Liberty for Every Faith but One

What's happening

Texas launched the largest school voucher program in the country in February 2026. The Texas Education Freedom Accounts allocate $1 billion in education savings accounts worth up to $10,474 per student. Over 1,500 private schools were approved. More than 100,000 families applied in the first two weeks. Seven in ten applicants come from low- or middle-income households.

Zero accredited Islamic schools are on the eligibility list. Three were briefly approved when the portal opened, then removed. Governor Abbott designated CAIR a "foreign terrorist organization" in November 2025; the U.S. State Department has not. Attorney General Paxton: "Texans' tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America's enemies." No individual findings of unlawful conduct were made against any excluded school. Two federal lawsuits have been filed. The application deadline is March 17.

What the text says

James 2 opens with a scene. A man walks into the assembly wearing a gold ring and fine clothes. He gets the good seat. A poor man walks in. He is told to stand, or sit on the floor.

James 2:1-41My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.2For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in;3and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, "Sit here in a good place;" and you tell the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit by my footstool;"4haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

The Greek word for the sin James names is prosōpolēmpsia: receiving the face. It means judging by category before examining the individual. The rich man is sorted by appearance. So is the poor man. One is welcomed. The other is managed.

James then raises the stakes:

James 2:8-98However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well.9But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

The royal law is "love your neighbor as yourself." James says keeping this law does not protect you. If you show partiality, you commit sin. The two cannot coexist. To open a public benefit to every faith and then exclude one on the basis of religious identity, without individual findings against any specific school, is the structure James describes. The exclusion is categorical. The word James uses for those who practice it is parabatēs: transgressor, lawbreaker. In the economy of this passage, partiality amounts to a violation of the law itself.

The reflection

Christians have spent decades fighting for exactly this: the freedom to choose schools aligned with their faith. The principle won. The program exists. And the first thing it did was sort applicants by religion.

James would affirm the principle. He would also ask whether it survives contact with a faith that makes you uncomfortable. Partiality is comfortable because it feels like discernment. James strips that comfort away. He names it sin in the same breath as the royal law, because the two cannot coexist.

A liberty extended to every faith except one has already broken the thing it claims to protect.