Thousands Sign Christian Petition Rebuking Republican ‘Hijacking of Jesus’

Thousands of people recently signed a petition from Faithful America that urged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education (DOE) to stop the “hijacking of Jesus’s name” with their civics course in public schools within the state.

In its petition from last Wednesday, Faithful America, an organization of Christians supporting social justice causes while opposing “Christian nationalism,” accused Florida of “bribing public school teachers to indoctrinate students in the tenets of Christian nationalism” by offering a civics course that the organization believes “wrongly assert the Ten Commandments form the basis for U.S. law.”

The petition, which was addressed to DeSantis and Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Díaz Jr., says that the civics program “erroneously and outrageously claims that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, teaches demonstrable falsehoods about the separation of church and state, brings the Bible into public classrooms, and confers on those who complete it a ‘Civics Seal of Excellence.'”

As of Sunday afternoon, the petition had received nearly 13,500 signatures, with a goal of 15,000.

Newsweek has reached out to Faithful America, the Florida Department of Education and DeSantis’ office for comment and confirmation via email on Sunday.

Civics has been at the center of DeSantis’ education policy since he has reformed and implemented new civic literacy requirements for public school students under his Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative.

In July 2022, the Republican governor said at an event, “We’re unabashedly promoting civics and history that is accurate and that is not trying to push an ideological agenda,” as reported by The Washington Post. DeSantis has described the state as where “woke goes to die,” claiming he will “fight the woke in our schools.”

As of January 2023, teachers can attend a 60-hour online course, making them eligible for a $3,000 bonus to earn the Civics Seal of Excellence endorsement. According to Faith America, 20,000 Florida teachers enrolled last year.

Faithful America added that the training information for teachers includes misconceptions and false information, such as “the separation of Church and State did not mean the separation of God and government.” The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects individuals’ rights to freely practice any religion and prohibits the government from establishing a national religion.

The organization also cites a Substack article by journalist Judd Legum that was published late last month that includes screenshots of PowerPoint slides from the summer 2023 training course, featuring Bible verses and quotes from Christian leaders, including Peter Lillback. Legum’s article points out that some speaker notes in the presentation stated the Founding Fathers were “steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

“As Christians, let’s speak out together against this theocracy now, and demand that Florida schools stop pushing Christian nationalism,” Faithful America wrote in its petition.

It also called for the program’s immediate suspension and for the state to “honor the two-way separation of church and state, and expunge Christian nationalism from all Florida Department of Education materials.”