(SRN NEWS/AP/97.5 Glory FM) – Conservative lawmakers across the country are pushing to introduce more Christianity to public school classrooms, testing the separation of church and state by inserting Bible references into reading lessons and requiring teachers to post the Ten Commandments. And they have at least one member of the Hall County state legislative delegation in their corner.
The efforts come as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office pledging to champion praying and reading the Bible in school, practices that are already allowed as long as they are not government-sponsored.
Speaking with 97.5 Glory FM’s Mike Wofford Friday on Community Forum, State Rep. Emory Dunahoo mentioned the Ten Commandants near the outset of the program as being among his top priorities when the legislature is gaveled into session Monday.
“We’re working on putting the Ten Commandments in every school, and that gives the opportunity for teachers to put them up in the classrooms,” Dunahoo said. The veteran lawmaker who is entering his 14th year in the legislature said another possibility would be to have them posted at the main entrance to schools.
This push to incorporate more Christianity into the mainstream public schools that serve the overwhelming majority of students, including those of other faiths, has found favor already from some judicial appointees from President-elect Donald Trump’s first presidential term, as courts have begun to bless the notion of more religion in the public sphere, including in schools.
But there are those who are firmly against this.
“The effect of even Trump being the president-elect, let alone the president again, is Christian nationalists are emboldened like never before,” said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Large numbers of Americans believe the founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation. A smaller group, part of a movement widely called Christian nationalism, champions a fusion of American and Christian identity and believes the U.S. has a mandate to build an explicitly Christian society.
Many historians argue the opposite, claiming the framers created the United States as an alternative to European monarchies with official state churches and oppression of religious minorities.
“And a lot of people will argue that ‘well, no, we’d have to put (references to all faiths in there) if we put the Bible or God’s law (in the schools’ but no. This nation was founded on Christian principles, and we need to get back to the ground and the foundation of how this country and this state (were founded),” Dunahoo said.
Efforts to introduce more Christianity into classrooms have already taken hold in several states.
In Louisiana, Republicans passed a law requiring every public school classroom to post the Ten Commandments, which begin with “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Families have sued.
In Texas, officials in November approved a curriculum intertwining language arts with biblical lessons. And in Oklahoma, the state superintendent of education has called for lessons to incorporate the Bible from grades 5 through 12, a requirement schools have declined to follow.
Utah state lawmakers designated the Ten Commandments as a historic document, in the same category as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, so teachers could post it in their classrooms. Many other states have seen legislation that would put them in more classrooms. And attorneys general from 17 GOP-led states recently filed a brief supporting Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate.
Schools are permitted — and even encouraged — to teach about religion and to expose students to religious texts. But some say the new measures are indoctrinating students, not educating them.
Equal Protection Act again. That’s our pro-life 100% bill.
00:03:07 Speaker 1
Where life starts at conception.
several more. I’m looking at this terrible, terrible.
00:03:38 Speaker 1
Tax bill that we put in several years ago on vehicles where you go buy a car, you have to pay
this 7%.
00:03:46 Speaker 1
Tax. And with that, if you sell it two years, you got to pay 7% again.
00:03:52 Speaker 1
And if you sell it two years to another person, it’s 7%, which is criminal.
00:03:57 Speaker 1
So I’m trying to work and open the door with that that if you’re leasing a car, you don’t pay it
twice and then eventually work toward after you pay it. You should be done with it. But I think
that’s going to be an uphill battle because no matter.
00:04:13 Speaker 1
It is.
00:04:14 Speaker 1
Government likes to always have that extra money coming in.
However, we bring a lot of industry in here from other liberal States and they bring a lot of liberal
employees and with that, that’s why Georgia is slowly, slowly working toward turning purple.
00:07:15 Speaker 1
And that’s the concern right there.
They’re trying working around the corner to do away with this 70 year old exemption because
they feel like that’s the people that have all the money.
00:09:57 Speaker 1
And you’re penalizing the younger people. If you exempt people that are 70, which to me is
ridiculous.
00:10:04 Speaker 1
Forsyth County, 65, and you know we need to give the taxpayer a break.
00:10:11 Speaker 1
As long as I’m there, I will fight.
00:10:13 Speaker 1
In fact, I made a comment. If we have enough people try to do away with a 70 year old
exemption, I’ll rent billboards.
00:10:21 Speaker 1
I’ll spend money to make sure that we know who.
00:10:24 Speaker 1
Who was the ones that brought it?
00:10:26 Speaker 1
But one of the main things of course 10 commandments. Putting that in our school systems and
then coming back on the Equal Protection Act that I have.
00:18:06 Speaker 1
There, plus the biggest thing that I’ve been pushing for two years, because before I leave office,
we need to understand.
00:18:15 Speaker 1
That murders murder and the unborn child has been murdered for so many years and has done
nothing wrong.
00:18:22 Speaker 1
If there’s a female that’s pregnant, someone shoots her.
00:18:26 Speaker 1
Dies the child.
00:18:28 Speaker 1
That person is charged for two murders.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
However, we allow women to go in and abort and murder the unborn child just because it’s an
inconvenience and these are the things that it’s time to take a stand. If we call ourselves
conservative Republicans that we do that.
00:18:46 Speaker 1
That we basically take the sample. What’s right, not worry about the handful of people that are
going to say we’ll run somebody against you.
00:18:55 Speaker 1
You will be beat because of your stand. We did stand for what’s right, and I have too many of
my colleagues are scared to death that if they vote for something like this, somebody will run
against them and somebody will beat them. That’s wrong.
00:19:08 Speaker 1
Here to do what’s right for the people.
00:19:11 Speaker 1
And we’re here to obey God’s law. Believe it or not. And a lot of people will argue that.
00:19:17 Speaker 1
Well, no, we’d have to put everybody in there. If we put the Bible or God’s law, no.
00:19:24 Speaker 1
This nation was founded on Christian principles and we need to get back to the ground.
00:19:29 Speaker 1
And the foundation of how this country in this state.