Grapevine Examines the Nonexistent Line Between Church, Schools and State in North Texas

For anyone paying attention, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the NBC News team that produced the 2021 hit podcast Southlake, which took aim at the fight against critical race theory in the Carroll ISD, are back with a similarly scathing series based on another nearby suburb. 

Premiering on Wednesday, Grapevine, hosted by Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton, who also hosted Southlake, goes deep into how the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD became a battleground for LGBTQ student rights in the classroom. But because we’re talking about ultraconservative Tarrant County, and because this podcast is debuting in 2023, it also brings a number of contentious, hot-button topics to the fore.

The first two episodes vividly paint a picture of how the culture wars, in this case at least, aren't being fought simply between Republicans and Democrats but on multiple fronts. Yes, political alliances are key, but so are religious and cultural identities.

There's a lot going on: Parents vs. teachers; conservative vs. liberal; church vs. state; gay vs. straight; those who want to see progress vs. those who wish things would go back to the way they were in a previous era. If nothing else, Grapevine reinforces that the culture war is an omnivorous, nearly inescapable aspect of everyday life for far too many North Texans.

Here are some key takeaways from the Grapevine podcast:

Trump Winning in 2016 Was Seismic

How many times have you heard someone say “Oh, well, then 2016 happened.” Probably a lot. It’s like how people refer to the onset of the pandemic when they say “... and then 2020 happened.”

The further we get from 2016, and the election of Donald Trump as president, specifically, it seems to grow only clearer just how much of a societal flashpoint that shocking result was. Sure, the town of Grapevine, along with nearby 'burbs Colleyville, Southlake and Keller, have long been relatively stereotypical examples of small, predominantly white and Christian communities, but as in much of the country, the election of Trump in November 2016 energized certain groups of residents like never before.

Two years after we brought you Southlake, @ahylton26 and I are back with a new @NBCNews podcast—centered in the town next door, and on a movement to impose conservative Christian values in public schools.

Check out our trailer, then follow and share! https://t.co/UEyLkFYUAf

— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) September 27, 2023

As noted in the episode entitled "The Seven Mountains," white Christians have for decades felt as though the power they once enjoyed in almost every corner of life has eroded. The advancement of civil rights and LGBTQ rights and increased immigration have all factored into that, but as the podcast notes, since the Supreme Court ruled against school-sponsored religious activities in 1962, many traditional, religious, white conservatives have considered themselves under attack. That changed in 2016 to a large degree.

With Trump’s election, conservative Christians in many parts of the country have still complained loudly about their values being attacked, but, especially in Southlake and Grapevine, they’ve mounted a significant counterattack. Emboldened by Trump’s presidency and the continued Republican domination of the Texas political landscape, organizations such as Patriot Mobile, a Grapevine-based mobile company that touts itself as a “conservative Christian wireless service,” began funding candidates for local school board elections who promoted their values and politics.

What Separation?

Also in the "Seven Mountains" episode, audio clips of Rafael Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz’s father, leading a bible study in the Patriot Mobile offices provided insight into the company’s goals. The senator’s preacher father talked about how, in his view, the separation of church and state was intended only to keep the government out of the church, not the other way around. Such a sentiment has been echoed in recent years more consistently, including by loud conservative voices such as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

Of course, Texas has long been a breeding ground for ignoring the separation between church and state described by Thomas Jefferson in 1802’s Establishment Clause. In the latest Texas legislative session, bills seeking to require all public classrooms to prominently display prominent images of the Ten Commandments and to allow chaplains to be hired as school counselors were debated. The Ten Commandments bill did not pass, but Senate Bill 763, which allows chaplains who have not undergone the certifications and training that a typical school counselor must, did pass and is now state law.

The Culture War of the Month

Remember the so-called “war on Christmas” a few years back? Or how people once argued over which bathroom certain people could or could not use? Although such arguments feel a bit dated at this point, they’re still lingering, and they’re both referred to in Grapevine. Elements of both of those not-quite-bygone battles have shown up in the three most prominent showdowns educators have faced since Trump’s election, which are also discussed in the podcast.

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and the Carroll ISD in Southlake have been hotspots for the debates over critical race theory , library books and gender identity and LGBTQ policies. In the episode entitled "The Girl and The English Teacher," we are introduced to Emily Ramser, a teacher who found herself in the middle of controversy not long after she began teaching at the district's Aspire Academy in 2020.


Ramser faced complaints over her lessons involving racial history, among other things. In the episode she refers to herself as someone who “looked gay in a school where nobody looked like a gay person.” Ramser told her students about her girlfriend in order to make LGBTQ students feel safe and welcome. But the parent referred to as “Charla” in the episode didn’t appreciate Ramser lending a graphic novel entitled The Prince and the Dressmaker to her son, who had recently come out as a transgender girl, nor did the mother approve of the teacher’s willingness to refer to students by their preferred pronouns.

The second episode ends after the introduction of a 2022 policy in the school district that aimed to eradicate “leftist ideology” by requiring students to use the bathroom that matched their sex assigned at birth and kept teachers from using pronouns that did not match the same. To hammer home just how connected all of this is, the podcast even plays a clip of Trump pandering to a rally crowd by promising "When I'm president, we're going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again."

For those unfamiliar with the specifics surrounding Ramser, Patriot Mobile and the latest developments in the district there’s plenty of reason to continue tuning into Grapevine as new episodes are released weekly. But for those of us who have kept up with the recent headlines coming from local school board meetings and our own state government, we might feel like we’re watching Rose let go of Jack in the icy Atlantic waters near the end of Titanic.

We know how this story unfolds, and so far, it ain't pretty.