Texas school district removes Bible verse from website, Christian parents launch 'Our God is Bigger' T-shirt campaign

CB Condez Thursday, April 21, 2016

A school district in Texas has removed a Bible verse from its website and, in response, Christian parents launched an "Our God is Bigger" T-shirt campaign.

Students disembark from a school bus outside The Ivy Apartments, where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas October 1, 2014. | (Photo: Reuters/Mike Stone)

"I know that lots of hands are tied, but as parents and students our hands are not," Christian parent Cindy Carnes wrote on Facebook, as quoted by Raw Story. "We can take something that was meant to stand against God and use it for His glory by getting our kids involved in taking a stand for God and exercising our freedom to actively praise and worship Him."

The line from the Old Testament, "As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him" (I Samuel 14:48), used to be in the Troup Independent School District's website, but non-profit organization Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote a letter of complaint and demanded to have it removed since it violates the United States constitution.

The January letter to Superintendent Stuart Bird from FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover said that no public school may promote religion, and they may not "urge religious viewpoints on students by granting special status to a religious text like the Bible."

The FFRF press release in its website says quoting a Bibical verse shows preference to Christianity and Judaism over other religions or non-religion, which, in turn, excludes, among others, 30 percent of Americans who are not Christian.

"Under the federal constitution, a government entity like a school district can't endorse one religious belief over others or religion generally over non religion," FFRF attorney Sam Grover said.

Brittany Taylor, another parent of a Troup ISD student, said they support and are fighting for the school since "they kind of had their hands tied in the situation."

The T-shirts reportedly cost $7 each, and Tyler Morning Telegraph says the parents intend to take photos of kids wearing them and then send those to FFRF to show their point.

"It will be in our children's hearts and they will not stop praising God because a group told them to," said Taylor.