EXCLUSIVE: Florida educators trained to teach students Christian nationalism

Training materials produced by the Florida Department of Education direct middle and high school teachers to indoctrinate students in the tenets of Christian nationalism, a right-wing effort to merge Christian and American identities. Thousands of Florida teachers, lured by cash stipends, have attended trainings featuring these materials.  

A three-day training course on civic education, conducted throughout Florida in the summer of 2023, included a presentation on the "Influences of the Judeo-Christian Tradition" on the founding of the United States. According to speaker notes accompanying one slide, teachers were told that "Christianity challenged the notion that religion should be subservient to the goals of the state," and the same hierarchy is reflected in America's founding documents. That slide quotes the Bible to assert that "[c]ivil government must be respected, but the state is not God." Teachers were told the same principle is embedded in the Declaration of Independence.

Popular Information obtained the slides from the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which received them from the Florida Department of Education after filing a public records request. 

The next slide in the deck quotes an article by Peter Lillback, the president of Westminster Theological Seminary and the founder of The Providence Forum, an organization that promotes and defends Christian nationalism. The group's executive director, Jerry Newcombe, writes a weekly column for World Net Daily — a far-right site known for publishing hundreds of stories falsely suggesting Obama was a Muslim born in Africa. 

Lillback, a favorite of right-wing pundit Glenn Beck, is not a prominent historian. But Lillback is one of the original signatories of the Manhattan Declaration, a 2009 document calling for civil disobedience if the United States fails to adopt the views of right-wing Christians on abortion and same-sex marriage. 

The slide quotes an article by Lillback that argues that there would be no freedom, no republic, and no constitution without religion. The speaker notes accompanying the slide emphasize that "the separation of Church and State did not mean the separation of God and government," and all the founders were "steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Amanda Tyler, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and an expert in Christian nationalism, reviewed the entire presentation at Popular Information's request. Tyler said that the "focus on the mythological founding of the country as a Christian nation, this use of cherry-picked history… is very much a marker of Christian nationalism." According to Tyler, the aim of the presentation is "to solidify this ideology that equates being American to being Christian." Tyler noted that the presentation does not address why, if religion was so essential to the structure of the government, the Constitution does not mention God at all. 

Robert P. Jones, the president of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author of a newsletter on American Christianity, agreed, saying that the language in the slide deck is similar to what one would hear at "Christian nationalist rallies." The term "Judeo-Christian," Jones said, is frequently deployed in Christian nationalist circles as code for a white European Christian worldview.

Tyler said a more credible discussion of America's founding would also include the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was written by Thomas Jefferson and served as the precursor to the First Amendment. The statute states that "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

Myndee Washington is a Florida middle school teacher who attended the in-person Florida Department of Education civics training in 2022 and 2023. Washington told Popular Information that, in one session, the presenters used the King James Bibles to illustrate their points. "I was absolutely gobsmacked," she said. 

Washington said that there was a heavy emphasis in the training on "dispelling the separation of church and state." Teachers attending the training were told, according to Washington, "that there was no such thing because the founders were Congregationalists." Congregationalists were Protestants who believed that members of a religious congregation should be able to manage their own affairs without the approval of any higher human authority. While many early American settlers were Congregationalists, many signatories of the Constitution were not. 

Washington said that previously, Florida's curriculum emphasized the influence of Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke on America's founders. But Washington said that, in recent years, Enlightenment philosophers are mentioned "only very briefly" and much more emphasis is placed on religious influences. Washington believes that the training "emboldened" some Florida teachers to incorporate religious texts and dogma into their lessons. 

Other slides in the teacher training claim, without any citations, that the basis of law in the United States is the Ten Commandments ("Decalogue") and that the phrase "all men are created equal" is derived from the biblical concept that "man is made in the image of God."

Andrew Whitehead, an associate professor at Indiana University-Indianapolis and the author of a book on Christian nationalism, said the materials produced by the Florida Department of Education are part of "the Christian nationalist project." The purpose of the training, according to Whitehead, is to fuse "a very particular expression of Christianity with American civic life that the government upholds and vigorously defends." Integrating these ideas into public school curriculum is a key goal of Christian nationalism, Whitehead said. 

The problem, Whitehead explained, is this depiction of America is ahistorical. The founders had a variety of religious beliefs. George Washington rarely, if ever, took communion. The Declaration of Independence references a "creator" but not Jesus. Whitehead expressed concerns that Florida students with a different religious tradition (or none at all) would have the false impression that they are somehow less representative of a "true" American. 

David Aldred, an adjunct professor at Hillsborough Community College, and Michelle Cowden, a civics and literacy coach with the Florida Department of Education, delivered the presentation on the influences of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They did not respond to a request for comment. 

Online indoctrination

Along with the in-person training, the Florida Department of Education offered a 50-hour online civics training. Teachers who successfully completed the online training received a $3,000 bonus. Popular Information spoke to a Florida teacher who completed the training in 2023. The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing that discussing the online training publicly could result in professional retaliation. 

The teacher shared her recollections and contemporaneous notes of the online training with Popular Information. Overall, the teacher said, "there was a real emphasis and focus on the idea of the 10 Commandments underlying our governmental principles." She noted that most of the online instructors were "from private Christian colleges outside the state of Florida." 

A session on "The Political Thought of America's Founders" was presented by Hillsdale College Professor Matthew Spalding. Hillsdale College is a right-wing Christian institution seeking an overhaul of K-12 education that aligns with its conservative ideology. Former President Trump named Spalding as the executive director of the 1776 Commission, which sought to create a new narrative of American history. The Commission's final report downplayed the role of slavery in American history and compared progressivism to fascism. Tyler says both Hillsdale College and the 1776 Commission are connected to the Christian nationalist movement. 

According to the teacher's notes, Spalding said that "Protestant Christianity" had the "greatest influence" on the political thought of America's founders. Samuel Gregg of the conservative Acton Institute presented another online session specifically covering the "Judeo-Christian" influence on America's founders. The teacher's notes indicate that Gregg said, "Judaism and Christianity were more influential on the founders than any Enlightenment philosopher." Tyler says that both of these claims are indicative of Christian nationalist ideology. It is foundational, Tyler says, to "the false idea that the country was founded by Christians to privilege Christianity in law and policy."