Last week an anti-Muslim activist who rallied at the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. and claims Black Lives Matter is against Jesus and churches got one step closer to helping pick what textbooks Tennessee school children should read.
The Tennessee House Education Instruction committee approved Laurie Cardoza-Moore to sit on the state’s textbook commission. The Franklin resident was nominated to sit on the board by House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville).
Resolutions to formally appoint Cardoza-Moore to the board are moving through the legislature’s committee system. The Senate Education Committee will review the appointment during a meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Cardoza-Moore came to the public eye in 2010 when she publicly fought against the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On The 700 Club television show, she told host Pat Robertson the mosque was a front for terrorists.
In a now-removed tweet in December (above), she asked “will you join me in D.C. to defend our constitutional republic? This is it! If we lose our constitutional republic, we will lose it!” In a June YouTube video called “The REAL Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter EXPOSED,” she claims the “Marxist/Leninist/anti-semitic movement” is trying to remove Christian “anything” from society.
She has also founded Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN), a group whose “mission is to educate Christians about their Biblical responsibility to stand with our Jewish brethren and Israel.” On that group’s site (in a post headlined “I need your help to ensure transparency in education!”), Cardoza-Moore blasted Common Core curriculum, accused the government of hiding what is being taught in schools, and took aim at the 1619 Project and Black Lives Matter.
”With aggressive efforts by many to pressure school districts into incorporating the misguided and propaganda-laced ’1619 Project’ and ’Black Lives Matter’ curriculum, is there any wonder why the educational establishment wants to keep the actual curriculum being taught in schools secret from parents and taxpayers?”
With bad press piling up, Cardoza-Moore took to the opinion pages of The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. In an column, she claimed she sent her children to school believing they were getting a “wholesome American education.” Then, one day, she discovered a Williamson County textbook “that appeared to justify a Palestinian suicide bombing.”
”I discovered that here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, our textbooks were working against us,” Cardoza-Moore wrote. “Our children were being spoon-fed a politicized anti-Judeo-Christian agenda pushed by foreign interest groups — with little to stop them.”
A group of organizations, including the American Muslim Advisory Council, responded with an opinion piece in The Tennessean the day after, saying Cardoza-Moore “wants to preserve the notion that America is only for those who ascribe to her interpretation of a Judeo-Christian background.”
”From where we sit, our children would be best served if our schools taught them to respect and accept with open arms the differences among all who live in Tennessee,” the groups wrote. “We believe our children will best be served if they are taught comparative religion, cultural traditions, and values.
“In so doing we will help our children better understand what we have in common, rather than the perceived differences Cardoza-Moore is afraid they will learn.”
For more of Cardoza-Moore’s opinions, here are some samples from her Twitter feed:
