The Tragedy of Christian Nationalism in Cy-Fair ISD
The Summer of CRT
“Something is rotten” in Cy-Fair ISD. Christian Nationalism first reared its ignorant and intolerant head in Cy-Fair ISD at school board meetings during the summer of 2021 when a loud minority of extremists began denouncing the fake threat of Critical Race Theory (CRT). For example, one resident stated that “true Christ followers are horrified to learn how the CRT ideology and BLM have infiltrated many of our schools” and insisted that “things won’t improve until we are more concerned about God’s approval than the approval of the cult of CRT.” Many of the attendees, duped into believing that young white children are being taught to see themselves as “oppressors” and feel ashamed of their race, gave her a standing ovation. It is almost impossible to reason with misinformed, self-righteous people who believe they are engaged in a battle of good vs. evil. In their quest to “save” Cy-Fair ISD students from the “threat” of CRT, these residents helped fuel an extremist movement that threatens the foundational values of the public school system: diversity, toleration, pluralism, equal treatment, and equal opportunity. Note: If you or someone you care about has succumbed to Christian Nationalism, then Christians Against Christian Nationalism can help.
Contrary to the extremist argument that public schools have a liberal bias or indoctrinate children with “woke” ideas, the public school system prepares all children for participation in our diverse, pluralistic society. Christian Nationalists oppose the civic mission of public schools if it means promoting toleration and equality for marginalized groups or affirming religious pluralism and cultural diversity. They want the public schools to promote a conservative Christian worldview that reinforces their own political and religious agenda and ignores the historical legacy of racism and discrimination. In Cy-Fair ISD, three extremist candidates harnessed this Christian Nationalist energy in the November 2021 school board election: Scott Henry, Natalie Blasingame, and Lucas Scanlon.
All three candidates made extremist remarks on the campaign trail about Covid protocols, the LGBT+ community, and separation of church and state. Their explicit and shameless embrace of Christian Nationalist rhetoric was on full display in a mailer sent to Cy-Fair ISD residents that encouraged people to sign the “Christian Patriot Declaration” that states, “Christian Patriots must rise up to boldly oppose and defeat the domestic enemy forces of evil, the atheistic pro-Communist Democrats…that have infiltrated our civil government and threaten to destroy all vestiges of Biblical morality and U.S. Constitutional principles. These domestic enemies are traitors to God and country.” Yes, three members of the Cy-Fair ISD Board of Trustees sent campaign literature to residents encouraging them to agree with and sign this pledge “to restore our nation to its Christian heritage.” As is often the case, the funding for this extremism was not local. The mailers were sent by the Conservative Republicans of Harris County, led by Steven Hotze, who was indicted in April 2022 on two felony charges. School board races are supposed to be non-partisan, but these candidates exploited Christian Nationalist lies and resentments to turn out the vote. They all won with 11% turnout.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Oh My!
Christian Nationalism is not simply about injecting conservative Christian values into government, it is also about opposing policies and programs that celebrate and promote diversity and inclusion. In their first school board meeting in January 2022, the three new extremists all made critical comments about an Equity Audit that Cy-Fair ISD had performed the previous year. One of the audit’s recommendations was to continue diversifying the school district’s employees to reflect the diversity of the student population. Scott Henry forcefully rejected this proposal in harmful, hurtful, and what most people considered racist, remarks.
Not only did Scott Henry not apologize for his remarks, but he also never even acknowledged the hurt they caused. It’s quite simple: Even if a correlation existed between dropout rates and the percentage of black teachers, correlation does not imply causation. So, Scott Henry either believes that the higher percentage of black teachers in HISD caused the dropout rate (which would be racist and false) or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t think there is a causal link, then there is no reason to resist the Equity Audit’s recommendation to further diversify Cy-Fair ISD employees (unless he’s a racist). Should someone with such strong opposition to diversity be serving a school district that is 78% non-white?
The OG Christian Nationalist
Natalie Blasingame stated on the campaign trail that teachers in Cy-Fair ISD “shouldn’t have to check their faith at the door” and pushing a conservative, Christian agenda in Texas public schools has been her motivation for seeking public office for years. We’ve known since 2015 that Blasingame doesn’t support the separation of church and state, believes that God called her to run for school board to promote Christianity in public schools, and by her own admission stated, “I have no politics but obedience.” Obedience? To what, exactly? The U.S. Constitution? To her interpretation of the Bible? Is Natalie Blasingame, like her donor Steven Hotze, a supporter of Dominion Theology that insists Christians must take over all elements of society, government, and culture to impose a Biblical worldview on everyone? Christian Nationalists are opposed to the idea of a pluralistic, multicultural republic if it means a conservative Christian worldview cannot be imposed on all of society. Should someone with such an extremist agenda be making policy for our public schools?
Cy-Fair Civic Alliance(s)?
Alarmed by the rise of political and religious extremism in my community, I founded the Cy-Fair Civic Alliance in November 2021. We started out as a Facebook group and quickly grew to approximately 400 followers in a few weeks. Residents responded to the notion that Cy-Fair ISD needed a non-partisan group that would promote strong, inclusive public schools that serve everyone. The values of diversity, toleration, pluralism, equal treatment, and equal opportunity resonated with the community, and we started organizing on behalf of Cy-Fair ISD students, teachers, and families.
We spoke at school board meetings, wrote emails to the district about important education issues, raised money to award a scholarship to a Cy-Fair ISD graduate who planned to become a teacher, and delivered gifts to all librarians in the district when their professionalism and integrity was being attacked by everyone from Governor Abbott to members of the Texas legislature to the Texas Education Agency. The supporters of the new extremist board members called us, in public at school board meetings, “groomers” for rejecting their calls to pull books off library shelves. They said that we were supporting the “sexualization” of young children and wanted to have “pornography” available in the school libraries. They even created a hateful, anonymous sewer of a blog that somehow manages to combine the stupidity of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the misogyny of Matt Gaetz.
Our non-partisan, grassroots organization always took the high road and remained focused on our mission. Then, to our surprise, a bizarre turn of events took place. Bethany Scanlon, the wife of Cy-Fair ISD trustee Lucas Scanlon, helped create an LLC using our organization’s name and even filed federal trademark paperwork to prevent us from using it. We first learned of the creation of the faux Cy-Fair Civic Alliance when it was announced during the “Citizen Participation” portion of the June 2022 school board meeting. We were, to say the least, a little perplexed that the same crowd of people who had called us “groomers” and constantly denounced our group decided to take our organization’s name! What could possibly be their motivation? Was this supposed to prevent us from doing our activism? And, why of all people, was a school board trustee’s spouse involved in this? What was Christian Nationalist Lady Macbeth up to? A quick glance at the internet revealed that her new organization was a self-described “Conservative Christian group that believes the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus Christ is Lord, and free volunteer service to others is a constructive way to help the community.”
That’s right y’all, a school board trustee’s wife trademarked the name of an existing non-partisan group opposed to religious and political extremism to create a conservative Christian organization that recruits other conservative Christians to volunteer in public schools. Whereas Natalie Blasingame is comfortable flying her Christian Nationalist flag openly, it appears the “secretive Scanlons” prefer to promote their views covertly via volunteer groups. Why would any organization that claims to care about public schools only recruit volunteers based on their religious and political identity? Why bother to know whether the volunteer is a conservative or a Christian unless you intend for the volunteer to somehow promote their religious and political worldviews? Is that the goal of Bethany Scanlon’s Cy-Fair Civic Alliance? To bring a bunch of conservative Christian volunteers to Cy-Fair ISD schools to talk to students about Jesus?
The group’s Christian Nationalist identity and motivations were confirmed during the August 2022 board meeting when one of their members announced an initiative to deliver “In God We Trust” signs to every campus in Cy-Fair ISD in accordance with a new state law authored by Republican state representative Tom Oliverson of Cypress. Once again, the extremists are relying on money from a partisan group outside of Cy-Fair ISD to push their agenda. The signs are being paid for by The Yellow Rose of Texas Republican Women who state that the new law “allows us to have God and country placed back into the halls of learning as our Founding Fathers intended. Students will have a visual reminder that our country has trusted in God since its founding.” Never mind that the national motto only became “In God We Trust” in 1956 during the Cold War and that the republic’s founders coined the nation’s first, and arguably more appropriate, motto “E Pluribus Unum” meaning “out of many, one.”
The Scanlon Scheme Becomes a Scandal
After discovering the partisan and religious nature of the “Scanlon Civic Alliance,” further digging revealed that Bethany Scanlon may have lied, knowingly or unwittingly, on the files she submitted to trademark the name Cy-Fair Civic Alliance. Apparently, she had to attest that she had no prior knowledge of an organization called Cy-Fair Civic Alliance. Evidence exists to directly contradict this statement. For example, the image below shows that Bethany Scanlon filed trademark paperwork on April 19, 2022 and checked the box indicating that “to the best of the signatory’s knowledge…no other persons…have the right to use the mark.”
The “mark” in this context is the name Cy-Fair Civic Alliance. She further affirmed that trademarking the name Cy-Fair Civic Alliance would not cause confusion or deceive people. She was warned that “willful false statements…are punishable by fine or imprisonment” and she still checked the box. Bethany Scanlon appears to have knowingly lied on this document because evidence exists proving that she knew about the existence of Cy-Fair Civic Alliance on April 12 and understood that Cy-Fair Civic Alliance had been formed in December 2021.
It appears that Bethany Scanlon was 100% aware that the name Cy-Fair Civic Alliance was already in use when she attested that she had no knowledge anyone else was using or had a right to use the name. (If any lawyer wishes to file suit pro bono just let us know!) Furthermore, why would she help create an LLC for a volunteer organization? Isn’t a volunteer organization normally a non-profit? Again, what a truly bizarre turn of events. While Lucas Scanlon is not responsible for the actions of his wife, it seems highly unlikely that he was unaware of her scheme. Is this how a school board trustee should interact with the community they serve?
When They Go Low, We Go High
Long story short: If the real Cy-Fair Civic Alliance, the non-partisan and inclusive one, had unlimited money and time, we would gladly litigate this matter and easily win in court. However, we refuse to be distracted from our work. We are far more interested in keeping the Cy-Fair ISD Board of Trustees out of the hands of extremists than we are in keeping the name of an organization. The petty and underhanded actions of Bethany Scanlon have introduced confusion into the Cy-Fair community. Residents are confused about which Cy-Fair Civic Alliance represents their values and our non-partisan name has been irreversibly tainted by the association with Christian Nationalism and the Scanlons. The worldview of Christian Nationalism is the thread that ties these three extremist school board trustees together, and it is a tragedy what they are doing to Cy-Fair ISD in the name of their agenda.
We will not waste our time or the community’s resources on lawsuits to keep the name that is rightfully ours. We will instead rebrand and relaunch our non-partisan organization. The extremists can keep our name and deliver their “In God We Trust” signs. We will continue to unite the Cy-Fair community around our vision to “embrace the future, prioritize an inclusive and equitable learning environment, and support a diverse community where every child can thrive.” We believe that our public schools, and our constitutional republic, are strongest when everyone is welcomed and empowered. We believe that every student, every family, and every campus in Cy-Fair ISD should be supported and celebrated. Cy-Fair ISD is a large, growing, and diverse school district. For this reason, the motto E Pluribus Unum also reflects the spirit of Cy-Fair ISD, but an ignorant and intolerant minority of Christian Nationalists have severely divided the community since capturing three seats on the Cy-Fair ISD Board of Trustees in November 2021. In a little over a year from now, another school board election will determine whether this extremist minority will control a majority of seats on the Board of Trustees.
We Will Not Throw Away Our Shot
The unfolding drama is still being written and the residents of Cy-Fair ISD can choose which role they want to play. To be on the side of diversity, toleration, pluralism, equal treatment, and equal opportunity, or the side of exclusion, discrimination, privilege, authoritarianism, and hubris? Christian Nationalism is an extremist movement threatening the foundation of the American republic. Political and religious extremists are on the march, whether it’s using violence at the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn an election or calling for book bans at a school board meeting near you. They are preparing for battle, and they will have plenty of foot soldiers and funding for the fight. Scott Henry, Natalie Blasingame, and Lucas Scanlon will be looking for more school board candidates who share their worldview and plenty of partisan money from outside Cy-Fair ISD will help them spread their extremist agenda. Just look at the recent CNN documentary “Deep in the Pockets of Texas” for a glimpse of what may be coming.
The next group of Christian Nationalists that run for the Cy-Fair ISD school board will most likely have enormous funding from opponents of public education like Steven Hotze, Tim Dunn, Farris Wilks, and Patriot Mobile, a cell-phone company that donates money to conservative Christian candidates. Yes, the Christian Nationalists on the Cy-Fair ISD Board of Trustees have plenty of allies in Austin and across Texas. Governor Greg Abbott is determined to pass a voucher program next spring that will divert public tax dollars to private, Christian schools that teach a Christian Nationalist version of American history. If Abbott loses re-election to Beto O’Rourke this fall, then such a voucher program won’t be passed. If Christian Nationalists win just one more seat in Cy-Fair ISD, then we may see the type of book banning we see in other parts of Texas.
With a new school year starting, an important governor’s race a few months away, and a decisive school board election in 2023, now is the time to turn our attention to state and local politics. The fate of Texas public schools will be determined over the next year. Will Christian Nationalists continue to have unlimited power in Austin to shape education policy, or will a new governor put a check on the extremism of the Texas legislature? Will residents of Cy-Fair ISD unite to elect non-partisan school board candidates who care more about kids than ideology, or will Christian Nationalists take over the school board next year and further divide the community? Whether it’s a national, state, or local election, residents concerned about public education need to vote. If you care about the health of American democracy and the public school system that prepares our children to preserve and perfect it, then the time to enlist is now. You can start by making a financial contribution to Cy-Fair Strong Schools, a non-partisan PAC raising money to support non-partisan school board candidates in Cy-Fair ISD.
