Bill to Force Schools to Display Ten Commandments Fails

[kpete]

“A push to inject religion into public schools across Texas faltered on Tuesday after the State House failed to pass a contentious bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every classroom,” the New York Times reports.

“The measure was part of an effort by conservative Republicans in the Legislature to expand the reach of religion into the daily life of public schools.”

https://politicalwire.com/2023/05/24/bill-to-force-schools-to-display-ten-commandments-fails/

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Wow!

That’s good news!

[tanyev]

2. Hey, maybe if the Ten Commandments were displayed in Mar-a-Lago,

Donny would finally become a law-abiding person. Republican logic…..

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. Why?

The guy who needs to observe them can't read them.

[mackdaddy]

21. TFG would just see it as a 'To Do List'.

And one that he has checked off every line.

[TeamProg]

32. +1

[geardaddy]

40. DUzy!

[Angleae]

51. Like he hasn't done everything on that list already (and probably multiple times)

[underpants]

3. I'm used to pandering but this is another level

An unconstitutional level

[LoisB]

4. This is surprising but good.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

5. The Ten Commandmenets have NO place in Public Schools.

If parents want religious symbols displayed, display them at HOME or send kids to a PRIVATE Religious school on your own dime. Not with Tax payer dollars.

[Hotler]

13. +1 nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. They deserve to be mentioned in History class. (only mentioned) . . nt

[HUAJIAO]

16. Why?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Ten C form a common core of the Abraham religions (JCM) which have had huge impact on history. nt

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

53. LOL

What utter rot. Few cared about them at all until quite recently.

In the US, nobody cared about them until the school prayer revocation in 1962. That's when the evangelitwits lost what little minds they had and got their knickers in a twist to do anything to force their cult back into schools.

Anyway, it would be stupid to include the 10Cs because well, first of all, they're not unique at all, except in how many of them are either stupid or unConstitutional. Surely you realize that the first five are blatantly unConstitutional, and only three of the remainder (lying{perjury}, theft and murder) have any actual legal standing. The others, nobody enforces (adultery) or gives a crap about (coveting).

I mean, really, imagine anyone trying to create laws against coveting in a capitalist country.

I could use the laugh.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

60. You seem to think the last 50 years of US history is all that counts & world history is useless. nt

[sakabatou]

42. It was mentioned as part of my social studies class.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

54. Then your social studies teacher was stupid

Because they've had little to do with forming law anywhere. They're not unique; long before the big book of bad ideas came along, societies had taboos against murder and thievery, and societies everywhere that have never followed the christian cult have such laws on the books.

But it gets worse for those stupid "commandments."

Most modern countries have laws or constitutions that explicitly make the first five illegal. In America alone, the First Amendment says that we can have other gods (or none), we can say whatever we please about any deity, we can worship false idols (or none) if we want, we can choose not to honor the sabbath if we don't want, and we don't have to honor our parents if they've done F F'n all to deserve it.

Two others either aren't against the law at all (coveting) or aren't enforced in what few localities where laws exist about it (adultery).

So they're worse than useless. They're a waste of any sane person's time or attention.

[sakabatou]

55. It was part of comparative religion while studying the near east

There were other religions that were looked into, such a Buddhism and Shinto.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

61. If you knew a little more about history you wouldn't write "little to do with forming law".

If you studied world history a little bit more you'd know the point is not about "forming law".

[Bernardo de La Paz]

62. You seem to have a narrow idea of studying them in school

I specifically did not write "studying them".

I specifically did write "mentioning them" and then went on to talk about impact.

But you seem to have misread what I tried to clearly state. Why is that?

[Silent3]

6. Good thing too, because this SCOTUS would have let the law stand

I expect, however, tons more of the shit is on the way, pushing for a SCOTUS case that will greenlight forced Christianity everywhere.

[Walleye]

7. Are they afraid that God will know they voted against it and they will go to hell because of it

I mean they have churches that are tax free can’t they get this done in church on Sunday or evenings or whatever. The desire for religious dictatorship will never be satisfied no matter how many 10 Commandments they put up in classrooms

[Happy Hoosier]

8. Are they beginnin to read the tea leaves?

We'll see. The old school conservatives I know are NOT comfortable with this religious push.

[usaf-vet]

39. This might be old old news. When I was on the local school board for several terms in the 90s....

.... it was common knowledge that Texas drove the school textbooks nationwide. Texas was the home for most of the textbook companies, and even then, we started to see the context shift to right-leaning agenda.

At the same time, we were being warned that there was a national push the get rightwing supporters to get involved in politics and run for local bodies that had influence. Library boards, church boards, county fair boards, school boards, township boards, city councils, state legislators, and national offices, etc, etc, etc.

And now here we are 30+ years later, and so many controlling bodies are being run by the POORLY educated kids that are now STUPID "adult leaders" (LOL) that my grandfather used to say couldn't think their way out of a paper bag.

[mopinko]

48. texas was home to the gablers. there may have been publishers there,

but several of the big 1s r here in illinois. it’s just that they were the biggest market in the country, so they went after them. so it had to pass muster w a couple of kooks w a big megaphone. 1 couple ended up controlling what most kids learned.
in those days, there were only a few choices, unlike today.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. This was due to good procedural tactics by Democrats, not Republicans coming to their senses

The Ten Commandments bill, known as Senate Bill 1515, similarly passed smoothly through the State Senate, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a hard-right Republican, holds enormous power. He praised the bill as “one step we can take to make sure that all Texans have the right to freely express their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

But after going to the Texas House, the legislation faced a problem common in the Republican-dominated Legislature, which meets once every two years and whose members this session introduced more than 8,000 pieces of proposed legislation: deadlines in the legislative calendar.

Tuesday was the final day for the House to pass bills. As Republicans rushed to do so, Democrats, who wield little direct power, delayed the proceedings by speaking at length and repeatedly at every opportunity for much of the day, a process known in the Texas Capitol as “chubbing.”

By doing so, they prevented the Ten Commandments bill — and many other contentious measures placed late in the day’s calendar — from coming up for a vote.

“This bill was an unconstitutional attack on our core liberties, and we are happy it failed,” David Donatti, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said in a statement. “The First Amendment guarantees families and faith communities — not politicians or the government — the right to instill religious beliefs in their children.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/us/texas-ten-commandments-legislature.html

[CaptainTruth]

30. Thanks!

[chia]

57. Helpful context, thank you. Well done, TX Dems!

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Found these in the comments section of the OP link:

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. +6

[chia]

58. All of those are excellent but that last one is so MAGA

[Wounded Bear]

12. K & R...nt

[Sympthsical]

14. Felt like a bid to revisit McCreary v. ACLU

When the Ten Commandments were banned in classrooms. That was a 5-4 vote at the time.

[IronLionZion]

19. Yes establish a state religion to show how different we are from Islamic theocracies

glad that red state schools are so different from madrassahs. Better ban some more books before any students learn what that means.

[DownriverDem]

20. Excellent

I am totally against this. However if something like this became law all religions should be represented. repub Christians would go insane then.

[Rebl2]

22. Good

Display it at church, your home, private school, but it doesn’t belong in public schools.

[Evolve Dammit]

23. Thank God

[ashredux]

24. The GOP realized, if kids read them and lived by the 10 Commandments,.....

How would you ever get them elected to Congress if they couldn’t cheat steal or lie?

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Except this was blocked by Democrats running out the clock, not by Republicans thinking

They are still set on creating a state religion.

[Liberal In Texas]

28. Yes, kudos have to be given to the Dems in the Lege for doing battle

up until the last minute. They're a minority party but they fight like hell.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

56. More utter rot

Nobody lives the first five moronic rules because it's literally against the law to make anyone conform to them in any sane country today. That includes the US, where those first five are blatantly in violation of the Constitution. Tell me I have to worship that deity, or that I can't blaspheme the psychopath sky daddy, or can't worship false idols, or have to honor the sabbath or have to honor my POS father or idiot mother, when they don't deserve it?

I bloody well dare you to try to force any of those stupid rules on me.

As for the rest? If there were even a social taboo about coveting, the entire world economy would collapse. Only an idiot could think capitalism isn't built on coveting.

Adultery is frowned upon in even non-Abrahamic countries for reasons outside of that stupid rule about it, but it doesn't often translate into laws or enforcement. Even where laws against it exist in liberal democracies, it's hardly ever enforced.

That leaves three rules to follow about lying, thievery and murder, and even these aren't iron-clad. The rich can rob the poor, and face few if any consequences for it. Outside of perjury, there are few laws about lying to anyone else--so it goes on all the bloody time. Even murder isn't iron-clad, because we have mitigating laws separating out kinds of killing (manslaughter vs capital), and it's obviously okay for states to kill for capital punishment. Even the book creating that bloody commandment about murder goes on to support multiple instances of murder in the rest of the book, like the hypocrites they are.

So what bloody use are those stupid rules, anyway?

[Farmer-Rick]

26. Wait a minute

All the Christians I know tell me that the laws of the Old Testament don't apply like: not eating shell fish, or not wearing garments of mixed materials, or stoning to death your son if he disobeys you, or stoning to death married women who have affairs.

They don't apply because Jesus came...not sure the logic behind that. But anyway, Christians say they don't have to brutally murder their children or former spouses, nor stop eating delicious seafood, thanks to Jesus.

But aren't the 10 commandments laws from the Old Testament too? Shouldn't real Christians stop following the 10 commandments because Jesus? They really don't know what they do.

[murielm99]

27. Will they have a colander displayed in every classroom,

to support the Pastafarians?

[LiberalFighter]

29. It doesn't say much about religion when they try to force it on everyone.

[Johnny2X2X]

31. The 10 commandments are a joke

And offer very little in the way of guidance for people.

ABsically don't kill, steal, or lie which you don't need a commandment for. The rest are nonsense about god being ereally insecure and not wanting things.

[TeamProg]

33. FAILED THIS TIME.. NT

[Deep State Witch]

34. Let's Start With

"Thou Shalt Not Kill."

[Marthe48]

36. That's probably going to be a stopper

As r's don't recognize that it is a sin to kill (except in war, or for God)

[samsingh]

35. do conservatives actually believe in the 10 Commandments?

it would be fantastic if they did.

[Lonestarblue]

37. Did the legislature use the Ten Commandments bill to keep attention away from another bill?

This bill passed and it targets democratic Harris County by eliminating a nonpartisan election position and giving the legislature the right to take over the election on flimsy accusations of mismanagement. All position targeted are currently held by black citizens, so not an accident that these were targeted. The new law applies only to counties with a population greater than 4 million. Harris County is the only one in Texas with that population and with the largest percentage of black residents in the state. Discrimination at its best now that the Roberts court gutted the Voting Rights Act.

[Upthevibe]

38. kpete...........

Thank you for posting....

[CCExile]

41. God, I hate

Texas Republicans with the heat of a thousand suns. I hope they all get shingles.

[DFW]

49. Your sentiment is shared by over five million Texas Democrats n/t

[Skittles]

52. kidney stones with antlers

yes INDEED

[OMGWTF]

43. Christians can go F themselves with a cross.

I am so sick of their BS. Their Buybull wouldn’t stand up in any court of law as evidence of anything.

Religion destroyed my family so excuse me if I have a bad attitude.

[NotVeryImportant]

44. Do we know who stopped this from passing?

We're talking about a mega-rightwing state here, aren't we?

[DFW]

50. Yes, we do. Texas Democrats

Not an extinct species, despite many erroneous reports to the contrary.

[Paladin]

45. I'm genuinely surprised. (nt)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

46. Good

[LetMyPeopleVote]

47. Yeah

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

59. good