A GOP official argues Christianity should be taught and practiced in public schools because “there’s only one true God.”

Last week, Tamara Scott, an Iowa member of the Republican National Committee, gave a speech advocating for Christianity being taught in public schools. Scott said she was upset by the fact that non-Christian prayers (Wiccan and Muslim) had been said at the Iowa State House.

Speaking at a Republican presidential forum hosted by the influential Iowa conservative group The Family Leader, Scott said:

What you don’t know is that yesterday, the imam prayed. That one didn’t make the press. You see, when we’re not willing to defend our God in the public square, we shouldn’t be surprised when others try to replace Him. When we fail to teach it in the public school, the history of this nation, the God mentioned in our Declaration, the Supreme Being mentioned in the preamble of this constitution of the state. And we not only don’t teach it, but we suppress it and refuse to allow it to be taught. We shouldn’t be surprised when others do differently and expect differently and think that religion is just about equality, because it’s not,. There’s only one true God. And the Bible’s quite clear about what happens when we refuse to tell the truth and we allow others to tell a wrong truth. That’s where we’re at. We’ve been neglectful, we’ve been very neglectful. So no one even spoke about the imam being there yesterday or the Muslims that were all around the center of the capitol, talking and evangelizing about their way of life. Do they have that freedom? Absolutely. But the shame is that so little people know the truth about the heritage, the Christian heritage — I’m sorry, Mr. President, but we are, we were a Christian nation and we were founded on Christian values.

Scott’s remarks were met with not shock nor disappointment, but with applause and approval. For conservatives, the false and erroneous claim that the U.S. is a Christian nation founded on Christian values is not even controversial, it is just another Republican talking point accepted as truth.

While Scott grudgingly concedes that Muslims have a First Amendment right to promote their religion, she argues that Christianity should be favored under U.S. law. More than that, Scott is advocating innocent children be taught a false historical narrative favoring Christianity in public schools.

This whole line of thinking, which is widely accepted by the GOP, perverts American history and slanders the founding fathers. The U.S. is not a Christian nation, and was not founded upon Christian values.

Scott and other like-minded Christian extremists in the Republican party represent a dangerous and radical right wing movement that is trying to rewrite American history, and replace the secular values upon which this nation was founded with a Christian theocracy.

(H/T Right Wing Watch)