One Nation of Many Religious and Political Viewpoints

The United States of America: born 1956.

The Texas Senate on  a party-line vote approved in March a bill that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. It now goes to the state House of Representatives for consideration and if passed, probably will be signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott.

The  legislation was co-authored by Republican senator Mayes Middleton, who following the vote claimed "our schools are not God-free zones. We are a state and nation built on 'in God we Trust. Litigious atheists are no longer going to get to decide for everyone else if students and educators exercise their religious liberties during school hours."

However Texas was founded, its leaders on March 2, 1861 evidently took a break from their commitment to the Almighty when the state seceded from the Union in its God-fearing effort to maintain their right to own other human beings. The motto "In God We Trust" was placed on coins during the Civil War but was omitted when the coins were redesigned a few decades later. It did not reappear until 1956 amidst an alliance of conservative businessmen and Protestant clergymen embarked on a "faith, freedom, and free enterprise" crusade. Even GOP legislators in Texas ought to know that 1956 was some 180 years after the nation's founding.

A similar bill passed the Texas senate in was 2023 and was being considered by the House Public Education Committee when a portion of the hearing, the questioning of bill sponsor Candy Noble, was posted by Democratic Representative James Talarico.

Texas Republicans are trying to force public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

I told the bill author: “This bill is not only un-constitutional and un-American, it’s deeply un-Christian.” #txlege pic.twitter.com/TI7TmGvIKM

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) May 3, 2023

Talarico currently is enrolled in the Master of Divinity Program at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in the USA, the nation's dominant- and relatively liberal- Presbyterian sect. According to the LGBTQIA+ organ PRIDE, Talarico quoted Scripture. Then drawing upon the Apostle James, he stated "A religion that hs to force people to put up a poster to prove its legitimacy is a dead religion, and it's not one I want to be a part of. It's not one I am a part of."

A divinity student is capable of a more complex and nuanced reading of Scripture, though any challenge to the professed and questionable religious faith of the proponents of such a bill should be welcome. More profoundly and significantly, Talarico added (emphasis his)

Every time on this committee that we try to reach students values like empathy or kindness, we're told we can't because that's the parent's role. Every time on this committee that we try to teach basic sex education to keep our kids safe, we're told that's the parent's role but now you're putting religious commandments- literal commandments- in our class room, and you're saying that's the state's role. Why is that not the parent's role? 

Good question? No- great question.

It's a great question not only because it cuts to the core of right-wing hypocrisy. It also points the way toward the proper balance between church and state, and between parents and the public school. Immediately before he made that remark, Talarico asked Noble "do you believe schools are for education and not indoctrination?" After Noble answered "absolutely," Talarico stated "I guess what I'm trying to figure out is why is having a rainbow in a classroom is indoctrination and not having the Ten Commandments in a classroom."

Having the Ten Commandments in a classroom is indoctrination. So, too, is having a rainbow in a classroom (except as representation of an optical phenomenon). Recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance falls into the same category.

Each is a form of indoctrination. Yet, there is a critical difference setting one apart from the other two. Of "from many, one," historian Thomas A. Foster noted

Although “In God We Trust” is the official motto, “E Pluribus Unum” has long been acknowledged as a de facto national motto. After all, it is on the Great Seal of the United States, which was adopted in 1782. Moreover, in the 1770s and ’80s Congress opposed a theistic motto for the nation, and many of the founders worked hard to prevent one from being established.

It is not government's role to promote a religion, or religion, especially among children in a classroom. Nor is it government's role to prevail upon children the official perspective on gender or sexuality, except through implementation of wise public policy.

As diversity among public school students grows, there will be more children of families which do not practice Christianity or claim a Judeo-Christian heritage. Some of these students, because of their faith parental influence, and/or other factors, will not accept the dominant mentality of the day toward LGBTQ+ issues. So be it.

Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance also is indoctrination, yet an indoctrination of a different sort, and necessary. As time marches on and the world continues to flatten, there will be more students who were not born in this country or whose parents were not born here. But now they are Americans- or if not, should be encouraged to become Americans. They are heirs, all of them, to a great historical tradition: of a nation birthed not of a people but of an idea, "flawed in execution but pure in spirit," enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  It's more difficult to foster that idea than ever. It is also more important.

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