This article focuses on the possible ways in which the standards movement and the assessments and curricular interventions that come along with it, draw on inherently religious (Judeo-Christian) language and traditions. Contributing to a larger critical conversation about standards and impact on education, and building on an emerging scholarly engagement about the (both explicit and implicit) role of religion in public education, this article examines the language framing standards and its structures and makes the point that, while a given document need not reference religious texts explicitly, as in the case of standards, it may nevertheless be guided by undergirding theological histories and sensibilities as we explore the standards movement more broadly and the Common Core more specifically. We thus attend closely to the notion of Cardinal Principles and the concept of standards in American education, seeking to connect standardization as a program of learning, to long-standing notions about, for instance, testing and student possibility rooted firmly in religious--particularly Judeo-Christian--assumptions. We close by taking seriously a recent call to consider the resacralization of society and research, particularly education research.