Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments after bragging that he “can’t wait to be sued” for this outrageous assault on the Constitution.
But the legislation package does a lot more than force Christianity on children. For example, it also removes requirements for COVID-19 vaccinations and limits other vaccinations.
Not only is the overall package a hodgepodge of religious right thirst traps, but the part about the Ten Commandments includes plenty of outright strange.
Here are nine of the most outrageous components of this legislative package.
1. The version of the Ten Commandments in the bill isn’t even in any version of the Bible
The bill doesn’t stop at requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed, it resolvesany concerns over how different translations (and Catholic vs. Protestant) Bibles include different versions of the commandments. The bill includes its own version that all schools are required to follow. That version isn’t taken from any translation of the Bible.
Instead, it was pulled from a 2006 Supreme Court case, Van Orden v. Perry, involving a monument on public land featuring text from the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Louisiana legislators duplicated the text from that ruling under the impression that it gives them some sort of leg up in any potential court ruling. Where the Eagles got their divine inspiration is anyone’s guess.
2. No smaller than 11 inches by 14 inches, please
The authors of the bill seemed to worry that some smartass might get the brilliant idea of putting the Ten Commandments on the head of a pin or another tiny and obscure location, so they set a minimum size of “at least eleven inches by fourteen inches.”
The bill also requires a “large, easily readable font.” Might I suggest Comic Sans? Charcoal gray text on a black background would also be appropriate.
3. The bill includes no funding
Legislators thought they were clever on this one. By not funding the Ten Commandments posters, or rolling them off state presses, they wanted to keep some pretense of following the ruling of another 2006 case that said they could be displayed on public land if it were supported by a private donation.
So all of those 11-by-14 posters are supposed to be donated to the schools. However, schools are required to show the commandments. What happens if there aren’t enough posters for every classroom from kindergarten through college? Don’t worry about it. Legislators didn’t.
The bill also says that citizens can donate funds so schools can buy copies of the Ten Commandments. Schools buying religious documents with bake sale money might seem like a distinction that’s not actually a distinction at all, but in a bill designed to generate a court case, what’s one more press of the hot button?
4. The bill calls the Mayflower Compact “America’s first written Constitution”
It also calls it the “first purely American document of self-government.” And since that first Constitution and purely American document was full of references to God, that obviously means that the U.S. government is based on God.
How religious is the Mayflower Compact? It starts with “in the name of God, Amen,” and in the second paragraph it really gets rolling.
“Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country,” it reads. There’s a whole lot of “dread sovereign Lord, King James” stuff in there as well. So apparently the U.S. was meant to be a monarchy.
Louisiana legislators do not mention that this document was prepared for the local governance of a few hundred religious extremists as a giant FU to civil authority, or that the compact was written before any of them had even set a Pilgrim foot on North America.
They also failed to note that, if that call out to God was supposed to lend the Plymouth colony some special favor, the fact that only 52 people were alive by the end of the first year might suggest that God is unimpressed by paperwork.
5. Legislators scoured U.S laws to find a mention of God, and they got … almost one
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 might not be the first legislation someone thinks of as a defining document … unless that someone is a Christian nationalist. On the religious right, this law is often cited as “proof” that the U.S. is based on religion, stating that “religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
Well, all right then. Religion in schools, it’s the law. What could be better? It not only gets cited in the Louisiana bill, but legislators proposed that schools can choose to hang it on the wall next to the Ten Commandments.
The pesky thing about the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is that it’s from 1787. As in, before the Constitution or the First Amendment. It didn’t conflict with the wall between church and state because that wall was still under construction. This bill wasn’t even signed by any Senate, House, or President; it was passed by the unicameral Confederation Congress.
But hey, confederacy! That only makes it better, right?
6. Schools are prohibited from even asking about students’ vaccination status
While the first five items were all crammed into the single bill about the Ten Commandments, Landry actually signed off on a package of items, including a prohibition on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. But that doesn’t really matter, since another bill in the package entirely eliminates school officials’ authority to check vaccination status.
To put a double underline under this prohibition, teachers aren’t allowed to ask about vaccination status, but if they somehow become aware, they’re not allowed to seat students in a way that might prevent the spread of disease in their classrooms. They also can’t prevent unvaccinated kids from participating in any in- or out-of-school activity.
Because that would be “discrimination.” And you know how much Southern Republicans hate discrimination.
7. Teachers can be sued for using a student’s preferred name or pronouns
The legislation requires that students only be assigned pronouns according to what is called their "immutable sex" as found on their birth certificates. They can also only be addressed by the name found on their birth certificates or by nicknames “derived from that name.”
Is Betsy okay for Elizabeth? How about Bess? Lizzie? Can you use Jack for John? Is Rory really an acceptable nickname for Lorelei?
Teachers better be on top of these things because the bill makes them personally liable, allowing them to be sued if they don’t keep those nicknames and pronouns straight.
8. A “Don’t say gay” bill worse than Florida’s was added almost without notice
The “Let Kids Be Kids” act protects delicate ears from any mention of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual orientation all the way through grade 12. No teacher, coach, or other school employee is allowed to engage in any discussion on these topics. They’re also not allowed to reveal their own gender identity or sexual orientation.
9. It allows schools to appoint a "volunteer chaplain"
That would be a chaplain. As in one chaplain. But surely getting the community to appoint a single religious representative at the school will mean everyone’s religious beliefs are recognized.
The chaplain is only a volunteer, though, and not an actual school employee. So maybe students could go to them about their concerns over sexual orientation and gender identity. What could possibly go wrong?
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
