AI Is A Gateway To The Welfare State
October 6, 2026 |
Keith Giles
In my last post, Critical Thinking Citizens Or MAGA Loyalists?, I compared Russia’s school program of direct propaganda in trying to create support for their war on Ukraine and loyalists to Putin to the push in the United States for “patriotic education” in the nation’s schools.
In that prior post, I argued that “patriotic education” runs counter to the real purpose of having an educated citizenry. Citizens in a democracy need critical thinking abilities and the ability to question myths of US history and discern true information from misinformation.
This post will go into much more detail about this effort in the United States, which is clearly a white Christian nationalist project. My own experience teaching in private Christian schools allows me to understand what is at stake and the goals of this movement. I’ll explain the who, what, and how of this propagandistic, false-education movement.
I believe the public school system is ground zero in the tug-of-war over our culture. White Christian nationalists are no longer content to have the freedom to open their own private Christian schools and teach whatever amount of myth and misinformation they want. Because of the Seven Mountain Mandate, these folks believe God calls them to take control over all institutions of society, especially public schools.
I know exactly where this is headed.
From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, I taught history and social studies at evangelical Christian schools in Omaha and Des Moines. During those years, I used some of the most religiously biased and ideological textbooks you can imagine: Bob Jones University Press and ABeka Press. They were the prescribed textbooks.
As a newbie out of college and a flaming Jesus Freak, I thought I was teaching students the eternal truths of US History. I wasn’t. I was teaching a white Christian nationalist vision of a “godly, sanitized, white United States history.” It was a myth. It was a Christianized heroic past that never existed. A fantasy. That is where the White Christian nationalist cabal wants to take us now.
I was teaching students WHAT to think, not HOW to think. I wish I hadn’t done that.
However, that distinction is pivotal. Historical knowledge can be viewed as fixed and unchanging, as my good Christian history textbooks assumed, or as a story that is continually unfolding as new historical sources are uncovered. Different lenses are used to examine the record.
I gradually learned that history is a multifaceted discipline, more complex the deeper you probe. That is what makes history so fascinating, and frankly, less boring.
Here is what you should know… The good white Christian nationalists are not content to indoctrinate their own children. They also do not want your children to ask probing questions that bring historical myths under the microscope. They want your child to be a receptacle of pre-determined historical conclusions and to accept them without question.
They are coming to your public school to turn young minds into Christian nationalist zombies.
This sort of education serves a larger political purpose. It prepares young people to accept the word of supposed “authorities” such as Donald Trump. It is conditioning them to make them unthinking, uneducated, and unquestioning MAGA adherents. What better way to develop a political coalition?
It took me several years to realize that the study of history is a process of asking questions and interrogating myths and assumptions, and not stating immutable truths that only highlight great white men. Over time, in an almost subversive way, I began adding firsthand historical accounts of events to my lessons, especially from the civil rights movement. No one ever questioned me, so I kept asking students to question and think, rather than accept approved doctrine.
From time to time, I still receive messages of thanks from former students who appreciated my open-minded approach.
In a growing number of U.S. states, there is a well-funded and coordinated network of political, legal, and religious organizations that is using legislation, litigation, and model policies to restrict critical inquiry in classrooms, while embedding Christian-aligned content in public schools, transforming education from a space of open inquiry into a vehicle for religious-ideological conformity.
They are coming after your local public school.
This transformation is not happening through a single law or isolated controversy. It is unfolding through a layered strategy: first, restrict and limit what can be taught; second, introduce preferred ideological and religious content; and third, defend and expand these changes through coordinated legal and political infrastructure. This network is well-funded by wealthy, well-connected donors. When viewed across states and over time, the pattern is not subtle—it is systematic.
Let me break down the layers:
The first component of this strategy is legislative restrictions. In Texas, lawmakers passed House Bill 3979 in 2021, which restricts how teachers address race, systemic inequality, and controversial historical topics.
Texas is critical. The textbook market takes its cues from the trends and themes that emerge from Texas because of its market share. What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas.
In Florida, the 2022 “Stop WOKE Act” similarly limits instruction that could cause “discomfort” related to race or sex. Tennessee enacted comparable restrictions through House Bill 580 in 2021. While framed as efforts to prevent bias, these laws create ambiguity and risk for educators. Beware, or you could lose your job!
Faced with unclear legal limits and potential penalties, teachers in these states are incentivized to avoid complex or controversial topics altogether. The result is a measurable narrowing of classroom inquiry.
This legislative push reflects a broader ideological project that gained national prominence with the 1776 Commission under Donald Trump in 2020. The commission explicitly rejected interpretations of American history centered on systemic inequality, instead promoting a unifying, white, celebratory white narrative.
Although the commission itself was dissolved in 2021, its framework persists and is now embedded in state-level policies that favor certain white historical interpretations while constraining others. Legislation, in this sense, becomes a mechanism for the enforcement of a narrow Christian nationalist narrative.
If restricting content is the first step, the second is the active and overt insertion of preferred material, particularly religious content, into public education. In 2024, Louisiana enacted House Bill 71, requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. A similar proposal has been introduced in Texas (Senate Bill 1515, 2023) along with several other states.
These are not abstract acknowledgments of history; they are state-mandated religious texts placed in compulsory educational environments. Their presence signals which moral frameworks are being elevated and accepted, and by whom.
Curriculum policy reinforces this trend. In 2024, the former Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters directed public schools to incorporate the Bible into classroom instruction as a historical and literary resource. While framed as educational enrichment, the directive operates within a broader pattern in which religious content is increasingly normalized within public education. In practice, the line between studying religion and promoting it becomes difficult to maintain.
Even more structurally significant is the introduction of chaplains into public schools. Texas passed Senate Bill 763 in 2023, allowing school districts to employ chaplains as counselors. Florida followed with House Bill 931 in 2024, creating a similar pathway.
In Iowa, comparable legislation has been proposed, signaling the spread of this model into the Midwest. This is not a symbolic gesture; it is a structural change that embeds religious authority figures within student support systems, raising concerns about neutrality, professional standards, and the implicit pressures on students.
These legislative and institutional changes are reinforced by a third Christian nationalist pillar: coordinated legal strategy. Organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom, First Liberty Institute, and Liberty Counsel have spent years advancing cases to expand the role of religion in public life.
Their efforts helped shape the outcome of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), in which the Supreme Court signaled a shift away from strict separation toward greater accommodation of religious expression. This legal environment does not merely permit the policies described above; it actively enables them.
Slowly but surely, these groups are “Christianizing” America’s public schools. It isn’t just about inclusion or religious freedom, but domination. White Christian nationalists believe they should be able to dominate and impose their cultural worldview on the population.
If you want to hear the real agenda of white Christian nationalism, here is pastor William Wolfe, a former Trump policy advisor, preaching a sermon about imposing Christian cultural values on society. He doesn’t care about majority rule; it is his narrow Christian nationalist interpretation that he believes he has the right to enforce on others. This is as chilling as it is overt.
Equally important is the role of model legislation and policy coordination. The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, through initiatives like Project Blitz (launched in 2018), has developed a strategic roadmap for introducing religion into public life, including public schools.
The approach is incremental: begin with symbolic measures, then expand into curriculum and institutional policy. This explains why similar bills appear across multiple states in rapid succession. What appears to be local momentum is often the product of national coordination.
None of this coordination would be possible without sustained financial backing. Funding networks—including DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund—along with major foundations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the DeVos Family Foundation, provide resources to the advocacy groups, legal organizations, and policy networks advancing these initiatives. This financial infrastructure enables replication across states, ensuring that successful strategies are quickly adapted and deployed elsewhere.
Geographically, this movement is concentrated but expanding. Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama form a core cluster, with expansion into Oklahoma and Iowa. This pattern reflects a familiar strategy: consolidate policy gains in receptive regions, then expand outward. The result is an increasingly uneven educational landscape, where students’ exposure to ideas depends heavily on where they live.
The consequences are already visible. Teachers operate under increased legal uncertainty. Districts navigate mandates that reshape curriculum and staffing. Students encounter environments where some perspectives are discouraged while others are institutionally reinforced. Over time, these conditions shape not only what students learn but also how they think, encouraging conformity over critical engagement.
At its core, this is a struggle over the purpose of public education. The policies emerging across these states suggest a shift away from pluralism and neutrality toward a more narrowly defined vision of national identity, one reinforced through both restriction and endorsement.
This transformation is ongoing, contested, and uneven because of our federal system. But court challenges continue. Some states resist or reverse these measures. But in the regions where these policies have taken hold, the trajectory is clear.
White Christian nationalists want to dominate your local public school and indoctrinate your children into a MAGA-oriented worldview. It is an arena that needs your engagement…speak out and defend public education free from religious indoctrination.
Most of all… Defend the separation of church and state!
Public education is being reshaped through a coordinated system of legislation, litigation, and institutional change—one that narrows inquiry, elevates specific ideological commitments, and redefines the role of the classroom in American life.
And it is no longer subtle; it is a frontal assault.
