Andy Schlafly cheered the state of Texas for requiring students to read the Bible in his April 16 WorldNetDaily column:
The biblical excerpts on this reading list, which is not yet final, include the Golden Rule (which is not solely from the Bible), the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the Road to Damascus, for Kindergarten through third grade. Then there is a gap until seventh grade, when recommended readings include the Book of Psalms and the tale of Jonah and the Whale.
For high school, Bible readings are passages from David and Goliath, Lamentations, the Tower of Babel, Ecclesiastes and the book of Job. The Board should be criticized for recommending almost nothing from the New Testament.
The loudest protests are from those who oppose including anything at all from the Bible in public school reading lists. The Bible is the most influential and widely read book ever, and continues to rank first in readership annually.
The Bible should be listed No. 1 in every bestseller list, but it is kept off those lists because it wins every time. People are misled by weekly bestseller lists omitting the Bible at the top, which is the hottest seller now and has been ever since the invention of the printing press more than 500 years ago.
Sales of the Bible have been increasing, too, soaring to high levels with Gen Z who are even more interested in the Bible than older generations have been. In 2025, Bible sales reached new record highs in the U.S. and U.K., as U.S. sales totaled over 19 million copies, double the number sold in 2019.
In light of this, it is straightforward to include passages from the Bible on any list of required readings for public schools. Stories like the parable of the Prodigal Son, which is unique to the Bible and cannot be found in any prior works, are often cited, and every educated person should be familiar with them.
However, there is no direct correlation between quality and popularity, as the Media Research Center should have learned by now. But Schlafly is content to argue that only left-wing stories have a message:
No one is forced to believe in the Bible or in any other reading assigned in school. Works by Leftists, such as Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” are routinely assigned to high school students, and they are expected to understand, analyze and repeat the themes of these controversial writings.
Unfortunately, too much liberal propaganda remains on this list for high school students during their formative years. The Texas Board recommends Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which uses the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 as an allegory for the congressional investigations of communism in the 1950s, after which Miller himself was held in contempt (later reversed) for refusing to identify the communists he knew.
Books that promote the LGBTQIA+ agenda are commonly assigned to students today and are more controversial to most parents than anything in the Bible. The books preferred by liberals and atheists are also far less influential or quoted than the Bible is, and thus less likely to prepare a student to become a knowledgeable adult.
And the Bible is not “propaganda” or not designed to push a certain viewpoint? Interesting argument Schlafly is trying to make. He also doesn’t explain why he thinks treating LGBT people as human and not the enemy is somehow “controversial” for parents.
Schlafly notes that “The Texas State Board of Education expressly states that students can opt out of any Bible reading based on religious or moral beliefs” — but it seems clear that he would like to shame students who do so.