AUSTIN — Theologians and ministers at a news conference here said they were wary of the State Board of Education injecting too much religion into the new social science curriculum standards it will vote on this week.

The 15-member board will take a tentative vote Thursday on new standards that will influence Texas public school history and government textbooks for at least the next decade. Final action is scheduled in March.

A public hearing today will start the process, with more than 130 people signed up. Some want the new standards to include more Hispanic historical figures; some want to see a more positive spin on Texas and U.S. history. Some will bring up religion.

Clergy organized by the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that advocates for church-state separation, said they were concerned that board members will seek to enshrine a view of the country's Founding Fathers that inflates Christian influences.

“What violates the Constitution is presenting material that either prefers Christianity over other faiths or depicts the Untied States as a Christian nation in some legal sense or constitutional sense,” warned Derek Davis, dean of humanities at the Baptist-based University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and director of its Center for Religious Liberty.

It's debatable whether society has become over-secularized, but to assume it is and “to blame it on the separation of church and state, which they claim is hostile to the Founders' intentions, is patently false,” he said.

The Rev. Marcus McFaul, senior pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church in Austin, said “the instruction of religious faith, discipleship and a life of service — one shaped by devotion and piety — is the responsibility of each faith community, whether church, synagogue or mosque. It is the responsibility of parents and parishes, not public schools.”

Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, a leader of the board's seven social conservative members, said he respected the Baptist theologians “but I listen to my own pastor.”

Bradley said he's certain “there will be efforts (by board members making amendments) to preserve, protect and strengthen America's godly heritage.”

gscharrer@express-news.net