Church-State Division? Not In Texas, As Ten Commandments, Prayer Coming To Texas Public Schools
The Texas Taliban may soon be coming to a town near you.
Evangelicals across the country continue their crusade to blur the line between religion and public schools, as long as that religion is Christian. The latest effort by the god-fearing, Republican leadership in Texas is a trio of laws that bring religious symbols and prayers to schools, in direct contradiction to federal laws.
One new bill, S1515, requires that copies of the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Phil King, was approved by the Republican majority state Senate last week and now heads to the House and is expected to be approved and then signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. King said the Ten Commandments are part of American heritage and it’s time to bring them back into the classroom.
Another newly approved law is S1396, sponsored by Sen. Mayes Middleton. It allows public and charter schools to require every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the state of Kentucky could not post the Ten Commandments in public schools because displaying them shows support of religion by the government. Organized prayer in public schools, whether in the classroom or at a school-sponsored event, also has been deemed as unconstitutional. Private prayer is permitted and voluntary student prayer is allowed if it does not interfere with the school’s educational mission.
In a 1980 ruling, Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote, “The pre-eminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature. The Ten Commandments are undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, and no legislative recitation of a supposed secular purpose can blind us to that fact. The Commandments do not confine themselves to arguably secular matters, such as honoring one’s parents, killing or murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, and covetousness. See Exodus 20: 12–17; Deuteronomy 5: 16–21. Rather, the first part of the Commandments concerns the religious duties of believers: worshiping the Lord God alone, avoiding idolatry, not using the Lord’s name in vain, and observing the Sabbath Day. See Exodus 20: 1–11; Deuteronomy 5: 6–15.”
Brennan also wrote that “It does not matter that the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are financed by voluntary private contributions, for the mere posting of the copies under the auspices of the legislature provides the ‘official support of the State . . . Government’ that the Establishment Clause prohibits.”
Republicans in Texas and elsewhere are hopeful that the conservative super-majority on the Supreme Court will result in even thinner lines between church and state and a reversal of the 1980 decision.
Most recently, in June 2022, the High Court backed the claims of a Bremerton, Wash., high school football coach that he has been fired because he prayed on the 50-yard line after each game, joined by those players who wanted to participate. The 6-to-3 decision was the latest example of the court’s conservative push to further accommodate religion in public schools and less separation between church and state. The decision was based largely on the lower courts’ finding that the school told the coach to stop his midfield praying because it would be perceived as a school endorsement of religion.
Writing for the court majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the school relied exclusively and improperly on concerns that the prayers would be viewed as a religious endorsement by the school. Without evidence that students had been coerced, the majority said, barring coach Joseph Kennedy from praying on the 50-yard line at the end of each game was a form of hostility to religion, in violation of the Constitution.
“Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic. Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a personal religious observance, based on a mistaken view that it has a duty to suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination. Mr. Kennedy is entitled to summary judgment on his religious exercise and free speech claims,” Gorsuch wrote.
King said that the Ten Commandments are part of American heritage, and his legislation “will remind students all across Texas of the importance of the fundamental foundation of America.”
The Ten Commandments to be posted in Texas schools is a slightly condensed version of Exodus 20:1–17 from the King James Bible. The text must read as follows:
“The Ten Commandments
I AM the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor ’s house.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor ’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”
King, 67, a first term state Senator, is a former captain in the Fort Worth Police Department. He has previously supported legislation to require parental notification and parental consent in cases of abortion for minors.
The new law requiring posting of the Ten Commandments is in keeping with the spirit of a law passed in 2021 and sponsored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, that required schools to display donated “In God We Trust” signs.
While Hughes, 53, may trust God, he apparently does not trust schools to provide a positive education to students. In 2021, Hughes wrote legislation to prevent public schools from requiring that students read writings by prominent civil rights figures, such as Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., when covering women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement in social studies classes.
In 2021, Hughes introduced legislation to limit voting rights in Texas, part of a broader national effort by Republicans to restrict voting rights in the wake of the 2020 elections. One provision would prohibit early voting on Sunday mornings, which was a traditional period of voting for Black churchgoers as part of ‘Souls to the Polls’ events.
Hughes has sponsored legislation to allowed private citizens to sue abortion providers after a fetal heartbeat has been detected.
Another newly approved Texas law likely headed to the Supreme Court, is S1396, sponsored by Sen. Mayes Middleton. It allows public and charter schools to adopt a policy requiring every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.
Middleton, 41, is in his first term in the Texas Senate. He is chair of the conservative, Texas Freedom Caucus. In endorsing Middleton, trump said he was “proud to give my Complete and Total Endorsement to a MAGA champion, Mayes Middleton.”
Middleton is president of Middleton Oil Company, an oil and gas company that operates in South Texas and the Gulf Coast. Middleton also owns and manages ranching, cattle, and farming operations in Chambers, Jefferson, Kimble, Liberty, and Webb counties. He serves on the Board of Directors of First Liberty National Bank, a community bank with locations in the Texas cities of Baytown, China, Dayton, Hardin, Huffman, and Liberty.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has been a strong supporter for keeping Confederate monuments on public display, said in a statement the latest bills are victories for religious freedom in Texas.
“I believe that you cannot change the culture of the country until you change the culture of mankind,” Patrick said. “Bringing the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans.”
Patrick, 73, is a former conservative radio talk show host and television broadcaster. He has been lieutenant governor since January 2015. As a talk radio host, Patrick advocated for fiscal conservatism, evangelical Christian values on social issues, and he was a vocal opponent of illegal immigration.
Legislation that Patrick helped pass during his tenure as lieutenant governor included legalization of open carrying guns on campuses. Another bill written by Patrick allows pastors to refuse marrying couples if it violates their beliefs.
Patrick has supported teaching creationism in public schools, despite court rulings that such a policy would violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Patrick also supported legislation to prevent public schools from requiring that students read writings by prominent civil rights figures. He said that he would revoke tenure for faculty who teach critical race theory, which focuses on the ongoing effects of slavery. Patrick has opposed same-sex marriage and it would lead to bigamy, pedophilia and incest.
Hours after the 2016 Orlando, Fla., shooting a the gay Pulse Nightclub, in which 49 people were slaughtered, Patrick tweeted a picture of the Bible verse, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:7.”
Patrick backed trump’s false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
An evangelical Christian, Patrick is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the International Bible Society and has served as guest pastor of his church, the Second Baptist Church, Houston.
In his inauguration speech as lieutenant governor, Patrick said, “I respect all faiths and religions, but I am a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third, and I praise Jesus for this moment and this day.”
Matt Krause, a former Texas state representative and attorney with the First Liberty Institute, represented the Washington coach, and said the new legislation was a victory for religious freedom.
The push for greater Christian religion in public schools is part of a larger movement, known as Christian nationalism, which claims that America should be governed according to biblical law. Christian nationalism was the subject of an address last week at the Tulsa, Okla., church of Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump.
The guest speaker was MAGA preacher Sean Feucht.
“It’s all part of The King coming back,” Feucht told the audience. “That’s what we’re practicing for. We want God to be in control of everything! We want believers to be the ones writing the laws! Yes! Guilty as charged.”
A former candidate for Congress, who once prayed over Trump in the Oval Office, Feucht has long associated himself with far-right lawmakers like Rep. Lauren Boehbert, R-Colo., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who have both embraced Christian nationalism.
Feucht is on a 50-state worship tour to spread his brand of Christian nationalism. The tour kicked off in Washington, D.C., last month, with a prayer service in the Capitol rotunda, organized by Boehbert.
The tour is backed by Turning Point USA , a far-right, campus political group that has strongly supported trump and debunked claims that trump lost reelection because of widespread voter fraud. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called Turning Point an “alt-lite” organization. The ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center have criticized Turning Point for affiliating with activists from the alt-right and the far-right. The ADL has also reported that the group’s leadership and activists “have made multiple racist or bigoted comments” and have links to extremism.