Some facts about the Ten Commandments that Louisiana really should have looked up before forcing public schools to display them in classrooms. A thread.🧵
The text of the Louisiana law actually specifies a state-sanctioned version of God's holy writ. It begins “I AM the LORD thy God. Thou shall have no other gods before me.”
The point of this bill is to give the false impression that America is a Christian nation. That's Christian Nationalism.
Don't believe me? Just ask the law's sponsor, Rep. Dodie Horton: “I'm not concerned with an atheist. I'm not concerned with a Muslim. I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is,” she said, explaining why she proposed the bill. nola.com/news/education…
Christian Nationalism is un-American. In fact, this display in public schools is un-American.
The first commandment, “I am the Lord your God … You shall have no other gods before me,” directly conflicts with the principles on which the United States was founded.
No law—and this would be a law—can tell an American to worship a god, let alone which god. Americans are free to be godless (as a growing number are), or, if they wish, to worship every god from every holy book.
The commandments would prohibit free expression and art by outlawing the creation of graven images.
These commandments would prohibit free speech by making it illegal to take the Lord’s name in vain.
These commandments would, per the 10th commandment, criminalize thought (potentially condoning slavery and treating women as chattel as it does so).
While I've referred to these as numbered commandments (i.e., “tenth commandment.”) That's wrong.
A standardized version of the Ten Commandments lives in the American psyche thanks to Cecil B. DeMille, but there is no single agreed-upon “10 Commandments.”
Indeed, in any single bible one can find four different sets of commandments. Exodus 20 and 34. Deut. 5 and 27.
Then there are dozens of different English translations of bibles and thousands of translations into other languages that render the commandments differently.
And these inter-biblical differences are often more consequential than they first seem. For instance, the New Revised Standard Version of Exodus 20:4 prohibits “idols” while the King James Version prohibits “graven images.”
This discrepancy may seem minor, but differing interpretations like these split Christendom in the eighth and ninth centuries during the Iconoclastic Controversy.
All of this I explain in my book, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American. Which shows that the Ten Commandments are emphatically not the basis of the US Constitution.
These seemingly small differences are magnified because Christianity has historically claimed to possess ultimate truth, so any deviation from an absolute truth is significant.
Minor variations are further magnified by, as James Madison put it, the “torrents of blood” that have been spilled, trying to impose a state-sanctioned version of religious truth.
That's what Louisiana is doing here. Imposing its version of religious truth on kids in public schools. It's gross.
Among all of the different interpretations and versions and bibles and sects, Louisiana chose the KJV commandments in Exodus 20 commandments—AND EDITS THEM.
Here's how they should read:
Gone are the bits about a “jealous God” punishing “children unto the third and fourth generation” for exercising their religious freedom.
Let me put it more bluntly: Louisiana *REWROTE THE BIBLE*. We’re talking about state-sanctioned holy writ. This ought to enrage everyone.
If the state can rewrite one religion’s holy book, it can rewrite yours. Louisiana does not have this power. Nor does it have the power to impose that religious edict on a captive audience of your children.
This is the worst kind of big government conservatives claim to oppose. More to the point, this is one reason we have the separation of church and state, and it’s precisely how that separation protects everyone and helps ensure the foundational value of religious freedom.
It not only prevents the state from weighing in on religious disagreements, scriptural discrepancies, and theological debates, but also refuses to empower the state to force its preferred scripture or religious doctrine onto we the people.
This is also why the Supreme Court declared in 1980 that displaying the 10 Commandments in public schools was unconstitutional. Louisiana is violating the religious freedom of every citizen and trampling the separation of church and state. I'm glad @americansunited is suing.
~FIN~
Ok fine, one more.
All of this—and so much more—is in my book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is un-American.
Historical flags are often adopted by modern political movements. Sometimes this is obvious, like neo-Nazis adopting the Confederate flag. Or less so, like when the Tea Party adopted the Gadsden (Don't Tread on Me) flag.
The Appeal to Heaven flag is even more under the radar.
This flag—which was widely flown during the insurrection—has become like a secret handshake for Christian Nationalist public officials to signal their fealty to the cause, while maintaining plausible deniability about their allegiance. That's literally the point behind the flag.
I explained this to @BradleyOnishi on the latest episode of @StraightWhiteJC.
So this is a huge deal. The Appeal to Heaven flag was all over the insurrection and comes out of explicitly Christian Nationalist spaces. Sam Alito is professing his Christian Nationalism.
🚨We need to talk about this alarming pressure campaign that's happening right now. An attempt to muzzle discussion, criticism, and reporting on the authoritarian Christian Nationalism that is working against American democracy and a free press.
In Dec., journalist @HeidiReports wrote a piece exposing how the dark money network that financed the conservative takeover of the courts is also backing the Christian Nationalist push to dismantle public education, with Oklahoma as a test case. politico.com/news/2023/12/2…
Just days ago, Przybyla wrote a piece about Christian Nationalism in a second Trump administration which broke the internet. The reporting is accurate and terrifying. It shows that American democracy is unlikely to survive a second Trump term.
Despite Wheerler's unearned arrogance, @HeidiReports is absolutely correct. Rights given by a god can be taken away by men claiming to speak for that god. That's exactly the fight we're in now. That's what the Alabama Supreme Court just did with IVF. That's Christian Nationalism.
Again, I tackle this all in The Founding Myth, including the inevitable rejoinder of misquoting the Declaration of Independence, usually as "endowed by Our Creator," including a look the natural law philosophy the Declaration relies on.
Here's a bit.
📖 bit.ly/TFMpaperback
Hawley works at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian Nationalist legal outfit behind so many of the cases that are dragging this country back to a time when conservative, white Christian men ruled everything.
ADF, with Hawley actually arguing the case, is behind the mifepristone case being litigated before Judge Kacsmaryk in Texas (Kacsmaryk worked for one of ADF's brother orgs in the Christian Nationalist space.)
But there's still more...
Hawley's husband, Josh (he of fist pump and fleet feet), taught ADF's fellows, cashing $$ in nicely.
But Josh wasn't the only teacher.
Amy Coney Barrett taught ADF fellows up until 2016 (and her recusal didn't even come up).
Thrilled to see my friend and colleague, @AmandaTylerBJC of @BJContheHill testifying about the threat White Christian Nationalism poses to a pluralist democracy. Speaking truth to power.
Read more about the role the Christian Nationalism played in the January 6th insurrection here: bjconline.org/jan6report/
Rep. Raskin notes that the 900+ prosecutions against insurrectionists and that the threats have not subsided.
White Supremacy is the most lethally dangerous terrorist threat our nation faces," says @RepRaskin and notes the role Christian Nationalism plays.