NOTE: This piece was originally published at our Substack newsletter A Public Witness.
As members of the Missouri Education Committee consider legislation that would mandate the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, 193 clergy and other faith leaders (and two houses of worship) signed an open letter urging lawmakers to oppose such a move. The letter follows a contentious hearing over Senate Bill 594 last week that several ministers attended to testify against the proposal. The members of the Senate Education Committee are scheduled to meet Tuesday (April 1), at which point they may vote on the bill.
“The U.S. and Missouri Constitutions guarantee our right, and the right of all Missourians, to religious freedom,” the letter states. “That freedom involves respecting the rights of individuals, parents, and faith communities to make decisions about the teaching of sacred texts that inform our religious understandings and practices. Bills mandating the display of the Ten Commandments demean that freedom.”
“The responsibility for religious education belongs to families, houses of worship, and other religious institutions — not the government. The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text,” the letter adds. “We do not need to — and indeed should not — turn public schools into Sunday schools.”
A monument of the Ten Commandments at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City. (Brian Kaylor/Word&Way)
Organized by Brian Kaylor of Word&Way in partnership with Interfaith Alliance, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, The Sikh Coalition, and National Council of Jewish Women, the letter is being delivered to committee members ahead of a potential vote. The faith leaders who signed the letter come from various backgrounds, including African Methodist Episcopal Church, American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Metropolitan Community Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Nondenominational, Unitarian Universalist, Conservative and Reform Judaism, and Sikh.
“Every student should feel welcome and safe in school,” said Amy Kuo Hammerman, Missouri state policy advocate with the National Council of Jewish Women. “Their sense of belonging shouldn’t depend on conforming to government-approved religious dictates. However, that is exactly what will happen if Missouri requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Separation of religion and state is a founding principle of American democracy, ensuring that religious freedom be used as a shield to protect religious minorities, not a sword to impose beliefs on others.”
Rev. Jennifer Hawks, director of advocacy at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, similarly argued, “When the state writes a cliff’s notes version of a religious text and mandates its use, we all lose. The state should not waste time trying to usurp our religious institutions.” And Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, added, “Faith isn’t something the government can force on kids in a classroom. And in America, we don’t need the government playing preacher. Missouri lawmakers need to do the right thing and leave faith where it belongs: with the people.”
The Missouri letter follows a similar effort in Texas by some of the same groups as 166 faith leaders in the Lone Star State signed a letter urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would mandate posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Despite the letter, which was read from the Senate floor by Democratic Sen. Nathan Johnson during debate over the bill, the Senate passed the bill 20-11 earlier this month. It now heads to the state’s House of Representatives, where it died two years ago.
Last year, Louisiana passed a bill like the ones being considered in Missouri and Texas, but it’s currently blocked by a federal judge amid an ongoing legal fight over its constitutionality. In addition to Missouri and Texas, lawmakers in at least 17 other states have proposed similar bills already this year. A bill passed the South Dakota Senate before being defeated last month in the House. Another bill has passed the Arkansas Senate and has been sent to the House.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that such displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools were unconstitutional because they lacked a nonreligious purpose. The Christian Nationalist advocates pushing the bills today hope the court’s current ideological makeup will reverse that decision. Missouri Democratic state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern recently warned her colleagues that passing a bill mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments would result in litigation “at the expense of Missouri taxpayers.” She added, “Instead of passing clearly unconstitutional laws, the Missouri Senate should focus on the real challenges facing our kids in schools today.”
During the hearing last week, Brian Kaylor made a similar argument: “Ultimately, this bill would make many students feel like second-class citizens in their own classrooms just because they come from a religious tradition that lists the Ten Commandments differently, they adhere to a religious faith that does not even include the Ten Commandments, or they have no faith at all. School can be hard enough for kids trying to fit in and figure out who they are and who they want to be. We should not make it harder by codifying sectarian proclamations that create in-and-out groups based on religious beliefs.”
“The state should not pick winners and losers when it comes to religion,” he added.
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