In 2021, Rick Scarborough, a self-described “Christocrat,” strident anti-LGBTQ activist, and longtime critic of public education, set his sites on taking over school boards in three Houston-area school districts. Scarborough was optimistic about his chances of having conservative Christians take over the school board because, he said, "most people don’t vote."
"We’re gonna win this Houston school board if the church shows up," Scarborough bragged, and indeed candidates he backed were ultimately able to defeat two board members.
Inspired by this showing, Scarborough announced in late 2022 that he had begun preparing to target school boards all across the state in 2023.
“We are already preparing for our next big project: the school board elections that take place in May," Scarborough declared. "We’re laying the ground [work] now for that election. We need to move the church so that our children can be saved from the indoctrination and oversexualization that is taking place.”
On Wednesday, Scarborough's Recover America Action organization released a video promoting his campaign to defeat the "godless educrats" and rescue the children of Texas who are "being groomed by homosexuals and the trans perverts to be recruited into their evil lifestyles."
"This is an SOS call to all Christian patriots," Scarborough proclaimed. "Join our campaign to save our schools and save our children."
"For over 30 years, I've been trying to awaken pastors to the growing threat that teachers and others in education who reject God and his word pose to our children," he continued. "Just look around. Perverted teachers have infiltrated our public schools and are brainwashing our children with critical race theory lies about America, filling their young minds with hatred for their country. These teachers are also normalizing immoral and abnormal sex acts, sexualizing our children with pornographic materials."
"These godless educrats who rule the Texas education system are teaching our children that what God has told us about morality and gender is all wrong," Scarborough warned. "Our children are being groomed by homosexuals and the trans perverts to be recruited into their evil lifestyles. These children, starting in pre-K, are being taught that evil is good and good is evil, but they're not being taught how to read, write, or learn math proficiently. Now, wicked drag queens are being given access to perform for our children in public schools and libraries, grooming them for pedophilia."
"It is time to stop this madness," he added. "I'm pledging to you that with God's help, I will end this demonic assault on our school children in Texas."
Scarborough said that "thousands of elections for school boards will be held on May 6" and therefore "capable Christian leaders" and "Christian patriots" must mobilize to run for those positions: "Stand up and say, 'Enough is enough!'"
Of course, while Scarborough fearmongers about indoctrination, he is eager to impose his right-wing version of Christianity on students by creating an education system that others the LGBTQ community and does away with Black history.
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