Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder of the Christian Zionist group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, is a Trump-loving, anti-Islam, religious-right activist who has recently begun to focus her efforts on ensuring that public school textbooks eliminate what she claims is "anti-Semitic, anti-Judeo/Christian, Anti-American, pro-Islamic indoctrination of students."
Last year, Cardoza-Moore was appointed to a seat on Tennessee's State Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, but it seems that she has been expanding her efforts beyond her home state.
Speaking at the Nashville Women's Conference last week, Cardoza-Moore bragged about her ties to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying that because of her efforts, public school students in the state are now being taught that this nation "was founded on the Torah."
Cardoza-Moore reported that she met with DeSantis when he was running for governor in 2018 and that he promised her that he'd get rid of the textbooks she opposed. After he was elected, Cardoza-Moore claims that she was invited to help review the civics standard for Florida public schools.
"After [DeSantis] got rid of Common Core, after he got rid of the textbooks, we also reached out to him about their civic standards," Cardoza-Moore said. "He called for an emergency review of civic standards in the state of Florida. We went in. We were invited to participate to review the civics standards and to make recommendations."
"As a result of being involved, Florida is the first state in the nation to [teach] the Hebrew Bible in civics," she continued. "They will learn about the role that the Hebrew Bible played in the founding of our nation. They will learn about the role that the Hebrew Bible played in the drafting of our founding documents. They will learn about the role that the Hebrew Bible played in our structure, our form of government. Our nation was founded on the Torah. Florida is the only state in the nation now that is teaching what God commands us to teach our children."
Cardoza-Moore's emphasis on "the Hebrew Bible" and "the Torah" is a reflection of her Christian Zionism, an evangelical belief that Christian must support and defend the state of Israel as its existence is necessary for the return of Jesus Christ. Her comments are simply another way of stating the false Christian nationalist claim that the United States was founded on the Bible—a claim meant to justify their efforts to dismantle the separation of church and state.
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