The Battle in the Classrooms for the Ten Commandments
Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms in what is expected to become a contentious national issue.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law mandating that the posters with the Biblical verses be displayed in Louisiana classrooms must be in “large, easily readable font” by the beginning of next year. The displays will also include a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries”. They must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
The law claimed that the Biblical code of the Ten Commandments is a “foundational document of our state and national government.”
Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations.
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses” who got the commandments from God, Landry said.
Former President Trump praised the law in a post on Truth Social.
“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???” Trump wrote. “THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED IN OUR COUNTRY,” he added.
The law also “authorizes” but does not require the display of other items in K-12 public schools, including The Mayflower Compact, which was signed by religious pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and is often referred to as America’s “First Constitution”; the Declaration of Independence; and the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory — in the present day Midwest — and created a pathway for admitting new states to the Union.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) joined with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, announced immediately after the law was signed that they would go to court over the measure, which they say violates the First Amendment, creating an “unconstitutional religious coercion of students” and making students feel unwelcome if they are not Christian.
“It is a prime example of how Christian nationalism is on the march across this country. It would force public school children of all religions to read and venerate the state’s preferred brand of Christianity. This is a complete violation of church-state separation,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
It should be noted that the Ten Commandments are written explicitly twice in entirety in the Torah: Exodus 20:1-14 and Deuteronomy 5:6-18. Different religions divide the commandments up differently though all agree that the sum total is ten. Some traditions combine the first three into a single commandment based on their shared interest in worship.
While the Ten Commandments are not written in the New Testament, nine of them are referred to. The fourth commandment, which describes the obligation to keep the Sabbath on the seventh day, is not referred to in the New Testament.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
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