A study, which assessed more than 300 books curated by children’s publishers for America’s 250th anniversary, found that public libraries and publishers are ignoring Christianity’s role in the U.S. founding, focusing instead on progressive history.
“No books about the Pilgrims as religious refugees,” the report reiterated. “No books about the Great Awakening. No books about religious liberty as a founding principle. No books about the faith lives of the founders. No books about the Black church’s role in American history, even on lists heavy with Black history content. No books about faith-motivated abolitionists, even on lists featuring abolitionist narratives. No titles from any faith-based publisher.”
Franklin Graham responded to the report’s release on social media, stating it is “up to us” to ensure “our children and grandchildren learn about the role that faith in God has played in the founding and history of our nation.”
“As we approach our nation’s 250th birthday, a new study found that public libraries and publishers are censoring faith OUT of the American story—and actively pushing progressive, revisionist history,” Franklin said. “When they analyzed more than 300 books across 25 reading lists curated by children’s publishers, libraries, and other institutions, guess how many books the study found included faith, religious liberty, or Christianity’s role in the founding of the U.S.? Zero! Exactly none!”
Ben Carson and Riley Gaines, authors at Brave Books, the publisher that released the study titled “The America 250 Faith Gap,” both criticized the exclusion of Christianity’s influence in U.S. history.
“Dr. Ben Carson is right—’A generation that does not know where their freedoms come from will not know why those freedoms are worth fighting for,’” Franklin said. “I agree with Riley Gaines that ‘kids deserve more than a story of what is wrong with America!’”
The study discovered that among the 300 books found within 25 reading lists, there were no titles that directly acknowledged or centered on faith, religious liberty or the Bible’s role in serving as a foundation for the Constitution. Among the books, the most common themes were minority perspectives, the American Revolution, black history, civil rights and women’s history while books on the American Founders, civics, the classics and other American symbols were minority recommendations. Other titles centered on LGBTQ history, including the 1969 Stonewall Riots, an event considered by homosexual and transgender activists as pivotal to their movement.
Brave Books claims that the lists seek to change the narrative of U.S. history, repeatedly using words such as “complicated,” “complex,” “unfinished,” “hidden” and “untold.”
Ben Carson explained why American freedom is rooted in Christianity.
“The Declaration of Independence says our rights come from our Creator,” Carson said. “Benjamin Franklin called the Constitutional Convention to prayer before they produced a document that has stood for 250 years. George Washington survived battle after battle in ways that defied all human explanation. These men knew where their strength came from.”
“Ronald Reagan said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” Carson continued. “He was not exaggerating. He was being precise. When you raise children on a version of history that calls America complicated and unfinished and never once tell them that this country was founded by men of extraordinary faith and courage who believed they were accountable to God for what they built, you are not educating them. You are making them vulnerable.”
Riley Gaines said children “deserve more than a story about what’s wrong with America.”
“The problem is that many institutions have become so focused on emphasizing what’s broken, unfinished, or flawed that they’ve stopped teaching kids what makes America the greatest, freest, most prosperous nation in the world,” Gaines said. “That’s why so many people from all across the world try to live, work, and start a family here through whatever means necessary.”
She urged that kids “deserve to know why generations of people around the world have looked to America as a beacon of hope, opportunity, and freedom. That’s not indoctrination. That’s telling the whole story.”
Trent Talbot, Brave Books CEO, told Fox News Digital that he believes the exclusion of books informing readers about Christianity’s role is intentional.
“When reading lists for America’s 250th anniversary don’t include a single book acknowledging Christianity’s role, that’s not an oversight. That’s a choice,” Talbot said. “What this report confirms is something parents have suspected but couldn’t quantify: the bias isn’t geographic, it’s institutional. Red state, blue state … it doesn’t matter when the gatekeepers are all aligned ideologically and share the same assumptions.”
