A tale of two posters…

By Ashley Bean Thornton

Senate Bill 10 and House Bill 2696 are identical bills that have been filed in the two houses of the Texas Legislature.  If passed, they would require a poster of the 10 Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom in Texas.  Here is the version of the 10 Commandments that would be required:

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.
• Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
• Thou shalt not kill.
• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Thou shalt not steal.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

SB 10 has already passed in the Senate where our state senator, Brian Birdwell, voted for it.  In the house both of our McLennan County representatives, Pat Curry (District 56) and Angelia Orr (District 13), have signed on as coauthors of HB 2696, signaling their support.

I think these bills infringe on religious freedom.  The 10 Commandments are explicitly religious.  They are scripture from a particular religious faith. Requiring them to be displayed in every classroom of every public school is, to my lights, an example of establishing a state religion.

If we passed a bill that required a poster in every public school classroom that said, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammed is His prophet.” or “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”  I would definitely feel like it was an attempt to infringe on my religious freedom.

How is this any different?   The only difference I see is that the 10 Commandments are scripture from my religion, which happens to be the majority religion. Is it OK for the majority religion to impose itself on the minority?  I don’t think it is OK.  I don’t think most people would think it was OK if they were the minority and it were happening to them.

So why do these bills keep coming up?  Why do they have such a good chance of passing even in a state, in a country, that claims to believe in religious freedom?

I think it is because people are worried.

We read about kids hurting each other, even killing each other, and our hearts break.  We see our school children experiencing higher levels of anxiety than we ever experienced, and we want them to have peace of mind and fun like we had when we were kids.   We want to shield them from the bad things in the world, but that just seems impossible.  It can feel like the bad things are winning.  So, we search around for something we think might help.

Those of us who are religious have found peace, and sense of purpose and security in our faith.  We want that for future generations too.   Maybe a poster of the 10 Commandments is a step in the right direction?

I can definitely sympathize with those feelings, that yearning for peace and a better world, especially for our children.   I can see how that tempts us to set religious liberty aside and to try to impose the things that we think are best.

But I don’t think that works.  I think God grants us religious liberty.  I think religious liberty is necessary for an honest pursuit of faith. Does my “yes” really mean anything if I am not free to say “no?” I don’t think it does. That is why religious liberty is so precious and important to me.

I certainly don’t think I understand how God intends to weave together all the incredible variety of religious thought into a pattern that makes sense.  All I know is that it is my job to try to love people the best I can, and I don’t feel like infringing on someone else’s religious liberty is the best way to do that.

A few weeks ago I read about a controversy at a school in Idaho.  A sixth-grade history teacher had a poster on the wall that said, “Everyone is welcome here!”  The graphics on the poster were raised hands of every skin tone with a heart in the palm of each hand.   She was asked to take it down because the district had a rule that classroom decorations had to be “content-neutral,” and they felt this poster violated that rule.   It made national news when she decided not to take it down.  She was warned that failure to take it down would be considered insubordination.  I don’t know what ended up happening to her or the poster.

When I think about these two posters – a poster of the 10 Commandments and a poster that says “Everyone is Welcome here!”   It occurs to me that neither poster is magical.  A poster is just a piece of paper on the wall.   Its only value is symbolic.

To me a poster of the 10 Commandments required by the state is a symbol of the government imposing a certain religious belief on the people.  The “Everyone is Welcome here!” poster is a symbol of how that teacher intends to treat her students.  It is a message from her heart.

I believe in God, and I believe the 10 Commandments have their time and place, but if I am worried about helping kids find their way, I don’t think a poster of the 10 Commandments is going to help.

I do think that teachers who believe passionately that “Everyone is welcome here!” and live that in their classrooms do help – a lot!

I think these bills to require posters of the 10 Commandments are misguided, wrong and not helpful.

I realize these posters will cost next to nothing, so it is easy for our legislators to support them.

I wish, instead, that they would do the hard work of funding across the board, permanent raises for teachers and increasing the basic allotment to keep up with inflation.  I think that would be helpful.