With wars in Eastern Europe (Russia vs. Ukraine) and the Middle East (Israel vs. Hamas) and with America’s political structure seeming more fragile than since the Civil War—who really cares that Louisiana just passed a law that the Ten Commandments must be posted in public school classrooms?

A lot of people. In fact, before the ink from Governor Jeff Landry’s signature on the law dried, the story made major news headlines not just in the United States but around the world. Within a week, the state was sued for alleged religious liberty violations.

Separation of Church and State

Most Americans, though knowing the phrase “separation between church and state,” know little about its origins or what it was supposed to mean. The phrase is not in the Declaration of Independence. It’s not in the U.S. Constitution proper. It’s not in the Bill of Rights. It’s not even in the First Amendment, which reads, in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Of course, a lot of rights and freedoms that Americans take for granted are not mentioned in the Constitution. But that shouldn’t be surprising. After all, the owner’s manual to your car is surely longer than the entire founding document of the U.S. government. The Constitution couldn’t cover everything, especially in a nation that is now two and a half centuries from its founding, with a population close to 337,000,000 compared to 3,900,000 in 1788, when the Constitution was ratified.

Nevertheless, the principle behind the idea remains valid. Religion works only by free will. We serve God only because we want to. Government, by contrast, works by coercion, by civil and criminal penalties for violations of laws. Hence, the idea behind the phrase “separation between church and state”—penned by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to some Connecticut Baptists in 1802—is to keep the government, which works by force, as far as possible from religious practice, which is supposed to be one’s free choice.

And, for better or worse, but mostly for better, that principle has been the mainstay of religious freedom in America for almost 250 years.

Ten Commandments in Public Schools

What’s the big deal, then, with Louisiana posting the Ten Commandments in public schools? No one is enforcing them. No one is saying to the kids, “You have to keep them.” They’re just there, ideally, as a reminder of the law that has been the foundation of morality, not only in America but for the entire Western world.

But why, for instance, in Stone v. Graham (1980), did the U.S. Supreme Court strike down a similar Ten Commandment law in Kentucky? Or in Engel v. Vitale (1962), why did the High Court strike down government-sponsored prayer in school?

Sure, no kid is forced to obey the Ten Commandments, and no kid is forced to participate in a school prayer. But the kids are forced, by law, to be in the same classroom where the Ten Commandments are posted or where prayer is offered. The legal rationale is that these religious teachings or practices come with the sanction and power of the school, and no child should be subjected to such pressure, no matter how subtle.

Whether one agrees or not, that’s the principle behind these rulings.

Of course, we’re at a time when kids are bringing guns to school and shooting each other and their teachers. When adult teachers are having sex with underage students. When schools have books in the libraries that border on pornography. When drag queens are reading to kindergarteners. And when males want to use the girls’ bathroom.

With all this incredible sickness and insanity, people have had more than enough—the Louisiana law is but one recent example of the understandable backlash.

Hypocrisy … Maybe?

Right before signing the bill, which he knew would be controversial, Governor Landry said, “I can’t wait to be sued.” 

He didn’t have to wait long. Within a week, various civil rights groups and parents filed a suit against the state, hoping to block implementation of the law. “Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom—rendering them unavoidable—unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” says the suit, “which charges that there is no long-standing tradition of hanging the commandments in classrooms and that courts have already ruled against the practice.”

Why pass the law now, when similar attempts have been constantly struck down over the decades? The hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court, still with a conservative majority, might overthrow the long-standing precedents against such practices, as it recently did with abortion.

SabbathThere is, however, some hypocrisy in these Ten Commandment cases. Few, if any, of those who push for them to be posted actually keep them themselves. Talking about the Ten Commandments, the book of James says, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (2:10). The fourth commandant clearly states that we are to keep the Sabbath, which is the seventh day. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work” (Exodus 20:8–10, emphasis added).

In most cases, those who even bother to keep a day holy, keep Sunday, which has no sanction in Scripture. They’re surely violating the fourth commandment every week, even as they push to have that commandment, along with the nine others, posted in classrooms.?

We’d surely have a better country if everyone, including our public school kids, obeyed the Ten Commandants. But will posting them on school walls, even if it passes constitutional muster, make a difference? Those pushing for the law certainly think so. Then again, they themselves not keeping all the commandments does seem to weaken the credibility of the whole thing.

The Ten Commandments do have their place in our society. The question is—where?

To learn more about the Ten Commandments, including the fourth, check out Pastor Doug’s series The Ten Commandments: Laws of Love and Liberty. 

With wars in Eastern Europe (Russia vs. Ukraine) and the Middle East (Israel vs. Hamas) and with America’s political structure seeming more fragile than since the Civil War—who really cares that Louisiana just passed a law that the Ten Commandments must be posted in public school classrooms?

A lot of people. In fact, before the ink from Governor Jeff Landry’s signature on the law dried, the story made major news headlines not just in the United States but around the world. Within a week, the state was sued for alleged religious liberty violations.

Separation of Church and State

Most Americans, though knowing the phrase “separation between church and state,” know little about its origins or what it was supposed to mean. The phrase is not in the Declaration of Independence. It’s not in the U.S. Constitution proper. It’s not in the Bill of Rights. It’s not even in the First Amendment, which reads, in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Of course, a lot of rights and freedoms that Americans take for granted are not mentioned in the Constitution. But that shouldn’t be surprising. After all, the owner’s manual to your car is surely longer than the entire founding document of the U.S. government. The Constitution couldn’t cover everything, especially in a nation that is now two and a half centuries from its founding, with a population close to 337,000,000 compared to 3,900,000 in 1788, when the Constitution was ratified.

Nevertheless, the principle behind the idea remains valid. Religion works only by free will. We serve God only because we want to. Government, by contrast, works by coercion, by civil and criminal penalties for violations of laws. Hence, the idea behind the phrase “separation between church and state”—penned by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to some Connecticut Baptists in 1802—is to keep the government, which works by force, as far as possible from religious practice, which is supposed to be one’s free choice.

And, for better or worse, but mostly for better, that principle has been the mainstay of religious freedom in America for almost 250 years.

Ten Commandments in Public Schools

What’s the big deal, then, with Louisiana posting the Ten Commandments in public schools? No one is enforcing them. No one is saying to the kids, “You have to keep them.” They’re just there, ideally, as a reminder of the law that has been the foundation of morality, not only in America but for the entire Western world.

But why, for instance, in Stone v. Graham (1980), did the U.S. Supreme Court strike down a similar Ten Commandment law in Kentucky? Or in Engel v. Vitale (1962), why did the High Court strike down government-sponsored prayer in school?

Sure, no kid is forced to obey the Ten Commandments, and no kid is forced to participate in a school prayer. But the kids are forced, by law, to be in the same classroom where the Ten Commandments are posted or where prayer is offered. The legal rationale is that these religious teachings or practices come with the sanction and power of the school, and no child should be subjected to such pressure, no matter how subtle.

Whether one agrees or not, that’s the principle behind these rulings.

Of course, we’re at a time when kids are bringing guns to school and shooting each other and their teachers. When adult teachers are having sex with underage students. When schools have books in the libraries that border on pornography. When drag queens are reading to kindergarteners. And when males want to use the girls’ bathroom.

With all this incredible sickness and insanity, people have had more than enough—the Louisiana law is but one recent example of the understandable backlash.

Hypocrisy … Maybe?

Right before signing the bill, which he knew would be controversial, Governor Landry said, “I can’t wait to be sued.” 

He didn’t have to wait long. Within a week, various civil rights groups and parents filed a suit against the state, hoping to block implementation of the law. “Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom—rendering them unavoidable—unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” says the suit, “which charges that there is no long-standing tradition of hanging the commandments in classrooms and that courts have already ruled against the practice.”

Why pass the law now, when similar attempts have been constantly struck down over the decades? The hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court, still with a conservative majority, might overthrow the long-standing precedents against such practices, as it recently did with abortion.

There is, however, some hypocrisy in these Ten Commandment cases. Few, if any, of those who push for them to be posted actually keep them themselves. Talking about the Ten Commandments, the book of James says, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (2:10). The fourth commandant clearly states that we are to keep the Sabbath, which is the seventh day. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work” (Exodus 20:8–10, emphasis added).

We’d surely have a better country if everyone, including our public school kids, obeyed the Ten Commandants. But will posting them on school walls, even if it passes constitutional muster, make a difference? Those pushing for the law certainly think so. Then again, they themselves not keeping all the commandments does seem to weaken the credibility of the whole thing.

The Ten Commandments do have their place in our society. The question is—where?

To learn more about the Ten Commandments, including the fourth, check out Pastor Doug’s series The Ten Commandments: Laws of Love and Liberty.