Ten Commandments In Public Classrooms
- jamesrcarlson
- Jun 21
- 2 min read
By James Carlson
It is very legal to put the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms despite recent rulings on a Louisiana Law. All that needs to be done is to present the Ten Commandments as one document among many documents that represent an important aspect of American history. This allows the Courts to remain neutral in their view of religion and state where they usually side with the sectarian views of religious atheists to prevent God from being anywhere in or near public education.
Inherent within public education is a combination of religion and state. This fact of history is no where more obvious than in Everson vs. Board of Education in 1947. This is a case where the Supreme Court in majority opinion ruled that the Wall of Separation between religion and state must be maintained High and Impregnable. No where is that found in the Constitution or in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. The myth of separation is the Everson Decision; Jefferson got it right but Everson got it wrong.
The solution to the problem is clear. No Preference should not be given to one mode of religious worship over another. This was Jefferson’s practice in his Presidency and it was practiced for 150 years before the 1947 Everson decision about public education. Again, Jefferson got it right, Everson got it wrong, and No Preference will return us to a right foundation; No Preference will make it right again.
The Ten Commandments do not represent one religion as Jews, Christians, and Muslims of all sects respect it as the Law of God given to Moses. The Ten Commandments are perfectly non-sectarian and No Preference as a rule for religion and state activities means the state isn’t preferring one religion over another but the state is standing up in favor of religious freedom. Children may even reflect upon the Ten Commandments and practice them but who would object to that?
So the history of religious freedom goes right through the Ten Commandments. This is pointed out in a little booklet (see below) that connects the documents and portraits of people in the poster presented above and below. And there is legal scholarship provided that allows anyone to put this mosaic of documents into a public school classroom and hang it on the wall for all to see. This then provides a legitimate wall of separation between religion and state as we take a stand for religious freedom; not the right of anti-religious propaganda as a sectarian goal of secular rationalism (in violation of the No Establishment clause).