Texas Faith Network
What is the Texas Faith Network?
The Texas Faith Network (a project of the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund) is a statewide group of more than 600 mainstream religious leaders united in their support of religious freedom, civil liberties and strong public education. Members of the Faith Network seek to promote the positive role of religion in public life
through advocacy and community education, including:
- Involving religious leaders in the political process at the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education;
- Working with the media to ensure that the religious right is not the only representative of people of faith in the news;
- Organizing and publicizing clergy statements on important political issues of the day; and
- Training people of faith to speak with an effective religious voice on issues facing our communities.
Current Faith Network Projects
Statement by Texas Religious Leaders Supporting Access to Birth Control
The ability for women in Texas to access basic preventive healthcare services — including contraception and family planning — has been under attack recently. Far too often religious voices have supported these attacks or remained silent while politicians made decisions that damaged women’s health and eroded individual rights.
The Faith Network invites religious leaders from around Texas to speak out in support of access to these crucial services.
Tell Gov. Perry: Stop Using Faith as a Political Weapon
In 2011, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s hosted a widely publicized, Christians-only prayer rally at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Texas Freedom Network joined a number of other groups in warning the governor that such an event was disrespectful to the broad diversity of religious beliefs and faith traditions in our state.
Texas Religious Leaders to Respond to Anti-Muslim Efforts at State Board of Education
In 2010, the Texas State Board of Education approved a misleading and mean-spirited resolution alleging a "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias" in social studies textbooks. Since much of the information included in the resolution was outright false, the entire exercise was primarily an attempt to promote religious intolerance and air bigoted attacks against America's Muslim community.
As a response, the Texas Faith Network sponsored an open letter from Texas religious leaders calling on the state board to reject this inflammatory resolution.
- View the text of the open letter.
- Click here to see the text of the resolution and a briefing paper debunking its false claims.
Protecting Faith and Science in Texas
The Texas Faith Network believes that religious convictions about the origin of life are sacred and should be cultivated in homes and houses of worship. But efforts to insert religious beliefs into science classrooms misunderstand and demean both faith and science. Join our efforts to remind politicians of these important principles.