Students in Utah will soon be studying Bible passages in social studies classes after the legislature passed a new bill to that end, signed into law this week by Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican.
The law requires that schools teach certain passages from the Bible that are “cited or alluded to in founding documents,” as well as Bible stories that “shaped colonial American political thought” in grades 3-12. The changes take effect in the 2028-29 school year.
With the measure, Utah joins several other states that have moved to incorporate Christian teaching and text into K-12 classrooms over the past few years. Most notably, Texas has incorporated Bible stories into its state-developed curriculum Bluebonnet and its proposed required reading lists.
But while other states have mandated religious content through revisions to academic standards or orders from governors, Utah has written these instructional shifts into law.
That makes Utah’s requirement distinctive from those in other states, said Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Still, he said, the measure is “very similar in spirit” to what other states have put forward—it makes the case that students need to study the Bible because of Christianity’s unique influence on American political thought.
It’s an argument that’s gaining traction in some state boards of education, even as historians argue that it oversimplifies and distorts the role religion played in the country’s founding.
The new Utah law reflects what is likely a growing trend, said Chancey. “As long as Christian nationalism remains such a powerful ideology within the Republican Party, it is likely that elected officials, in whatever office they’re in, are going to try to find ways to emphasize what they believe to be America’s Christian roots.”
How big of a role did the Bible play in the United States’ founding?
The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution forbids a state religion and United States law further prohibits schools from promoting or advancing any particular religion. Courts have said that schools can’t require students to read religious text for the purpose of worship, or to convey spiritual lessons.
But schools can assign Bible passages or other religious text for academic purposes. Where the line between devotional reading and academic study lies, though, isn’t always clear.
Utah’s governor has said that the law doesn’t promote “spiritual study.”
“It’s about understanding history and the things that influence people. And I think it would be irresponsible not to have those types of great books being understood when it comes to a civics curriculum,” Cox told the Salt Lake Tribune.
But opponents of the law argue that placing such emphasis on text from one religious tradition is inherently proselytizing. Requiring teachers to interpret Biblical passages “will inevitably blur the line between education and religious endorsement,” reads a March 31 statement from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the separation of church and state.
Separate from this debate, though, is a question of historical accuracy. Utah’s law, and other requirements for study of Christian theology in K-12 schools, push a “Biblical origin story for America,” said Chancey.
The reality is more complicated, historians say.
“To understand the Declaration of Independence requires more than just consulting the Bible,” Holly Brewer, an associate professor of American History at the University of Maryland, said in a 2024 webinar hosted by the American Historical Association on the role of the Bible in the nation’s founding and on religious mandates in public schools.
Religious arguments played an important role in the founders’ thinking, she said, but so did other philosophical influences. The founders also believed strongly in the separation of church and state, the webinar panelists said, and that religion shouldn’t dictate who held political power.
In Utah, state board members have yet to decide exactly which Bible passages and Christian concepts students will study.
How the mandate is operationalized could determine whether schools, parents, or other groups bring legal challenges, said Chancey. “It will be interesting to see how all of this is fleshed out.”
