A federal judge has ordered 14 Texas school districts to remove Ten Commandments displays from classrooms by Dec. 1 and barred them from posting any new copies pending the outcome of litigation. The Nov. 18 preliminary injunction stems from a…
Panelists offer three takes on state of religious liberty today
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is unconstitutional and opened the door to the death of religious liberty in America, political science professor Marci Hamilton told the Texas Tribune Festival Nov. 13. Hamilton, a lawyer with extensive experience in religious liberty…
Federal appeals court will hear arguments in Texas’ and Louisiana’s Ten Commandments cases in January
A federal appeals court next year will hear Texas’ arguments against a ruling that blocked nearly a dozen school districts from displaying posters of the Ten Commandments.
Is there a common source for the Ten Commandments bills?
As Republican-dominated states seek to require displays of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms, critics are noting some odd similarities in the language of the bills. It seems possible — even likely — the bills are originating from a common…
Entire Fifth Circuit will rehear Louisiana Ten Commandments case
A federal appeals court has tossed out its previous ruling that Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is “plainly unconstitutional” and announced all 17 of its judges will now reconsider the case. The Fifth Circuit U.S. District Court of Appeals in New…
Students in Texas Need Something, but It’s Not the Ten Commandments
Should the Ten Commandments hang beside every chalkboard? Should public schools set aside time each day for students to recite the Lord’s Prayer?
14 more Texas districts sued over Ten Commandments
An additional 14 Texas public school systems are being sued to stop them from installing classroom Ten Commandments displays mandated by the state. A coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal complaint Sept. 22 against the Arlington, Azle, Comal,…
Prof reviews proper and improper uses of Bible in public schools
The Bible has not been banned from public schools, but there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to use it there, a professor told a summit on religion and public education Sept. 16. Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern…
Religion and politics
I’m all in when it comes to separation of church and state. That’s why I oppose posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and wherever else legislators are clamoring to do so. That is The…
The Ten Commandments and the fallacy of certainty
“So, inerrancy was in essence adapted and used by enslavers?” “Yes.” I was sitting in Stephen Ray’s office working on my Ph.D. at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. I had asked if I could take a directed study on Reformed theology…
Florida Man Kicks God Out of the Ten Commandments
During a debate about displaying the Ten Commandments in local government buildings in southern Florida, Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall dismissed the sacred meaning of the words found in the Bible.
Thou shall not? Schools in Texas and Arkansas caught between rulings
When a federal judge provisionally rules that a state’s mandate for public schools to display the Ten Commandments is unconstitutional, does that ruling apply only to the school districts involved in the litigation or to all districts in the state?…