Judge pushed enactment of law to display religious code until November in response to parents’ suit

Judge pushed enactment of law to display religious code until November in response to parents’ suit

A federal judge blocked Louisiana from posting the Ten Commandments in public schools until November after parents from five districts sued the state over the law.

In a brief ruling Friday, district court judge John deGravelles said that the parents and the state agreed that the Ten Commandments will not be posted in any public school classroom before 15 November. The state also agreed to not “promulgate advice, rules or regulations regarding proper implementation of the challenged statute”.

The state’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed into law last month a bill that requires all classrooms, in K-12 public schools and colleges, to have Ten Commandments posters with “large, easily readable font”. The state is also requiring a four-paragraph “context statement” about how the commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries”.

Soon after the bill was signed, a coalition of parents, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups, sued the state saying the bill violates the first amendment.

  • Flying Squid
    70•2 months ago

    I’m honestly really surprised that Catholics in this country aren’t going apeshit about Louisiana mandating that the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments be displayed.

    • Em Adespoton
      24•2 months ago

      The Bible contains two summaries of the ten commandments. Unsurprisingly, what Louisiana wants to put up on a poster is not a literal translation of either of them. Catholics tend to use an interpretation that doesn’t include “no graven images.”

      Two tellings of the Ten Commandments in the Bible are Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:1-21.

      Note that there’s stuff in there for many Catholics to be unhappy about (carved images, taking the lord’s name in vain) and many protestants (telling children about adultery, observing the sabbath, not coveting, not bearing false witness).

      But those commandments are a small part of the Jewish Mosaic law; Christians are supposed to override that with “love God” and “love the people around you, even those who your social clique shuns” along with “it’s not enough to not do the commandments; if you catch yourself contemplating breaking them in your head, stop doing it.”

      • Flying Squid
        19•2 months ago

        There’s also only one set of laws the Bible itself says are called the ten commandments and it’s not either of those. In fact, it’s the laws Moses wrote after getting pissed off at the idolaters and decided the first set weren’t explicit enough about what his god did not want people to doing.

        To make it clear: no yeast in blood sacrifices and don’t boil a baby goat in its mothers milk. Or else.

        https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus 34&version=NIV

        (Note that the Old Testament doesn’t really make it clear what the ‘or else’ is going to be in your own case, just that God is a big mean motherfucker and you don’t want to get on his bad side.)

        • teft
          7•2 months ago

          God is a big mean motherfucker

          That’s the understatement of the year if we’re talking about Yahweh. That dude fucked shit up.

        • @[email protected]English
          6•2 months ago

          This is the best 10 Commandments.

          I’m pretty sure I’ve never boiled a baby goat in mothers’ milk!

          • @MutilationWave
            8•2 months ago

            Ever had a cheeseburger? Kind of the same thing. In fact Jewish people are not permitted to eat them based on this exact line.

            • @[email protected]English
              2•2 months ago

              But we’re not eating goat mince and goat milk.

              And from what little I know of Judaism, exploiting technical loopholes are the goal.

              • @MutilationWave
                1•2 months ago

                They’re all about those loopholes. Which were designed by god to be figured out. Still can’t keep kosher on a cheeseburger.

    • John Richard
      12•2 months ago

      Is there a different version by the Catholic church? I thought they were all the same. Where is the Church of Satan in all this? Wouldn’t this open up the door to posting other religious texts in schools as well?