The Tennessee Senate passed a bill March 19 mandating public schools display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.
The vote followed the February passage of a similar bill by the state House of Representatives and ignored a March 13 letter signed by more than 70 state religious leaders urging opposition to Senate Bill 303.
“The responsibility for religious education belongs to families, houses of worship and other religious institutions — not the government,” according to the communication organized by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Interfaith Alliance and National Council of Jewish Women.
The letter was signed by Jewish and Christian clergy including several Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ministers, including Walter B. Shurden, a retired historian, author and professor, Stephen Cook, senior minister at Second Baptist Church in Memphis, and Rick Bennett, coordinator of CBF Tennessee.
“The government oversteps its authority when it authorizes the display of religious texts. Our faith communities exist to help individuals and families live according to their beliefs. We do not need or want government officials interfering with and usurping this sacred role,” that letter states.
The Senate legislation and House Bill 47 subvert religious freedom by turning educators into “religious authorities” required to coerce students into reading a religious document and taking sides in differences around matters of faith, the letter says.
“There is no one universal version of the Ten Commandments. Different faith traditions understand and interpret the Ten Commandments differently, and it is simply not possible to display a version of the Ten Commandments that honors every faith tradition’s interpretation. Any school that displays the commandments will have to choose a version that is not universal or inclusive of all faith traditions, even among those of us who incorporate or hold sacred the Ten Commandments.”
But there also is the matter of the thousands of students for whom the Decalogue holds no meaning at all, including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Unitarian Universalists and those of no faith at all, the clergy said: “It is not the place of the government or public schools to interpret this text for minority religious groups or for those who are not religious, or to impose these religious instructions on them.”
“We should not turn public schools into Sunday schools.”
The bills also place teachers in the position of having to explain to Christian and Jewish students why the commandments displayed in their classrooms differs from the texts used in their churches or synagogues.
“We should not turn public schools into Sunday schools. We remain steadfast and united in affirming the values of religious freedom that are foundational to our democracy and will continue to push back against attempts to impose a singular religious viewpoint into our public institutions,” the clergy said.
Tennessee is venturing into the Decalogue debate as multiple lawsuits involving similar laws in other states are working their way through the federal court system.
A U.S. District judge ruled March 16 that Arkansas’ Ten Commandments law is unconstitutional because its clear intent is to proselytize children.
That decision followed a federal appeals court ruling in February that Louisiana could implement its Ten Commandments law as litigation around the case continues. A three-judge panel of the same court previously upheld a lower-court ruling against the legislation.
A lawsuit has also been filed against a Texas law mandating Ten Commandment displays in all public school classrooms.
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