In the coming years, religious schools, including Catholic and Jewish institutions that uphold traditional morality, will face increased persecution. Democratic legislators, legacy media, left-wing non-profits, and liberal prosecutors will attack, sue, defund, and attempt to quash conservative religious schools that refuse to adopt their version of morality.
A recent development in New York highlights this aggression. The Nonpublic Dignity for All Students Act, an “anti-discrimination” bill proposed by New York lawmakers, would force private schools to embrace gender ideology, which asserts that gender identity, not biological sex, determines whether someone is a boy or girl.
This proposed legislation challenges Catholic teachings that uphold the complementary, equal, and distinct nature of the two sexes. Forcing gender ideology on all schools would effectively ban the practice of Catholicism.
Cardinal Theodore Dolan, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, has raised concerns about this bill, which could penalize Catholic schools for using gender-specific pronouns, requiring students to wear uniforms corresponding to their biological sex, or restricting boys from girls’ locker rooms and sports.
Cardinal Dolan argues that the bill essentially forces private schools to adopt public school policies, undermining the autonomy of religious institutions. Although the “anti-discrimination” measures did not pass in Albany in 2024, Dolan warns that the threat of such legislation remains.
The secular liberal establishment is expected to intensify its attacks on religious schools, often under the guise of enforcing the “Separation of Church and State.” These efforts are seen as a cover for anti-religious bigotry and will target schools regardless of their funding sources.
Attackers may claim to target only extremist subsets of religious groups, but this is viewed as a deceptive tactic, as seen with journalists who target Christians devoted to traditional beliefs. The non-religious in the media and government must stand up for religious schools in the face of this increasing crusade.
