I suppose there could be worse things to post in every classroom in Louisiana.
But that’s never been the point.
Despite what officials think and often say, the First Amendment of the Constitution doesn’t give carte blanche to conservative Christians to claim territory in students’ minds, to ignore context, and post articles of the faith in each classroom. The First Amendment states that …Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
If anyone has been really leaning into what the founding fathers intended here and in other writings, they long ago would have realized that the separation of church and state, though not stated with those exact words, is likely the intent. In other words, worship as you please, but realize that this freedom to establish doesn’t mean forcing your preferred faith on others who may believe differently than you, or may not believe at all.
This is the lesson conservatives have a hard time handling: the unspoken inference is that the Constitution intends “hands off” when it comes to government’s role in religious matters—perhaps because Jefferson and others were familiar with what had happened (Germany in Martin Luther’s day) and what was still happening elsewhere in the world, when the church got heavily involved in politics, or more specifically tried to govern.
The Christian church, or comparable bodies in Islam or Judaism or Buddhism can’t do both: proclaim their particular tenets, including witnessing and making converts, and take on the responsibility of governance—which doesn’t keep them from ignoring history and constantly trying. It doesn’t work, though. The church and its personnel are ill suited for such dual functions– just as elected Representatives and Senators and local officials have their own functions and responsibilities, apart from preaching and presiding at the Eucharist and offering last rites. There needs to be a wall of separation, as Jefferson put it, for several reasons.
It is ironic that Christians in Louisiana, with their insistence on posting the Decalogue, are engaging in a bit of the heavy-handedness of people in England and elsewhere in Europe that drove groups of pilgrims to sail across the Atlantic in search of a place where they could worship freely and in peace.
Maybe someone should sew a copy of the Periodic Table into a banner and hang it on the wall at the local neighborhood church, next to the American flag.
3 Cents' 