'Not in our name': Some clergy rebuke Ten Commandments law

(NewsNation) — A group of Louisiana church leaders across the state are condemning a new law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools. 

Rev. Marc J. Boswell, senior pastor at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, is part of the movement and says the law was deeply troubling but not surprising given the “concerning rise of Christian nationalism in Louisiana.” 

“Don't do this in our name,” he told NewsNation, referring to the Ten Commandments in schools. “We are not backing this. We are a Christian-identifying people and we do not support this."

The Ten Commandments law has been widely shunned by civil liberty groups and faith leaders as being a gross infringement on the rights of students and a violation of the separation of church and state under the Constitution. 

Shortly after the law was signed, several clergy joined a group of parents of Louisiana public school students in suing the state over the law.

This week, they asked for a preliminary injunction blocking the law and requested expedited answers ostensibly to get a decision before the first day of school. 

"As a nonreligious family, we oppose the government forcibly subjecting all children to a religious scripture that we don’t believe in,” Jennifer Harding and Benjamin Owens, who are among the group of parents suing, said in a statement. 

More than 110 clergy have rebuked the law signed by Gov. Jeff Landry last month saying “the responsibility of religious education belongs to families, churches and other religious institutions, not the government,” in a letter to the governor.

Boswell, a Baptist, has joined Christian leaders of several congregations and denominations including Lutheran, Catholic and Methodists. 

“We value the right of all families to determine the religious education of their children and are appalled to see public officials claiming that right for themselves,” the clergy wrote. 

Supporters want students to see 'God's law'

Louisiana Rep. Dodie Horton, a Republican who introduced the bill, advanced the proposal saying it is the "basis of all laws in Louisiana” during a House debate over the bill.

"I'm not concerned with an atheist. I'm not concerned with a Muslim," she said when asked about teachers who might not subscribe to the Ten Commandments. "I'm concerned with our children looking and seeing what God's law is."

Landry defended the law days after signing off on it saying “most of our laws in this country are founded on the Ten Commandments," in an interview with Fox News.

“Look, when the Supreme Court meets, the doors of the Supreme Court on the backside have the Ten Commandments. Moses faces the U.S. Speaker of the House in the House chamber. He is the original giver of law,” Landry told the outlet.

The law has supporters in the faith community. At Archbishop Shaw High School, a Catholic-run school in suburban New Orleans, the head of school, the Rev. Steve Ryan, said he was pleased that the Ten Commandments will be posted on public school walls.

“These laws, which are part of the Judeo-Christian tradition, are good safeguards for society. They are actually reasonable,” Ryan said.

Where are the Ten Commandments appropriate?

The new law has sparked robust conversation in congregations all over the state including in Rev. Jon Parks’. He is the co-pastor of the University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge and the executive director of the Interfaith Federation of Baton Rouge.

“As a Protestant Christian, I do value the Ten Commandments and the role that they play in our lives, and there's plenty of great places where we can talk about those, but it doesn't seem like the public school classroom is the right place,” he said. 

Parks says he sees the law and use of God in the classroom as more of a political statement rather than a religious one in an effort by state lawmakers to win favor with more conservative voters.

“You're talking about elementary school children here looking at language that is not used anymore and the translation was cobbled together from different sources, and also leans a little bit in a certain direction in terms of religious morality,” he said. 

In their letter, clergy also expressed concern over the state choosing an “official” version of scripture, which has varying interpretations.

"The state-approved version of the Ten Commandments set forth in H.B. 71 does not exist in any translation of the Bible," they wrote. “It is simply not possible to create a version of the Ten Commandments that honors every faith tradition’s interpretation, and legislators’ attempt to do so is deeply offensive to us as Christians.”

Growing movement of religion in public schools

Louisiana became the first state to pass the Ten Commandments law, but others have considered similar proposals.

In Utah, teachers would be allowed to teach the Ten Commandments in class under a bill that passed the state legislature and is awaiting a signature by the governor.

A South Carolina bill that also mandates that the commandments be displayed in schools is in a state house committee. Texas introduced a Ten Commandments bill last year which ultimately failed to pass.

The Oklahoma state school superintendent, a Republican, ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, arguing the historical significance of the religious text. 

Law professor Michael J. Broyde believes the Louisiana law won't hold up. He's the projects director at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

“The law as it stands now makes it clear that having just the Ten Commandments on display is an endorsement of a set of religious values, which the Supreme Court has never tolerated," he said.

The government can display a variety of religious symbols, Broyde said, but it can’t “idiosyncratically highlight” a single religious symbol for display. 

He said religious symbols are “coercive in nature” and they are the most complicated to uphold because students are in schools involuntarily since the law requires it.

Voluntary religious behavior is almost always protected, but when the government forces people to participate in religion by placing a religious symbol in the classroom and saying they must act respectfully in front of that symbol even though they may not agree with it, that’s coercion, he said. 

“Those cases are extremely problematic and we should resist,” Brodye said.