Texas Baptist Congressman attacks public school advocacy group on Twitter

A Southern Baptist Congressman from Texas has taken to Twitter to attack a group of Texas pastors advocating for public education. Chip Roy, who represents Texas’ 21st Congressional district, is a member of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin. Hyde Park is a large conservative church whose pastor, Kie Bowman, currently serves as president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, a breakaway group from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Roy is a far-right Republican who also has a history of opposing some of former President Donald Trump’s greatest lies. However, he has opposed COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates, advocated anti-vax conspiracies and joined the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert in flaunting mask requirements in the U.S. House chamber. And last year, Roy was one of only 14 Republicans to vote against the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which passed 415-14.

On Feb. 2, Roy took up a Twitter campaign against Pastors for Texas Children, a diverse coalition of Texas pastors and lay leaders who advocate for public schools. The group is led by Charles Foster Johnson, a Baptist pastor who lives in Fort Worth. What appears to have set off Roy’s tirade is a social media post by Johnson’s advocacy group that said in a meme: “There’s an ouch in every voucher” and added in text: “Texas has had #SchoolChoice for decades. Any parent is perfectly free to private or home school their children. 10% so choose. 90% choose #txed schools. We are FOR school choice! It’s school choice VOUCHERS that spend your tax dollars on private schools that we oppose. #txlege.” To which Roy replied: “Immorality is a bunch of Pastors running around lying to people about the goals of school choice, trapping the poorest Texans in schools with no choice, & denying the reality of court-ordered removal of God from schools while forcing anti-American CRT education on our kids.”