NEW: The Texas State Board of Education just overhauled public school curricula to focus on Texas "exceptionalism," require Bible readings and whitewash racism. Its the culmination of a decadeslong push by Christian nationalists - an assertion of their grip on the highest echelons of education.

Just a few quotes from the Texas GOP convention: -“Islam is a disease that spreads by immigration." -“True Christians and Americans will hold nothing but contempt and disdain for the toxic ideology of Islam.” -"We don't need them in any level of government."

I get the impulse to "Leopards, faces, etc" these stories. But doing so misses a much bigger and more important point: The nation's largest, most powerful GOP state organization has gone all-in on unfiltered hatred - to the point that it stunned those who've spent their life confronting such hate.

NEW: Texas middle schoolers could be taught about a Christian revolutionary war movement that never existed. The so-called “Black Robe Regiment” is a favorite myth of David Barton and other Christian nationalists who are leading massive revisions of Texas curricula to focus on US “exceptionalism.”

A must-read story about how Governor Greg Abbott used the little-known Texas Funeral Commission to harass a Muslim community and stoke the Texas GOP's "Islamification" panic.

This week, after nearly a decade of extensive reporting on widespread sex abuses, the Southern Baptist Convention will likely elect a new president who does not believe they have a sex abuse crisis. How is that possible? It all goes back to Paul Pressler, a sexual predator who remade SBC culture:

Local Man Sued (Again).

Today the trial of Karmelo Anthony, who is accused of murdering fellow Frisco teenager Austin Metcalf, begins. Last year, I wrote about how the killing has been capitalized on by online racists and grifters, to the detriment of the community. Read:

Mainliners exist! Great piece here exploring the—rather small, all things considered, though easy-to-other—differences within Christianity.

A thing worth reading ahead of this week's meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, where far-right political forces are mounting a so-called "second conservative resurgence."

Learned a new Catholicism-related thing reading this, ty @dansolomon.com.

wrote about the spiritual battle at the heart of the nba finals www.texasmonthly.com/culture/spur...

Republicans have pounced on an old statement as they seek to make gender politics the focus of the Senate campaign. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/james-talarico-said-god-is-nonbinary-what-does-the-bible-say/

I apologize for the "Awesome God" reference. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

In his follow-up story, published one month shy of the first anniversary of the floods, Parsley shares his journey through grief and healing. Read his story, and the many others in this month’s issue, here:

JUST IN: Bo French has narrowly won his runoff for Texas Railroad Commission on an explicitly anti-Muslim and nativist campaign.

It has since poured more than a billion dollars into fortifying schools against violent threats. It will never be enough, writes @sandivillarreal.bsky.social.

”Rivers are self-healing, with time. Grief too changes with time—you never really 'move on,' but you move forward. ... eventually the hope breaks through, the two-steppers take to the dance floor, the actors take the stage, and the kayaks push off from the dock." www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Within the span of a few days in March at San Antonio-area schools, a middle schooler brought a 3D printed weapon onto the school bus, private schools beefed up security after online threats, a local ISD was target of cyberattacks, and a 15yo shot his teacher before turning the gun on himself.

After the Uvalde massacre four years ago, the Texas Legislature passed a slate of measures to fortify school buildings (while doing nothing on guns). After a handful of scary incidents at my kids' public schools, I took a look at whether any of it is working. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Since I moved back to Texas in 2021, the Legislature has poured more than a billion dollars into “hardening the schools.” We have SROs at every campus, high-tech emergency systems, trained staff, etc. etc. What’s it gotten us? www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Keep in mind the top story about Paxton this week is that he gave a Waco man a plea deal that let him spend one day in jail even after he admitted to molesting a child: www.texastribune.org/2026/05/19/k...

NYT on my recent Paul Pressler piece: "Political evangelicalism is a system that is deeply influenced by depraved men, and it has exactly the features that depraved men will demand of an institution they control."

If you're thinking "what do the Crusades have to do with the Texas Railroad Commission," then good news, you are not alone:

On Monday @freshparsley.bsky.social won the Pulitzer Prize for his feature last year about his family and the flood last year. Coincidentally, this week was our last week of print production for the June issue, featuring this follow-up story by Aaron, on the months since the flood.

McLennan County has successfully prosecuted Marian Fraser twice for the death of a four-month-old girl. It plans to try her a third time. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/marian-fraser-conviction-reversed-again/

Coming May 26, the seven-episode series is hosted by Pulitzer Prize–winner Aaron Parsley and explores a journey of survival, loss, grief, and healing after the July 4 Central Texas floods. More on 'Where the River Took Us': https://www.texasmonthly.com/press-room/announcement-flood-podcast/

"We hope this story reminds all leaders how fraught it is—how devastating it can be—to mix religion, politics, and a lust for power," writes editor in chief Ross McCammon, on Robert Downen's "The Judgement of Paul Pressler." https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-stand-up-desk/editors-letter-may-2026/

Texas Monthly senior editor Aaron Parsley has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, for his heartrending, first-person account of his family’s fight for survival during last year’s devastating Central Texas floods.

This story has everything: patriarchy. Homophobia. Biblical inerrancy. And don’t sleep on the white supremacy either. “It was like Gettysburg,” [Pressler] said [of his struggle to root liberals out of the SBC]. “But this time the right side won.”

The new piece by @robertdownen.bsky.social on Paul Pressler and the SBC is indeed incredible. It is a must-read and expertly details how and why the nation's largest Protestant denomination is what it is today, and how that affects the entire nation.

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: This week, Mark and Ben are joined by journalist @robertdownen.bsky.social to discuss his exclusive article in #Texas Monthly on the sexual abuse allegations made against disgraced #SouthernBaptist icon Paul Pressler. Click here to listen now: apple.co/4cQ5RDT

Absolutely remarkable deep dive on the legacy of Paul Pressler, a man who can largely take credit for reshaping American Christianity into the GOP's image, and all while skirting accountability for a horrifying trail of alleged child sex abuse. Harrowing read. Spectacular reporting.

You can spend your whole life in Southern Baptist churches and not know how the faith group got here. @robertdownen.bsky.social spent nearly a decade uncovering just that. Set aside some time to read this. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Paul Pressler is one of the most influential figures you may have never heard of. The onetime judge remade the Southern Baptist Convention, and helped forge the marriage between the GOP and white evangelical voters. As he did so he also committed decades of alleged abuses. A long look at his legacy:

The man who delivered Texas to the GOP is now one of its chief targets. What gives? https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-republicans-turn-on-george-w-bush/

“Paxton can make one charge that is more powerful than anything Cornyn can pin on Ken, and which may well push the attorney general over the line on May 26: John Cornyn was in office twenty years ago.” —great analysis on state of Texas Rs by @hooks.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

The old missions of TX were complex spaces. The Spanish soldiers weren't likely European but probably criollo or mestizo. Some Indigenous families were forcibly relocated. Others voluntarily found shelter there. Some commanders were lascivious. And so much more. www.texasmonthly.com/travel/forgo...

San Antonians take great care in deciding what to wear to the annual Battle of Flowers Parade. Their outfits are as colorful as the cascarón confetti that blankets the sidewalks. 🦋🌈✨🌸🪇🏵️ https://www.texasmonthly.com/culture/fiesta-fashion-photos-gowns-hats-flowers/

saying farewell to the large red man who helped ruin society www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

A great dispatch from the Texas border, where Texas Republicans, led by AG Ken Paxton, have targeted a key nemesis of the far right and Christian nationalists: Catholic Charities.

While the battle of words between Trump and Pope Leo reached an inflection point over the past week, it’s worth looking back at the long history of Republican leaders’ attacks on Catholic social teaching. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Patients reported strange gurgling sounds in their throats, painful hiccups, and a deathly fear of vomiting. "If you just know the questions to ask,” Dr. Bastian said, "the diagnosis just announces itself in neon lights and fireworks.” @texasmonthly.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

back on the godbeat www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

"If only I were that cow, I think, I, too, could launch a flare into the Texas night." This story, about @sashavonawesome.bsky.social's quest to learn to burp, is so good.

"Why are people who've never been to Big Bend going to tell us how to solve a crisis that doesn't exist?" In far West Texas, landowners say a proposed border wall could upend their lives--and they're struggling to get answers. @texasmonthly.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...