The United States of America is a fully-dressed salad. Or a hodgepodge of stew with almost every ingredient imaginable piled inside. Vietnamese, Chinese, Moroccan, Swedish, Scottish, Nicaraguan, Cuban, Russian: we all live together without laws preventing dissemination or spread of culture. Of course, considering the sheer level of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity, religious factions of all different creeds color the map. Among the most populous are Protestant, closely followed by Catholic, then Mormonism, then Judaism, then Islam, then Buddhism, then Hinduism, and so on and so forth.
With the level of diversity that composes this country, it’s clear that no religious group should reserve the right to enact their own religious belief into common law. Right?
With the recent developments of some state laws, not everyone appears to think the same way. Just recently, in June of 2019, Louisiana state governor Jeff Landry signed into Louisiana state law that every classroom must display a poster of the 10 Commandments, derived from the Christian Holy Bible. Though this law has ultimately been struck down, given its unconstitutional nature (1st Amendment: Separation of Church and State), the fact that the bill traveled all the way up to state level is disappointing, to say the least.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” the very 1st Amendment of the constitution declares. Clearly, the decision to implement mandatory Christian content into public (and therefore inherently secular schools) violates this Amendment. Within a private school, where the parents and the children willingly request religious education, there would be no problem. However, in the previously mentioned mixed population of America as a whole, this proposition would place one religion on a higher stature than the others.
It may be tempting to argue that these commandments are simply about right and wrong: that even though they herald from a religious source, the commandments aren’t inherently religious. Let’s review the Ten Commandments, shall we?
- You shall have no gods before me.
This is the very first commandment of the ten, and it directly addresses infidelity to the one defined Christian version of God. Would a Muslim student at this school feel unsupported by the community with posters that insisted on one avenue of belief? Or an atheist student, perhaps?
- You shall not make idols
- You should not take the Lord’s name in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Clearly, the first four of the Ten Commandments pertain to Christianity’s beliefs exclusively. If according to the Constitution, the government shall not make any laws respecting an establishment of religion, the government mustn’t make laws based on any religion’s beliefs.
The rest of the commandments are as one would expect. “You shall not murder,” and “You shall not commit adultery” and “Honor your father and mother,” but I would argue these rules are not some profound revelation discovered only with Moses’ descent from Mount Sinai. These rules should be written in the morals of every human being, because a moral compass should not be something a human must learn. A moral compass must be inherent-–though some choose to ignore the needle. The Ten Commandments are not without moral value: they do indeed teach good lessons.
However, one cannot ignore that the four very first commandments explicitly reference the beliefs of a group of people, excluding the potential beliefs of other students in that public, and therefore secular, school. The entire purpose of “religious freedom” implies in itself a separation between church and state. If the government were to suddenly enforce a kosher diet on the general public in an attempt to appease the Jewish population, who believe eating pork is wrong, there would be an outcry. If the government were to suddenly enforce church attendance on Sundays on those who visit mosques or synagogues or temples instead, there would be an uproar. Though, indeed, the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments is not an action as extreme as those mentioned above, the underlying message remains the same: It is wrong to mandate that all educational spaces, which are meant to be places as free of personal bias as possible, follow the teachings of a group. I say once again—there is nothing wrong with those who practice Christianity, or Islam, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Sikhism, or Judaism, or what have you. What is wrong is the failure to recognize that our population is ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse. In order to thrive as a nation in harmony, we must be able to harmonize despite differences in belief.
And not tell outsiders of your faith that they’re going to hell for their infidelity.