Texas Preacher Declares ESAs ‘Sinful’

Published March 15, 2017

A Texas pastor is taking the school choice debate to a whole new level, declaring the state’s proposed education savings account legislation sinful. The Dallas Morning News explains:

Teachers and pastors on Monday rallied against the Senate’s school vouchers proposal, even as its author announced the bill will be heard Thursday.

“It is a sin before God,” Charles Foster Johnson led hundreds in chanting, “to make commodities out of our children and to make markets out of our classrooms.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and GOP Senate leaders would harm public schools and impermissibly lend government support to religion if their self-styled “school choice” bill becomes law, Johnson warned at a Capitol rally organized by the state affiliate of the American Federal [sic] of Teachers union.

“Generally, the House of Representatives is holding firm,” he said to teachers and school district employees who used the first day of spring break to travel to Austin for a lobby day. In the House, Democrats and rural Republicans traditionally have blocked voucher-like proposals.

“But brothers and sisters, our Senate members need a lot of help from you,” said Johnson, a Fort Worth-based Baptist pastor who heads Pastors for Texas Children. It is a group of about 1,000 pastors, rabbis and imams who work to support public schools.

Does Charles Foster Johnson not believe in human free will? If not – and for his comments above – I take issue with many of the pastor’s theological belief convictions, and I am pretty grateful in this instance for separation of church and state.

Source: Dallas Morning News


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