Authorities in red states are increasingly using schools to test the wall between church and state.
Oklahoma joined Louisiana last week in insisting that biblical teachings have a place in the classroom, alarming civil liberties groups who say lawmakers are trying to evangelize students in taxpayer-funded schools.
“The goal of all of these strategies is to assert Christian favor and privilege in America and to fight democracy’s steady march toward equality for all. It’s a reaction to all the progress our society has made in recent times toward LGBTQ equality, women’s equality, racial equality, and black and brown equality,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Several Republican states have instituted policies in recent years that bring Christianity closer to the classroom, including Texas and Florida, where schools are now allowed to employ chaplains to perform mental health functions.
But Louisiana took things up a notch with a new law that requires the Ten Commandments on posters in every public school classroom, along with three paragraphs about how the Judeo-Christian document influenced the founding of the nation.
“Look, when the Supreme Court meets, the doors of the Supreme Court at the back have the Ten Commandments. Moses faces the Speaker of the U.S. House in the House Chamber. He’s the original lawmaker,” said Gov. Jeff Landry (R). “Most of our laws in this country are based on the Ten Commandments, what’s the big deal? And that’s the part I don’t understand.”
Several civil liberties groups have sued the Louisiana law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment.
“Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
And then in Oklahoma last week, State Superintendent Ryan Walters said the Bible and the Ten Commandments should be incorporated into public school curricula.
His memo to schools came days after courts found the nation’s first licensed religious school — which had been approved in Oklahoma — constitutional.
“I think in our law it’s been pretty clear for some time that there’s a line between using the Bible as part of a broader education about history and literature, which is fine, but distinguishing that from the official use of the curriculum for religious training, training religious instruction and religious evangelization,” said Richard Garnett, director of the Church, State and Society program at the University of Notre Dame Law School. “So if you want to have the Bible in public schools, whether in Oklahoma or anywhere else Otherwise, I think schools will have to be sensitive to the fact that that line exists and need to be careful not to cross it.”
Experts and advocates say there are several reasons why the push to bring more religion into schools has gained more traction, but the biggest is the conservative Supreme Court, which has shown it is willing to overturn precedents and in 2022 allowed a public school coach to pray. on a football field after a game.
“Emboldened Christian nationalists are competing with each other to get the best case before the Supreme Court,” Laser said.
But advocates of religion in schools have highlighted the tremendous historical impact of the Bible and its teachings on Western culture and government.
“The Bible has influenced human history for thousands of years. It played a significant role in the development of Western civilization – from literature and the arts to our laws and form of government. The Supreme Court has recognized that public schools can constitutionally use the Bible in the study of history, civilization, and more. It is natural that Americans want to preserve this pillar of our society as part of the public sphere and ensure that students are equipped with the basic biblical literacy needed to fully appreciate and understand our culture and history,” said Greg Chafuen, general counsel at the Alliance Defense of Freedom.
Focusing on how Christianity has influenced the U.S. and its culture can be one way to include it in classes, but laws like Louisiana’s represent a steeper escalation, said Neil McCluskey, director of CATO’s Center for Educational Freedom. Institute.
“I think they would have, I would say, you know, more than a 50/50 chance of success if you put this on the resume or resumes, and they said, ‘Look, we’re including religion because it’s totally within the school’s boundaries. public study religion,’” he said, adding that advocates could always say “it’s here, not to turn people into Christians, but because Christianity was an important part of American history.”
And while both sides are convinced that the law is on their side, no one is ruling out the possibility of a sweeping ruling that vastly alters public education from the Supreme Court, which has issued multiple landscape-changing rulings in the past week alone. .
McCluskey points to the Catholic religious school that was destroyed in Oklahoma as one of the most interesting cases to emerge on the subject.
“The problem is that we have these public schools that anyone can apply to and found, except religious people,” he said, pointing to examples like a Montessori school that has specific teachings around an ideology that is not religious.
“You can have anything except religious schools. There are good reasons for this because the Constitution says that the government cannot promote any particular religion, but it is discrimination against religion to say that you can have anything that is secular but you cannot have a religious school,” he added. “And so, it will be interesting, if this is appealed to the federal courts and eventually gets to the Supreme Court, what its rule will be, whether it is discrimination against religion that will be more important or whether the government promoting religion is the biggest concern . ”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
