Texas-style Education: the UN and Secularism put in doubt

I take a break for a few days and many stories worthy of attention start appearing, including the decision of the Cambodia Chambers on JCE III (see here and here) and the Kononov ECHR decision on war crimes and the principle of legality. I'll comment on them later, but I also saw this news story about the Texas Board of Education changing its syllabus to invite students to question the separation of Church and State, and to teach them that the UN could be dangerous to American freedom. Apparently, it's quite worrying because Texas is quite influential in imposing standards to textbook writers across the countries. Last year, the Texas board of education had already approved language that left the door open for teachers to slip in creationism in the classroom...

Here's what one board member had to say on the first issue of secularism:

Board member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, another social conservative, opened Friday’s board meeting with an invocation that referred to the U.S. and its history as a “Christian land governed by Christian principles.”

“I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses,” she said.

 Once again, christian conservatives find themselves in agreement with portions of the muslim community that go against principles of secularism and for example argue that blasphemy should be banned because it would contradict the right to exercise religion freely, as suggested at the UN Human Rights Council, as I had discussed in a post last year...