I Can't Wait to Be Sued

Last week, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed a bill into law that mandates that every public school and university in the state must display the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. The new law even specifies the size of the poster or plaque, requiring that it be at least 11” by 14” and be written in a large, easily readable font.

Within minutes of the bill’s signings, groups such as the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced their intention to sue the State of Louisiana and Gov. Landry in particular. His response was, “I can’t wait to be sued,” because he knew that he was standing on solid constitutional ground.

“Our public schools are not Sunday schools, and students of all faiths – or no faith – should feel welcome in them,” the aforementioned groups said in a joint statement. “The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional. The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”

So what if the phrase “separation of church and state” isn’t included in the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, or any of our other founding documents? The closest any of them comes is the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which simply states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

Which begs the question: How can posting 10 laws handed down by God to Moses – and which have been used for centuries as the foundation for western civilization and society in general – be considered establishing a religion? After all, both English Common Law and the U.S. Constitution are based on the Magna Carta, which was first drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1215 to – among other things – protect church rights.

Sounds to me like one of the primary purposes of English and American laws is to protect organized religion from the government, not the other way around. In fact, that was the exact purpose of Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Baptist Association of Danbury, CT written in 1802, in which the phrase “separation of church and state” was coined. Simply put, President Jefferson wanted to assure the Baptist ministers that the federal government would not interfere in any way with their freedom of religious expression. Perhaps to prove his point, Jefferson allowed the U.S. Capitol to be used for weekly church services and he was a regular attendee.

Which begs a second question: How could anyone be opposed to teaching young people that murder, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting is wrong… and that honoring one’s parents is right?

Which, in turn, begs a third: Why is it wrong to promote a belief in a Supreme Being to whom we owe homage and obedience, but it is OK to shove evolution, sexual deviance, gender dysphoria, and other liberal propaganda down our school children’s throats?

For the record, macro evolution is an unproven theory based on a foundation of sand. So why is it accepted – and almost universally taught – as scientific fact? Has anyone seen a monkey magically transformed into a human? And who was alive millions of years ago to record such nonsense?

If the religions of humanism and hedonism can be shouted from the rooftops of our public schools, then so should the 10 Commandments be allowed to be posted. Better yet, let’s start teaching them, reciting them aloud, and putting them into practice.

I think Thomas Jefferson would approve. After all, he wrote in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that “Almighty God hath created the mind free” and even referred to God as the “holy author of our religion.”

In a nutshell, Jefferson – and the rest of our Founding fathers – recognized God’s existence and that America was founded on solid Judeo-Christian principles. Departing from that belief (and that belief system) is a recipe for disaster, chaos, and both cultural and societal demise.