Threats to the First Amendment
The United States is not a Christian country, despite constant conservative assertions to the contrary. Our founding fathers sought freedom of religion. In 1789 they adopted the Bill of Rights, whose First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Although many of those who call our country a Christian nation often assert the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, they are too often ready to ignore the very first line.
According to Cornell Law School, as the third president of the United States, “Thomas Jefferson referred to the First Amendment as creating a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state…The term is also often employed in court cases. For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black famously stated in Everson v. Board of Education that ‘[t]he First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state,’ and ‘[t]hat wall must be kept high and impregnable’” (www.law.cornell.edu).
The 2022 Supreme Court breached that wall with their decision that a high school coach could legally pray with his players and others on a school field under his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. Now we face further breaches. The Louisiana legislature passed HB71 in June, giving schools until January 1, 2025, to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms. They must be shown on “‘a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches’ in every classroom. The commandments have to be the display’s ‘central focus’ and be ‘printed in a large, easily readable font’” (washingtonpost.com).
And Louisiana is not alone. Similar bills have been introduced in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina, though they have not yet become law. After Texas allowed chaplains in public schools in 2023, more than a dozen states are now introducing legislation to bring chaplains into their public schools. School voucher programs have expanded rapidly in GOP states, bringing billions in taxpayer dollars to religious schools (Ibid.)
I absolutely support the right of Americans to practice their religion if it does not impinge on the rights of others. Posting the Ten Commandments, an inherently religious document, impinges on the rights of all students who do not subscribe to it. Highlighting one religious doctrine as if it were universal excludes students with other beliefs. “‘All of these students will be forcibly subjected to scriptural dictates, day in and day out, including: “I AM the LORD thy God”; “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”; “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain”; “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”; and “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” the complaint asserts. ‘This simply cannot be reconciled with the fundamental religious-freedom principles that animated the founding of our nation’” (www.the74million.org).
Louisiana officials claim that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, stated that we “have staked the whole future of our new nation…upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the 10 Commandments.” A lawsuit seeking to overturn this law claims the quotation is fabricated, that Madison instead wrote, “‘The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries’” (Ibid.). Madison also wrote, “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” (thehill.com).
State Senator Jay Morris defended the bill, claiming it “is not solely religious.” “And the text of the legislation deems the Ten Commandments a ‘foundational document in our state and national government’ that was ‘a permanent part of American public education for almost three centuries’” (Ibid.). Such claims are disingenuous and do not meet the burden of separation of church and state. Nor are other foundational documents required to be display, including the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
This is not the first time this issue has been raised. In 1978, Kentucky passed a law requiring “the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, paid for by private funds” (www.wkyt.com). Challenges in court reached the Supreme Court in 1980. That Court struck down the Kentucky law as a violation of the separation of church and state. The decision reads:
Held: A Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. While the state legislature required the notation in small print at the bottom of each display that “[t]he secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States,” such an “avowed” secular purpose is not sufficient to avoid conflict with the First Amendment” (supreme.justia.com).
These battles are not going away. In June of this year, Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Education official ordered all public schools in the state to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum as a historical text. Yet two days earlier, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a publicly funded Catholic charter school about to open. “The Court found the concept of a religious, state-funded school is unconstitutional and a violation of state law” (oklahomavoice.com).
Public schools need to honor the First Amendment. Students should feel safe and included. I agree with the lawsuit filed in Louisiana that this law “pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture. It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences” (nbcnews.com).
Isn’t it interesting that many of the same leaders who argue that parents should control the upbringing of their children want to force feed their preferred religion in violation of the Constitution? We cannot allow them to succeed.
