The Texas legislature is set to give final approval to a bill requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in a ‘conspicuous place in each classroom.’
AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) -- The Texas House has voted 82-46 to display the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms, with one more final language review in the Senate remaining before being sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
SB 10, which already passed the Senate in its original form, states that a “public elementary or secondary school shall display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments,” using the English text found in the King James translation of the Bible, effective September 1.
"This monument and the words on it have already been approved and upheld by the Supreme Court in a 2005 case, so the wording won't need to be subject to a new court case objection," said the House sponsor, Republican state Rep. Candy Noble. Opponents argued that Supreme Court precedent did not cover requiring religious displays in schools, but simply permitting them.
"Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments," Noble said. "The very way we treat others in our society come from the principles found in the Ten Commandments. In these days of courtroom mayhem, it's time to return to the truths, to the fabric of our educational system. Respect authority. Respect others. Don't steal. Tell the truth. Don't kill. Keep your word."
All that remains in the legislature is for the Senate to formally approve a “last-minute perfecting amendment the Senate participated in writing.” Abbott is expected to sign it into law.
Supporters stress that such religious displays are integral to emphasizing the role of Christian faith in America’s formation and success dating back to the nation’s founding and do not constitute an impermissible “establishment of religion.”
The phrase “separation of church and state,” frequently invoked in opposition to religious content on public grounds, comes not from the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution but from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association on January 1, 1802, reassuring the group of his belief that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only & not opinions.”
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State,” Jefferson said in the correspondence.
When taken literally, “‘separation of church and state” is accurate shorthand for one of the practical effects of the First Amendment: recognizing that churches and the state are distinct entities and neither may control the affairs of the other. Today, however, left-wing activists claim that it means religious ideas and values cannot in any way inform, influence, or be recognized by government and that any expression of faith on government time, on government land, or with government resources is illegal, no matter how benign or voluntary. That interpretation is without basis in the words or actions of America’s Founding Fathers, who viewed religion as vital to America’s success and worthy of being recognized in public education.
“The very same Congress (specifically, the First Congress) that approved the language of the Establishment Clause [of the First Amendment] also provided for the appointment of chaplains in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives,” American Center for Law & Justice attorney Geoffrey Surtees has written.
“In fact, on the very same day that it approved the Establishment Clause, the First Congress also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which declared: ‘Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,’” he added.
