Louisiana’s 10 Commandments Law Marks a Critical Step Toward Christian Nationalism
Pretty soon, public school students in Louisiana, from kindergarten up through college, will see the Ten Commandments displayed in every classroom — math, science, even gym. That’s because of a new ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country.
On Feb. 20, the federal appellate court reversed a June decision that had called the 2024 Louisiana law requiring displays of the religious texts in all public school classrooms “plainly unconstitutional” and allowed for a temporary block on the law.
Sophie Bjork-James is an anthropologist and an expert on the religious right and Christian nationalism. She says that the Ten Commandments going up in Louisiana schools is not only a win that shows how much power Christian nationalists are acquiring, it is also a step towards further shifting the country to the right by educating children on Christianity.
“Within Christian nationalism they would see [the recent ruling] as a victory and a step toward changing public education to become Christian,” says Bjork-James. “Which they see as a moral imperative to make the country more in line with their vision of what God wants.”
SINCE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS BELIEVE THAT Christianity is a fundamental part of the founding of the U.S., many challenge the narrative that religious freedom means the separation of church and state. (These claims are often fervently challenged by constitutional and historical experts.) Additionally, Christian nationalists often go as far as saying all moral problems stem from a lack of public Christianity.
“Evangelicals have produced a significant amount of content that tells the story of America as one that is blessed by God, has a divine relationship with God and centers Christianity,” she says. “[They see] the idea that there is supposed to be a separation of church and state as a farce, a lie. And while most historians would refute this, they see [Christianity in school] as going back to the country’s origins.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has publicly espoused these sorts of views. “The Supreme Court got it wrong about the separation of church and state,” he told me in 2024. “The Ten Commandments are the fabric of civilization and you’re telling me, we can’t hang them in school?”
He also told a reporter that if the Ten Commandments had been displayed in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump in July 2024.
Bjork-James ties this back to the decimation of abortion rights. One of the pillars of the Christian right for years has been opposing abortion, and when the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, it gave Christian nationalism a big win. “Dobbs was such a huge success for them that it freed up some political attention to expand and experiment with what else they can achieve.”
MELISSA DECKMAN IS THE CEO OF THE PUBLIC Religion Research Institute, which recently released a new map analyzing the spread of Christian nationalism in the country. PRRI asked Americans about their belief systems and found that one third of Americans hold views that would qualify as Christian nationalist. The organization also found that a majority of Republicans (56 percent) ascribe to Christian nationalism.
“There’s been a prolonged movement by conservative Christians to influence the curriculum of America’s classrooms,” says Deckman. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court banned school prayer and mandatory Bible readings from public school. “You had a Supreme Court that was far more likely to rule against what they saw as an encroachment of the state violating the establishment clause. Conservative Christians felt that the liberal court was removing God from classrooms.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/po...235523171/
Pretty soon, public school students in Louisiana, from kindergarten up through college, will see the Ten Commandments displayed in every classroom — math, science, even gym. That’s because of a new ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country.
On Feb. 20, the federal appellate court reversed a June decision that had called the 2024 Louisiana law requiring displays of the religious texts in all public school classrooms “plainly unconstitutional” and allowed for a temporary block on the law.
Sophie Bjork-James is an anthropologist and an expert on the religious right and Christian nationalism. She says that the Ten Commandments going up in Louisiana schools is not only a win that shows how much power Christian nationalists are acquiring, it is also a step towards further shifting the country to the right by educating children on Christianity.
“Within Christian nationalism they would see [the recent ruling] as a victory and a step toward changing public education to become Christian,” says Bjork-James. “Which they see as a moral imperative to make the country more in line with their vision of what God wants.”
SINCE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS BELIEVE THAT Christianity is a fundamental part of the founding of the U.S., many challenge the narrative that religious freedom means the separation of church and state. (These claims are often fervently challenged by constitutional and historical experts.) Additionally, Christian nationalists often go as far as saying all moral problems stem from a lack of public Christianity.
“Evangelicals have produced a significant amount of content that tells the story of America as one that is blessed by God, has a divine relationship with God and centers Christianity,” she says. “[They see] the idea that there is supposed to be a separation of church and state as a farce, a lie. And while most historians would refute this, they see [Christianity in school] as going back to the country’s origins.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has publicly espoused these sorts of views. “The Supreme Court got it wrong about the separation of church and state,” he told me in 2024. “The Ten Commandments are the fabric of civilization and you’re telling me, we can’t hang them in school?”
He also told a reporter that if the Ten Commandments had been displayed in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump in July 2024.
Bjork-James ties this back to the decimation of abortion rights. One of the pillars of the Christian right for years has been opposing abortion, and when the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, it gave Christian nationalism a big win. “Dobbs was such a huge success for them that it freed up some political attention to expand and experiment with what else they can achieve.”
MELISSA DECKMAN IS THE CEO OF THE PUBLIC Religion Research Institute, which recently released a new map analyzing the spread of Christian nationalism in the country. PRRI asked Americans about their belief systems and found that one third of Americans hold views that would qualify as Christian nationalist. The organization also found that a majority of Republicans (56 percent) ascribe to Christian nationalism.
“There’s been a prolonged movement by conservative Christians to influence the curriculum of America’s classrooms,” says Deckman. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court banned school prayer and mandatory Bible readings from public school. “You had a Supreme Court that was far more likely to rule against what they saw as an encroachment of the state violating the establishment clause. Conservative Christians felt that the liberal court was removing God from classrooms.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/po...235523171/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
