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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.

The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.

The law also “authorizes” — but does not require — the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.

Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has had success in making the bills law.

Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.

Louisiana’s controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in the state under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January.

The GOP also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    8 days ago

    THOU SHALL NOT KILL

    Remind me again, how many people did the state of Louisiana execute last year?

  • jared@mander.xyz
    cake
    ·
    8 days ago

    Reading through them really brings it home that I've never met a real Christian.

    • plinky [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      that's old testament even. under new testament, unless you are selling your earthly possesions to help the poor, you are not exactly following the christ. Poor fisherman in palestine had more faith in christ than all those theocrats. Also charging interest is a sin, good luck with that in usa

      • Adkml [he/him]
        ·
        8 days ago

        Eating shellfish is mentioned immediatly after and on the same level as homesexuality.

        Then wearing clothing of mixed fabrics was right after that.

        Don't even get me started on the period shacks.

        • D61 [any]
          ·
          8 days ago

          homesexuality

          fidel-wut Do not.. and I say again, Do not, have sex with your house.

        • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          8 days ago

          Everyone is all "oh man all the prohibitions against these foods make sense though" but then there's this mixed fabric shit

          The bible warned against parasites but only in the same way that a broken clock is occasionally right

        • glans [it/its]
          ·
          8 days ago

          What does it say about homosexuality?

          Are you thinking about a man wearing the clothes of a woman and vice versa for that is an abomination?

          • radiofreeval [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            8 days ago

            Leviticus 20:13 new living translation

            If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.

    • CommunistBear [he/him]
      ·
      8 days ago

      I've long maintained that there might be like 6 actual Christians in the entire US. The vast majority of the rest of them seem to be Satanists but not in the fun/cool way

  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    8 days ago

    first amendment is just so much wet paper. political power grows out of the barrel of a gun

      • Dolores [love/loves]
        ·
        8 days ago

        their secularism's been pared down to a chauvinistic tool, proud history but toothless unless its bullying muslims.

        need that hardcore state atheism soviet style, even China does not go far enough

        • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          8 days ago

          Oh definitely. The original idea was great but now it’s just used as a cudgel to beat on non-white people.

          In other news, Marxist-leninists are right again about state atheism

        • RyanGosling [none/use name]
          ·
          8 days ago

          need that hardcore state atheism soviet style

          You mean the type that repressed religious people even if their practices were pro-soviet, and then everyone just pretended to be atheists then immediately praised Jeebus after 1991 because they never actually ditched their beliefs?

          • Dolores [love/loves]
            ·
            8 days ago

            repressed religious people even if their practices were pro-soviet

            this is just dishonest, why won't anyone think of the vanishingly small minorities inside of a rotten institution dedicated to the oppression of women and the restoration of the tsar???

            people "returning" to the church after the collapse were not closeted believers from before the revolution, the supervised church during the union had a constituency and it expanded when state-based social services fell off. we don't need to resort to a psychological history of universal taqiyya to explain clear material causes and effects

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        8 days ago

        France is currently trying to ban Muslim children from going to school so clearly something went awry

  • Breath_Of_The_Snake [they/them, comrade/them]M
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    This is blatantly unconstitutional,not that that actually has any real meaning, but either way I can’t wait to troll some “small c conservatives” with this.

    • PKMKII [none/use name]
      ·
      8 days ago

      Even with the conservative tilt of the court, there’s no way this survives a legal challenge. It just opens up too many cans of worms to allow any religion’s holy text to be displayed on public. Cultural conservatives balk at the idea of opening that up to Jews, Muslims, etc., and the true powers that be see the religious stuff as bread and circuses for the rubes.

  • mar_k [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's... manservant, nor his maidservant

    this was originally referring to slaves wasn't it

    edit: *is referring to slaves

  • AFineWayToDie [he/him]
    ·
    8 days ago

    If they're gonna put the Ten Commandments in schools, they also have to include all those rules from the same books about which colour bugs you're allowed to eat and how to properly bathe your mother-in-law. Anything less will probably incur God's wrath.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        8 days ago

        Yeah that's not true, Louisiana is mostly protestant. It's had the national average of Catholics (around 21%) for decades now.

        I think Louisiana just has larger numbers of white Catholics than other states.

        • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          8 days ago

          Oh come on... of course, it doesn't change my main point, but it makes me damn this country for its WASP identity further more, even if the Catholics there support this theocratic decision...

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            8 days ago

            Yeah American Catholics are largely distinct based on race and income from what I've noticed. Wealthy white Catholics have basically nothing in common with poor Latino Catholics other than supposedly the same religion

            • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              8 days ago

              I think that's the reason why I can forgive a lotta Catholics, cuz a lot of them are likely from the Global South and not that wealthy, while not being the same with Protestants (Protestantism and Western Ideology have now intertwined in my mind to hell)

              That being said, I may give too much benefit of the doubt to them....

  • RION [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

    Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.

    Did he sign it or not, sara??

    (it has since been edited to show that he did actually sign the bill)

  • M68040 [they/them]
    ·
    8 days ago

    It's a shame a lot of the NuAtheists ended up breaking right because I can relate with wanting to irritate the shit out of these people at every possible opportunity

      • M68040 [they/them]
        ·
        8 days ago

        Yeah, it's interesting. I was just kind of a RationalWiki type then so I already kind of broke left, mostly just seems like it's some of the bigger figures that broke right?

        I hear TJ ended up leaning more into the left politics. Not sure about that, though, haven't really thought of the guy in a while.

        • Thallo [she/her, he/him]
          ·
          8 days ago

          Lmao TJ.

          There's surely a picture of him in the dictionary next to the word "Reddit Atheist"

  • Adkml [he/him]
    ·
    8 days ago

    Even setting aside how fucked up the christo fascism is would love to hear chuds explain to kids why keep the lords day holy doesn't apply to working in a meat packing plant on weekends and why "thou shall not kill" doesn't apply to any of the people you're supposed to hate.

    • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
      ·
      7 days ago

      It's for people who pretend to worship an almighty god as a vector for dominating people with godless capitalism and nationalism. The "love thy neighbor" shit gets tossed at the first convenience.

  • Vampire [any]
    ·
    8 days ago

    1st commandment sounds mire like henotheism than monotheism to me. Discuss.

    • Munrock@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      8 days ago

      Church and State will still be seperated; they're just doing a little gerrymandering. Education is church now.

  • Dingus_Khan [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    8 days ago

    "The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities"

    Put it in Arabic or Cyrillic script, take it to the courts

  • duderium [he/him]
    ·
    8 days ago

    I’m kind of divided about this because I was once hardcore coveting my neighbor’s cattle but once I read the Ten Commandments I decided to just go to church every Sunday instead.