandon the vulnerable. By the very definition of morality and the words of the Bible that Christian Conservatives claim to subscribe to, Matt Morgan is an immoral person. Yet, he wants your children to subscribe and pray to HIS religion and HIS God.

Brent Money (R-HD02) practices in moral posturing, revisionist history, and religious authoritarianism.

Brent Money defends SB11 by romanticizing the 1950s and 1960s as a morally superior era because schools prayed to a Christian God. He argues that the removal of school-led prayer in 1962 (via Engel v. Vitale) led to a rise in mental illness, suicide, crime, and children being “confused about whether they’re boys or girls.” He blames the decline of public religiosity for complex social problems and presents state-facilitated Christianity as the cure.

He claimed children were better off mentally during the era of legal racial apartheid (Jim Crow), and attributes this to Bible reading. This is just ignorant and dangerous. He’s suggesting that religious ritual outweighed systemic injustice, erasing the trauma Black children endured under segregation.

Matthew 23:27

Back in March, Money “both-sided” rape, and reinforced rape culture. During a hearing on a bill designed to protect survivors of sexual assault, Money cast doubt on their rape survivors’ clarity and suggested that at frat parties, consent is “murky,” and the law might unfairly burden the accused.

Isaiah 1:17

Instead of standing with survivors, Brent Money cast doubt on consent, worrying aloud that frat boys might get unfairly accused. By the very definition of morality and the words of the Bible that Christian Conservatives claim to subscribe to, Brent Money is an immoral person. Yet, he wants your children to subscribe and pray to HIS religion and HIS God.

Steve Toth gave a full-throated Christian nationalist argument cloaked in moral outrage and historical revisionism.

Toth is arguing that teaching history or gender identity is ideological indoctrination, but teaching kids to pray is moral truth. This makes it clear that this bill is state-backed religion as social engineering.

Toth quotes a verse about spiritual equality while pushing a law that privileges only one religion. That’s not faith. That’s manipulation.

To Steve Toth, the biggest mistake America ever made wasn’t slavery, or segregation, or turning hoses on civil rights marchers. It was protecting kids from state-mandated religion.

Matthew 23:4-5

In 2021, Steve Toth carried the bill to whitewash US history, discourage honest teaching about racism and white supremacy, and shield students from confronting the moral failures at the core of America’s founding.

That 2021 debate, which proved Toth’s allegiance to white supremacy:

Slavery, genocide, and white supremacy were embedded in the Constitution (see: the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the electoral advantage granted to slaveholding states). Toth’s 2021 bill was immoral. By denying the reality of systemic racism and its legacy, Toth’s bill undermined the dignity, identity, and lived experience of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and marginalized students in Texas. It prioritizes white comfort over collective truth and healing.

Jeremiah 6:14

Steve Toth’s 2021 bill refused to allow teachers to describe white supremacy as a moral wrong. Toth is a dishonest leader who pretends things are fine while ignoring deep wounds. By the very definition of morality and the words of the Bible that Christian Conservatives claim to subscribe to, Steve Toth is an immoral person. Yet, he wants your children to subscribe and pray to HIS religion and HIS God.

Texas Republicans are trying to force Texas children to follow the Republican religion and worship the Republican God.

The Republican God has very little in common with the one found in the Bible. This is not Christianity. It’s a twisted, state-approved ideology built on white grievance, selective scripture, and the raw pursuit of political control.

And I could write an entire book on each one of these lawmakers. Each is a case study in moral bankruptcy, where cruelty is framed as righteousness and corruption parades as conviction. They’ve made careers out of harming the vulnerable while hiding behind cherry-picked verses and fake reverence. They demand obedience, not belief. And now they want to recruit your children into that same hypocrisy.

I don’t care what religion my children grow up to be exposed to, or whether they have one at all. That’s their journey. What I care about is protecting them from the kind of coercive, performative, morally hollow theology that Texas Republicans are pushing through bills like SB11. Because I’ve watched these men for years. I’ve seen what they do. And I can say without hesitation:

The Republican God is not a moral God.

And no child in this state should be forced to bow before it.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• June 3: The beginning of the 2026 election season.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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