The Louisiana school Ten Commandments law
...it's about heritage...
The Christian Nationalists succeeded in their Project Blitz campaign by passing legislation in Louisiana making it law that any school which receives state funding must post the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Specifically the Protestant Ten Commandments, not the version found in Catholic publications.
They believe they’ve found a loophole in the First Amendment by claiming that these commandments are the historical origin of America’s laws, not a religious document. We’ve seen this appeal to heritage before, especially in the South where Confederate statues are concerned. The problematic history of the erection of these statues, especially on school grounds, makes it clear that their existence was to remind black students of their place in the hierarchy of society. The vast majority of schools lacked these statues before desegregation.
By appealing to heritage, claiming that these commandments are the historical origin of our laws and forcing their posting in classrooms, they serve a similar purpose. They remind all the students that under the state theocracy they either adhere to them or not, and it serves to intimidate anybody who doesn’t believe. Traditionally the people doing this point to the Bible being removed from public schools as being the cause of all manner of social ills and have claimed that they wanted to do this to reduce lawlessness by making students mindful of how God wants them to act. Never mind that in Evangelistic training materials like “The Way of The Master” it’s made clear that when witnessing to someone about Jesus one of the first things you do is ask a person if they believe they’ll go to Heaven. If someone claims they think they will because they followed all the Ten Commandments, they’re to be informed that this alone isn’t sufficient to get them saved. So what kind of Magical Thinking are they employing in believing that knowing that God wants people to keep the Sabbath will somehow stop kids from showing up with their legally obtained assault rifle and shooting the school up?
“But guns don’t kill people, we have to change hearts and minds,” is what they say. How does a poster with scripture on it do that? What magical properties does that poster have which a copy of “Harry Potter and the Struggle against Christo-Fascist Imperialism” lacks? It doesn’t. How do we know?
Every year in parts of America we see signs posted, and advertisements shown, which admonish people not to drink and drive. Every year tens of thousands of Americans see these and fail to suddenly think, “You know, I’m pretty drunk...I should probably not drive”, pull over and call an Uber. It just doesn’t work that way.
Signs warning that “Shoplifters will be prosecuted”, “$XXX fine for littering”, “No parking, violators will be towed” and more are posted in hundreds of thousands of places from sea to theft ridden, trash covered sea.
So if it’s not about creating personal responsibility for honoring your Father and Mother, what could possibly be the benefit of putting a sign commanding students in art class not to make “graven images”? The only thing it could be about is related to those Confederate statues, those special awards for winning second place in the Civil War. The posters are there to provide the appearance of a win in the war over the Separation clause, and to intimidate anybody who’s faith doesn’t tell them not to take “the Lord your God’s name in vain”. It provides a bunch of politicians who claim to be Christian an opportunity to look as if they did something to make a difference, even though they didn’t, and pretend that’s not “bearing false witness” to their constituents.