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Ever wondered what happens when religion and
public education collide. Will buckle up,

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because Louisiana just became the first state
to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed

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in every public school classroom. That's
right, Moses is making a comeback,

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y'all, but this time in large, easily readable pont Governor Jeff Landry believes

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it's a nod to the original lawmaker, but opponents are gearing up for a

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constitutional showdown. Are we witnessing history
or just another round of church versus state

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drama? Grab your popcorn and stay
tuned as we dive into the Commandments controversy

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that's putting Louisiana schools in the spotlight. The story is from AP News by

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Sarah Kline on June nineteenth, twenty
twenty four. So I am going to

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our resident correspondent that happens to be
outside of the US, Cindy, that

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would be you. I am very
curious to know what your initial thoughts were

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or when you read this story about
Louisiana's decision to mandate the display of the

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Ten Commandments in every public classroom of
a school classroom. Rather yeah, yeah,

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I found that ridiculous because it's it's
insidious and it's at the same time

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it's just so blatant to show that, hey, we are christopascists and we

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want to impose our religion to everyone. But it's also stupid because they know

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that the second they try and do
that, any other religion can do the

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same. And so I watched an
interview of the woman who proposed this law,

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who co authored more precisely, and
when the journalist was trying to tell

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her that, she just dismissed it. She's just Nona, It's just it's

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just a historical document, and that's
how she's she's trying to present it so

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that it doesn't get struck down.
But it will. It will. It's

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just the Supreme Court is going to
take this away. Although I think it's

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going to be interesting to look at
the debates they are going to be around

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this and see because we know that
a strong part of the scorias is trying

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to increase what they call regious liberty, which is in fact the ability to

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impose their region to others. And
so I'm curious to see how they are

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going to treat this. I am
too, So I'm curious. Jimmy when

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you actually read this and I happen
to see inside the actual document what their

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article there is about the original lawgiver
or actually giving credence to the lawgiver.

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What are your thoughts when you actually
read that concerning the lawgiver and actually giving

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them a space in order for them
to be able to pontificate what should go

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on the losing of the schools law? Well, the original lawgiver is a

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subjective term, right, because they're
referring to Moses and in this case representative

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I believe her name was Kristin Ventrela, who Lauren Ventrala, excuse me,

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who was the co author and of
course voted for this, referred to Moses

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as the original lawgiver as well and
said that, you know, Moses needs

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to be kind of looked at as
a historical person. But we know that

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ancient Israeli law, which is where
this comes from, takes its roots from

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the Acadians, who were also the
Babylonians, the Samerians who existed before them,

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and also the Egyptians. You know, they borrowed from their sets of

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law, and they borrowed from their
culture and from their folklore, their mythology

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and imported it into their own.
And what strikes me is that these Christians

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are claiming Moses as their own when
Moses is an ancient Israeli quote unquote prophet

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supposedly right, who is not in
line with Christian thinking. You know,

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the the the Israeli ideology has nothing
to do with Christianity. If you ask

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Israelis, if you ask Jewish people
so to take their protagonist and champion him

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as the bedrock of Christian law is
just factually incorrect. Christian law comes from

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so many different so many different sources, and so you can't just stop with

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Moses. You have to start reaching
around and if you will, and pulling

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out all of the other influences.
Yeah, so I think that was my

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initial my initial reaction to that,
you know, Jimmy, I was also

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just thinking about how the lawgiver,
or the laws that we know about from

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ancient jew jail time periods where the
Ten Commandments are supposed to be based on.

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Even though that's ten commandments, we
know that there's actually way more laws

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that you know, Jewish people had
to keep. Why not all the other

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six hundred and thirteen? Why just
these ten? Yeah, my thoughts are

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that I don't think that Christians even
know what's in their Bible. Of course

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that's not news to anybody, but
they don't read this stuff, and I

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don't think that most of them can
even recite what the ten commandments are.

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But if we look at the other
six hundred and thirteen commandments, let's just

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take a look at making Deuteronomy twenty
two to eight make a guardrail around flat

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roofs. I mean, are we
serious? This is the same God that

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wants to make sure that your roof, if it's flat, has a guardrail

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on it. I had no idea
that God was so concerned about construction.

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And then let's talk about Exodus twenty
one twenty eight. Do not eat an

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ox that was condemned to be stoned. I had no idea that oxen could

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be stoned to death. This is
the same God giving these commands. That's

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right. Yahweh Yahweh. The ancient
Mesopotamian god of agriculture, who was stolen

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from the Babylonians and put into Jewish
folklore, is you know, cognizant that

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oxen can be criminals as well.
There's so much stuff not to eat.

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Blood man, if the Christians knew
that you should not consume blood. How

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would that change their worship of Jesus. You got me started, Cynthia.

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You got me started, and I'm
going to stop myself. But this is

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asinine, and I wonder why just
stop at ten? Why not go to

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the whole six hundred and thirteen?
Correct? You know, but I was

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going to say about those guardrails,
Jimmy, remember Jesus was a conferen Oh,

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yeah, that's true. You forgot
about that. Yeah. Well,

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Cindy, I'm coming back to you
because you mentioned about the Supreme Court and

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how this could possibly be struck down
if it happened to go to them.

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Now, since this particular ruling has
happened, we do have I believe the

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ACLU and also the Freedom from Religion
Foundation for that's actually going to be putting

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up lawsuits to combat this particular law
that has happened for public schools. Now,

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given that the US Supreme Court actually
ruled in nineteen eighty that a similar

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in Kentucky was on constitution unconstitutional.
Rather, so, how do you foresee

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the legal challenges to Louisiana law playing
out now with the court that we have

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in the United States? Before I
answer your question. I'd like to go

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back to what Jimmy was saying,
and when you described it like this,

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I thought that God is the ultimate
micromanager and living in heaven for eternity with

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someone like this man, that's a
nightmare. Yeah, that is a great

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point anyway. Yeah, I think, uh, I think the Scottish is

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going to try and and and move
around the idea that because on the First

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Amendment that talks about religious freedom,
there are two different aspects. So I'm

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not a lawyer, so I'm not
going to to speak about this, but

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there are talks about this specific point
at the moment, so if you're interested,

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look into it. So there are
two aspects, and I suspect that

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the Scottish is going to try and
move the needle onto one while leaving the

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other one. And the problem is
they're going to be stuck with the idea

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that other religion will be able to
do the same, like I'm expecting any

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minute now that the Saturning Temple is
going to try and do the same.

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Right going to ask for their tenants
to you displayed also in the classroom,

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And I suspect that this will change
views on for so many people but yeah,

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I think scoters is going to try
and and and and sneak some some

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changes in the in the way the
First Amendment is interpreted, just like I

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suspect they trained to to do with
the immunity case for Donald Trump. Yeah,

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well, we'll probably see exactly what
happens with the Scotus when it comes

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to this. I'm so curious to
even try to conjecture what specifically they're going

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to do, only because we covered
on the nonprofits about the the football coach

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that was able to do his whole
song and dance on the fifty yard line

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when the when the games were over, making everybody come out to pray to

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thank God for the game or what
have you, and how the Scotis actually

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said that, oh, it's fine
because you were practicing your freedom of speech

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and also your freedom of practicing religion. But this is different because we're looking

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at public spaces that are supposed to
be for kids and adults who happened to

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be of varying faiths. We know
that Louisiana, even though it's a lot

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of Christians, especially Catholics, live
there, and it was very and even

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like when you look at the Fred
Deli that was a Catholic symbol. But

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regardless of that, not only Catholics
live there, not only Christians live there,

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Muslims live there, Buddhists live there, Satanists lived there, And I

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would love to see exactly what the
Satan Temple does to combat this. Like

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when you know, the overtures to
put up the Ten Commandments on public property,

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happens, happened before and they say, well, if you display the

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Ten Commandments, then we can display
the head of bachamt right, So we'll

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see what happens. But I'm curious
to know from the both of you,

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how do you see that play out. So, with the requirement to display

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these Ten Commandments, how do you
think is going to affect the perception of

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public schools as an inclusive and neutral
space for education. Jimmy, I want

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to start with you first, and
then I want to hear from Cindy.

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I think this is going to cause
a great deal of tension and stress in

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the household among families who are not
of the Catholic faith or who are Christian.

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You know, having to sit in
front of a set of rules that

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is only specific to one group of
people will make others welp feel othered,

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and in fact, some of the
commentary and adjoint statement from the Freedom of

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Religion Foundation and the Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, as well

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as the American Civil Liberties Union said
that the law prevents students from getting an

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equal education and will keep children who
have different beliefs from feeling safe at school.

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And that is the problem with having
government and religion aligned, because whoever

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is aligned with that said religion also
feels aligned with that government, and whoever

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is not aligned well is part of
the problem or part of the others,

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okay, And they don't have the
same safeties, they don't have the same

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vote of confidence that the people in
authority places on the ones that are aligned.

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And so I think this is incredibly
dangerous if it goes unchecked. But

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I do think that this is going
to get overturned for several reasons. One,

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in nineteen eighty, the Supreme Court
ruled in a similar Kentucky law or

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rually similar Kentucky law excuse me,
unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of

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the US Constitution. And also,
if this is supposed to be a history

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document, then it can't possibly have
a place in every classroom. It can't

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certainly be pertinent to every classroom math
science. You know, if this is

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a history document, why should math
and science students be staring at a history

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document? So that right there is
justification for its removal at least some classrooms,

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I think. But I am not
a lawyer like Cidy so eloquently stated,

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and so I don't want to give
the impression that I know exactly what's

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gonna happen or why, but I
do think this is not going to stand.

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Yeah, what about you, Cindy? Yeah, I agree. Although

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the first Amendment says that Congreys shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion

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or prohibiting its free exercise, and
I suspect that it's the second part that

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scott us is going to try and
use to increase religious liberty. But what

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struck me also here is that it
seems to me that a lot of Christians

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forgot or don't know how many people
were killed during wars between Protestants and Catholics,

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because you need to be careful about
what you asked for, because once

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this gets into application, then what
prevents anyone to say, Hey, we

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are Protestant and Catholics, you don't
get to speak here, or you don't

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get to display your religious sex because
we are Protestant in this state and the

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state nearby will do the opposites.
And so for those reasons, I don't

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think this is going to stand.
But I'm still that Spotters is going to

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try and use this to expand somehow
regish persecution. Yeah, it could go

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both ways, and I think that
that's something that has been on my mind

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and also others that are protesting the
law that has recently passed as well,

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because again, like I mentioned about
the Alabama now Florida coach, and we

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also have seen where the SCOTUS has
used different edicts to actually propagate I would

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say, like religious freedom, Well
they disguise us for religious freedom, but

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actually just doing an overreach of religious
belief. And even later on this week

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we're going to be even talking about
a certain judge is going to be doing

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that as well. But you know, I wanted to ask Jimmy, and

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then I wanted to ask and see
you know your thoughts as well, Cindy.

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The article notes that simpler bills have
been proposed in other states, as

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we talked about with Kentucky, but
they have not succeeded. So what factors

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do you think have contributed to Louisiana's
success in passing this law and how might

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influence other states legislative efforts? Jimmy
and then you Cindy. Yeah, So

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the factors that I think contribute today
versus nineteen eighty is the stark contrast and

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polarization between people in this country who
consider themselves conservative and who consider themselves liberal.

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I think in nineteen eighty we saw
a time where people were able to

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work together despite their differences, a
little bit more than now. Actually I

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should say much more than now,
even though there was still the same kind

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of fingerpointing and division in government.
People respected the Constitution. Well, we

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have to remember that the Republican Party
nowadays, the conservatives in this country who

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are on the MAGA movement have no
just no respect for the Constitution, which

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is why they justify some of the
horrible things that they do in the perspectives

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and positions they hold. Those people
are in government in Louisiana today in twenty

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twenty four, and so we are
seeing a different kind of conservative managing the

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Republican Party. And you know,
it's people that feel like their identity is

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at risk, and so they're lashing
out even stronger, even harder, And

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so that is why we have these
factors. Now. Hopefully the case law

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established by the nineteen eighty Kentucky case
will mitigate this. But even so,

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I think Cindy's point to the second
part of the of the excuse me the

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clause and the Constitution the establishment clause, Yeah, hopefully that will embolden people

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to take advantage of this and cause
these people to say, all right,

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you know what, instead of having
the head of baff Mit and the five

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Pillars of Islam and you know,
the Hindu texts and things like that displayed,

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we'll just take ours down. And
so I think that there could be

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some ground gained there. And Cindy, what about you, Yeah, I

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think it's it's just a political move. With the election coming coming soon,

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I think it's time for people to
signal where they are and that's just one

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more attempt to do that. And
also, just like we saw with rovers

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Swayed, there's been countless attempts to
to go to the Supreme Court with laws

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like this that they knew were completely
anti constitutional, yet they tried to do

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it because they hope that the scooteris
is going to try and change it.

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So that's just what it is signaling
to the base and try to influence the

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country. Via scottis Well, the
mandate to display the Ten Commandments in Louisiana's

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public school classrooms is controversial, as
we just said, and potentially unconstitutional.

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It posts a significant risk to the
religious diversity, inclusion and the principle of

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church state separation. For a skeptical
humanist standpoint, the focus should be on

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fostering an educational environment that resplect,
respects, and reflects the diverse beliefs of

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all students, rather than prompting a
specific religious doctrine