Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back once again to the nonprofits.
Speaker 1: The Ten Commandments are making their way into public schools
Speaker 1: in Texas, but not if one representative has anything to
Speaker 1: say about it. AJ has more details.
Speaker 2: Texas just continues to inch closer and closer to Christian
Speaker 2: nationalist status, which was one of the main goals of
Speaker 2: Project twenty twenty five. On May twenty eight, the Texas
Speaker 2: Senate voted to pass the Ten Commandments Bill, which requires
Speaker 2: all public school public schools in Texas to display the
Speaker 2: Ten Commandments. Yes, you heard that right, tax funded public schools,
Speaker 2: so regardless of the taxpayer's religion, they would be forced
Speaker 2: to get behind this nonsense. But our hope is not lost. Okay.
Speaker 2: There is one very outspoken Texas representative by the name
Speaker 2: of James tall Rico, who is a Democrat, who has
Speaker 2: been gourwilling other representatives that support the bill during the
Speaker 2: hearings and on other public forums. This story is from
Speaker 2: The Friendly Eightiest by Herman Metta on May twenty eight,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Outstanding. Thank you, so, AJ, Let's actually come right back
Speaker 1: to you and just kind of give our audience a
Speaker 1: little bit of a clearer picture of what we're talking
Speaker 1: about here. What does the bill actually say and do
Speaker 1: you think it's actually going to help or is it
Speaker 1: expected to actually help in the way that Congresswoman Noble,
Speaker 1: the main sponsor of the bill, is claiming that it will.
Speaker 2: What do you think help? I don't know about that,
Speaker 2: But the bill is actually ridiculously detailed. The bill says
Speaker 2: that the Ten Commandments posters will have to be the
Speaker 2: King James version, obviously the only acceptable Bible version according
Speaker 2: to Christian nationalists. Another thing that it details is that
Speaker 2: it will have to be exactly sixteen by twenty inches,
Speaker 2: very specific, and it even says that it must be
Speaker 2: made of endurable material so that it is not easily destroyed.
Speaker 2: But get this, the posters could be either privately donated
Speaker 2: or purchased with district funds. So again, taxpayers, regardless of
Speaker 2: their religion, will be liable for funding these biblical rules
Speaker 2: posters for classrooms, whatever their schools. Ason. Meanwhile, you have
Speaker 2: other reals like being pushed, you know, to get rid
Speaker 2: of free lunches for school children. Teachers have to purchase
Speaker 2: all of their supplies with their own personal money. But sure,
Speaker 2: go ahead and give tax money to you know, districts
Speaker 2: to pay for these tank commandment posters anytime, right. It
Speaker 2: seems like their priorities are as screwed up as they
Speaker 2: can be. If only God had added a commandment about
Speaker 2: taking girl kids, maybe then Christians will give a shit
Speaker 2: about the children the same way that they do before
Speaker 2: they're born, when they're just a clumbo cells.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a that's a good cinema. But I'm kind
Speaker 1: of with Kelly there. I saw him like shaking his head.
Speaker 1: I think some of the videos in this article demonstrated
Speaker 1: that a lot of the the a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't actually know the commandments very well. Do you want
Speaker 1: to expand on that Kelly.
Speaker 3: Brought I was about to say, yeah, and the ones
Speaker 3: that do they still break them anyway. All right, Aj,
Speaker 3: when you're doing the introduction, you said that Texas was
Speaker 3: moving closer to Christian nationalism. I thought to myself, what
Speaker 3: do you mean closer? Didn't they make it? They're already
Speaker 3: he's already pulled over.
Speaker 1: He can't pull over any farther. Right, So, Kelly, while
Speaker 1: we have your attention, we're actually we're coming up on
Speaker 1: the We're about a month away from the one hundredth
Speaker 1: anniversary of the Scopes monkey trial or the Scopes trial,
Speaker 1: I think more officially, do you see any resemblance between
Speaker 1: like this bill and the Butler Act, for example, that
Speaker 1: was kind of central in that case.
Speaker 3: I do. Now the Butler Act was passed along with
Speaker 3: the whole slew of that same different versions of it,
Speaker 3: but the same law was passed throughout many states, especially
Speaker 3: out through the South, all around the same time. And
Speaker 3: we're starting to see that now with this You know
Speaker 3: that Louisiana did it, Arkansas did it. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 3: Oklahomas is trying to do it as well. So we're
Speaker 3: seeing this kind of wave of this Christian idealism being
Speaker 3: put into the law, and of course that's unconstitutional, just
Speaker 3: like the Butler Act was. Of course, I think we
Speaker 3: all know Scopes lost his trial, but he ultimately won
Speaker 3: the lord to get religion out of biology. But it
Speaker 3: wasn't until all those laws were challenged, just like this
Speaker 3: one's being challenged in Louisiana presently. That and they cost
Speaker 3: a lot of states very expensive trials. There was like
Speaker 3: three losses in a row, and the Scopes won his
Speaker 3: so but right after that there were three losses evolution
Speaker 3: laws were repealed right after that. State senates and state
Speaker 3: governments were repealing them before a lawsuit happened, so they
Speaker 3: could save money. Lots of they were bleeding money through
Speaker 3: the courts because of it. And I think that we're
Speaker 3: going to see a similar situation play out here. I
Speaker 3: think we might see Missouri could pass one, Alabama and Mississippi.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't surprise me at all, you know. But I
Speaker 3: think that after they get a couple of losses in
Speaker 3: the courts, after they spent a few million dollars trying
Speaker 3: to defense something that's constitutionally indefensible, I think we'll see
Speaker 3: everybody start dropping it, just like they dropped the evolution laws.
Speaker 1: I would definitely hope that would be the case, but
Speaker 1: it seems to me in this instance, for this particular bill,
Speaker 1: it's going to have to come from the top down,
Speaker 1: and and I don't know how competent I feel about
Speaker 1: that happening. But the reason I say that is because
Speaker 1: before this bill passed in the House, there was an
Speaker 1: amendment added to it that would require the state attorney
Speaker 1: General to act in court as the defense for any
Speaker 1: district that gets sued as a result of this bill.
Speaker 1: And if that district does not if that district district
Speaker 1: is penalized, is the right word is escaping me right now.
Speaker 1: But if they don't win that case, if the district
Speaker 1: that he's representing, doesn't win that case, the tax payers
Speaker 1: the state is like required to pay the damages, the losses,
Speaker 1: the penalty, any financial or economic h you could say, And.
Speaker 3: I know, I'm pretty sure I know a taxpayer in Texas,
Speaker 3: So I wonder aging how do you feel about having
Speaker 3: to pay for that?
Speaker 1: And not only and I do when you're you know,
Speaker 1: and not only that, but what was it like for
Speaker 1: you to in a place like Texas that's rife with
Speaker 1: Christian influence, to see a religious uh nonetheless representative speaking
Speaker 1: out so strongly against this bill, How like what was
Speaker 1: that experience like?
Speaker 2: Well, obviously as an atheist, it's been really interesting, to
Speaker 2: say the least, to watch one. Firstly, because Representative tell
Speaker 2: Erico he's a former former school teacher, and so he
Speaker 2: has experienced me in a cstroom, right, And so I
Speaker 2: actually really enjoyed his exchange with the bill sponsor, the
Speaker 2: Republican Representative candyon Noble.
Speaker 1: Every exchange everyone that he has, Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Roasted her. He roasted her literally about this bill uh.
Speaker 2: You know that there's no other way to put it
Speaker 2: other than he roasted her to a quisp. So I've
Speaker 2: been seeing in tons of like short clips on the
Speaker 2: different questions and answers, and I was really shocked to
Speaker 2: learn that he's a Christian. A first, I thought he
Speaker 2: was maybe maybe one of the nouns, you know, like
Speaker 2: the no no, no religion.
Speaker 1: And not really I have a relationship with Christ kind
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like so, like I swear the way the way
Speaker 2: that he opposed the bill UH is something like one
Speaker 2: of those arguments that you will hear on the atheist experience,
Speaker 2: like like somebody experienced like I don't know, afreaking John
Speaker 2: Gleezon or something like that. But this told me one thing.
Speaker 2: He is a secular Christian, not a Christian nationalist. And
Speaker 2: that is the huge difference between all of these legislators.
Speaker 2: One of them forces the religion down everyone's throats, and
Speaker 2: the other respects the separation of church and state as
Speaker 2: the constitution in the case. So he is an amazing
Speaker 2: example of the way that Christian legislators should behave while
Speaker 2: representing their constituents because they come from different faiths, like
Speaker 2: or like us, you know, no faiths. It's funny though.
Speaker 2: I think I mentioned this before we started the show
Speaker 2: that here in Houston specifically, we have one local representative
Speaker 2: and he is Jewish. So what he did was he
Speaker 2: presented an amendment for this bill saying that they should
Speaker 2: have the Jewish Tank Commandments displayed as well. And what
Speaker 2: did Republicans do? They were like, no, they voted completely
Speaker 2: against it. And he was like, he was like, listen,
Speaker 2: I will never actually do that, but I had to
Speaker 2: do this to prove the hypocrisy of these people, like
Speaker 2: the hypocrisy that they will not allow even the Jewish
Speaker 2: Tank Commandments. No, only the like we said, the King
Speaker 2: James version is the only acceptable one. And I thought
Speaker 2: that was pretty epic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I like too, how the Sorry, I had
Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts just coming into my head all
Speaker 1: at once at the end there, I'm trying to choose
Speaker 1: which one. There there was a group or an individual
Speaker 1: that started making like posters that technically fit the specifications
Speaker 1: that the law requires, which which you mentioned earlier, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to say that kind of reminds me a
Speaker 1: lot more of like signs that have the force of law, like,
Speaker 1: for example, in states where where a no no Weapons
Speaker 1: allowed sign has the force of law, it's required to
Speaker 1: meet certain size specifications. The print has to be of
Speaker 1: a certain size. It can't be smaller than this, you
Speaker 1: know small. It has to be in plane view. And
Speaker 1: the specifications for this bill reminds me a lot of
Speaker 1: like the specifications for no firearms signs, which doesn't give
Speaker 1: you the impression that it's about making a history lesson available.
Speaker 1: It gives me the impression that it's about making sure
Speaker 1: that it is seen. And so there was one artist,
Speaker 1: or i'd call him a protester them, I should say,
Speaker 1: that made some versions of these signs that fit all
Speaker 1: the specifications that the law requires. But like one of
Speaker 1: them is in Arabic. One of them they increased the
Speaker 1: visibility of the words kill, adultery, steal, and ass out
Speaker 1: of the King James versions of the commandments. So I
Speaker 1: thought that was really funny. But you also mentioned something
Speaker 1: earlier AJ that No, I'm sorry, I already said that thing.
Speaker 1: This is going to have to be a cut. I
Speaker 1: completely lost my train of thought.
Speaker 2: It is some space to cut a Yeah, you can
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 3: I remember what the sign was too from before two
Speaker 3: was in God we trust signs.
Speaker 1: Oh got it? Okay, okay, I'm just gonna have to pivot.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, here is but as far as okay, sorry
Speaker 1: here let me do my silence. As far as James
Speaker 1: Talerico though, like this isn't really anything new, like he
Speaker 1: was doing this two years ago when the bill was
Speaker 1: first sponsored. I saw even before we knew that this,
Speaker 1: like before I knew that this is what this article
Speaker 1: was about, I saw another video of him opposing.
Speaker 3: No, I'm going to break in right now, we lie
Speaker 3: and reprimand you because we covered that here on the Nonprofits.
Speaker 3: I myself covered that video two years ago, so you
Speaker 3: should have been watching. Damn it, that's on me.
Speaker 1: I'll take that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But no, even like you mentioned aj, you thought like
Speaker 1: you had like kind of some presumption about like his
Speaker 1: his religious belieu. When I first heard him speaking, I
Speaker 1: thought that I thought he was a Republican or I
Speaker 1: guess I could could say they're not all Republican. That
Speaker 1: was religious, but just happened to be sort of like
Speaker 1: getting it right on this at the beginning of the video,
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, it was kind of unclear, like, oh,
Speaker 1: probably a Democrat. Then I find out that he's religious,
Speaker 1: and then I find out that he's a religious democrat
Speaker 1: that's fighting for the separation of church and states. So
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with him as well. Kelly, did
Speaker 1: you did you have any thoughts about Representative to Allerica
Speaker 1: that you wanted to add.
Speaker 3: I love the way he was bringing up the hypocrisy
Speaker 3: of his fellow politicians in Texas with the obvious references
Speaker 3: to Ken Paxton right. I don't know speaking of the
Speaker 3: earlier confrontation with Nobel right, Representative Noble, I don't know
Speaker 3: if I think the earlier one from two years ago
Speaker 3: was more I was like more burning than this last
Speaker 3: one was. So if you haven't seen this, if you've
Speaker 3: seen this one thought it was good, go find the
Speaker 3: other one. Watch it. It's great. Watch the prequel. He
Speaker 3: did a great job of exposing her hypocrisy. And I'm
Speaker 3: really surprised that, like after two years, she had two
Speaker 3: years knowing this was going to happen to her again,
Speaker 3: that she didn't come up with any better responses. It
Speaker 3: was it was almost worse. She was just like almost
Speaker 3: like her brain got switched off, like happens to me
Speaker 3: every once in a while, and I think she spent
Speaker 3: too much time reading the Ten Commandments instead of paying
Speaker 3: attention to the in debate class there in high school.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but one of the things I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed was Jamie Raskin coming out and commenting that that
Speaker 3: if the Texas Congress votes on each Commandment and no
Speaker 3: member could vote for anyone they had broken, none of
Speaker 3: them would be passed. So I thought that was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you said, like if she if she would
Speaker 1: spend less time reading the Commandments, I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: that's the case, that that she spent too much. I ready,
Speaker 1: because there was a little bit of banter in like
Speaker 1: some of the videos in the article, and you hear
Speaker 1: one of like her her cronies. I guess I'm going
Speaker 1: to say in the background saying Representative Tillerico says something
Speaker 1: about legislation legislators not following the Commandments, and one of
Speaker 1: them says, well, maybe if they had them posted.
Speaker 3: Is that what you would think you would think by now,
Speaker 3: this grown man who was a representative would know the
Speaker 3: Ten Commandments.
Speaker 1: Right, especially if they've been like championing this bill or
Speaker 1: like this bill about them for two years because they're
Speaker 1: so important and foundational to our history. But that along
Speaker 1: those lines or along that note, aj you said earlier,
Speaker 1: how like it kind of reminded you of some of
Speaker 1: like our live show debates that we hear every every week.
Speaker 1: And I thought it kind of reminded me of like
Speaker 1: some like like representative Nobles arguments were less effective than
Speaker 1: some of the less effective arguments we heard in AXP.
Speaker 1: Didn't you have an example of one that you said
Speaker 1: pointed out the hypocrisy pretty well?
Speaker 2: Like there was one specific exchange that truly and clearly
Speaker 2: showed the irony of it all. And I haven't pulled
Speaker 2: up straight from the auticle, so I'm going to read
Speaker 2: it from there. And it's between tall Rico and Noble.
Speaker 2: So Taraico goes first and he's like, what is the
Speaker 2: fourth Commandment? And Nobel replies, are you referring to the
Speaker 2: way it's written in the ball He said, yeah. She
Speaker 2: makes a really long pause and starts looking at her paperwork,
Speaker 2: and she's like, keep the Sabbath. It's about Osbian here
Speaker 2: on Saturday, and then she laughs, isn't it ironic? In
Speaker 2: tar Rico is like, well, so what does it mean
Speaker 2: to keep the Sabbath holy? And she goes, well, I
Speaker 2: think it's do you want to get into theology here.
Speaker 2: I'd love to if you would like to. I think
Speaker 2: it's really important that we take a day of rest.
Speaker 2: I think God, who founded the world didn't need rest,
Speaker 2: and yet he took a day of rest after he
Speaker 2: did creation. And I think he was a good example
Speaker 2: to us to take a day rest that is enshrined
Speaker 2: in our rules and our constitution. What it says accepting
Speaker 2: Sunday in our very early documents as aination. This is
Speaker 2: what people think that the Bible is in the constitution,
Speaker 2: so Tarica says, and so part of keeping the Sabbath
Speaker 2: holy is not working on the Sabbath, right, she said
Speaker 2: that is, yeah, they arrest. So he goes, and what
Speaker 2: is the ten commandments? You know they come from Judaism? Right,
Speaker 2: what day is the Jewish Sabbath? And she goes, Saturday?
Speaker 2: And what day is it today? And she will Saturday.
Speaker 2: So Talarateed goes like, and the Christian Sabbath is what
Speaker 2: day is? And she goes Sunday in honor of the
Speaker 2: day of Jesus H when Jesus rolls from.
Speaker 3: The day for yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he said, well, and we're scheduled to give
Speaker 2: this bill the final voe on what day of the week. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was going to be on a Sunday. And she's like,
Speaker 2: a serronic, isn't it. I'm like, yes, it is ironic.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 2: She was correct that the Constitution those mentioned counting days
Speaker 2: for passing bills, but Sunday, because it says, you know,
Speaker 2: six days or something like that, but Sunday should not
Speaker 2: be counted. It's kind of like the way that we
Speaker 2: say ten business days, right, we count Monday through Friday
Speaker 2: on a business day. So, but the wording of the
Speaker 2: Constitution does not say that you're not supposed to work
Speaker 2: on that day. So it has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: the Bible. And another one that she is crewnin of
Speaker 2: following is the nine Commandment, which it says to not
Speaker 2: bear or fault with perfulse witness. And so it goes
Speaker 2: to show that there are they are currently not following
Speaker 2: either the Constitution or the Bible rules she's not respecting.
Speaker 2: She's not respecting either her question or her nationalist dogma.
Speaker 2: So like, what is the point of having these same
Speaker 2: commandments if every person that is pushing for the bill
Speaker 2: is already enough funnewing some of them, you know.
Speaker 3: It's worse than the obvious, obvious lack of intellect in
Speaker 3: this woman. She got elected. People fucking actually voted for
Speaker 3: her knowing, I mean, having heard her speak, and that
Speaker 3: just blows me away. Before we end this segment, though, Eli,
Speaker 3: you were talking about the science in Arabic. In twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, Texas passed the laws saying that every school
Speaker 3: had to have a poster saying in God we trust.
Speaker 3: And somebody donated some Arabic posters and some really cute
Speaker 3: rainbow posters, and none of them were accepted by the
Speaker 3: school district. So it's just an interesting.
Speaker 1: Point of surprise there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they the school district said. The school districts
Speaker 3: said that they had already received enough posters and weren't
Speaker 3: taking anymore.
Speaker 1: They didn't send them back though, they probably just threw
Speaker 1: them away or.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure about the final destination.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm speculating there obviously, But no, I think to
Speaker 1: both of those points, it's pretty clear that this isn't
Speaker 1: really about like, oh, this is foundational to our nation
Speaker 1: and to our constitution, because not only that entire exchange
Speaker 1: that you read out, AJ, but there was another one
Speaker 1: where I really appreciated James Tillerico saying this. He says,
Speaker 1: I think there's a switching back and forth of saying
Speaker 1: that this is historical, but then through your comments, like
Speaker 1: as he's asking her to justify, like why is this
Speaker 1: a good bill? The religious he goes on to say,
Speaker 1: the religion comes through right, And so it just really
Speaker 1: highlighted that for me, the purpose of this bill is
Speaker 1: so clearly religious in doctrination as early as possible, as
Speaker 1: often as possible, that once you get beyond their claim
Speaker 1: that no, this is foundational to our country and our
Speaker 1: laws and everything that we do, and you ask them
Speaker 1: to justify that just a little bit, it's always a
Speaker 1: theological argument. Just like she couldn't help but continue to
Speaker 1: reiterate over and over again through her comments, even the section,
Speaker 1: the small section that that AJ read in comparison to
Speaker 1: how how much they spoke.
Speaker 2: So go ahead, mister Slack, what is a man servant?
Speaker 2: And where is a doctory? Can you imagine kids asking.
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, it's I mean it does say the word
Speaker 1: ass is in the King, James, So that you know
Speaker 1: kids are going to giggle at that. They're going to say, oh,
Speaker 1: that says as it's going to distract. And that's why
Speaker 1: even you know, Representative Talerico himself has said, you know,
Speaker 1: with his experience as an educator, this is far more
Speaker 1: likely not only to not help in education in the classroom,
Speaker 1: but not help Christianity either.
Speaker 3: But you just brought up a good point. I just
Speaker 3: started thinking about do you think it's possible for a
Speaker 3: kid to get the second grade when he's really starting
Speaker 3: to read and not realize what, you know, what the
Speaker 3: concept of murder is, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I can't, I can't do murder? What? What? What is
Speaker 3: that that matter was?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there wasn't a moment when I was in like
Speaker 1: elementary school where I was like, I should murder someone
Speaker 1: in this classroom and I needed a redirection on that.
Speaker 3: There's like con there's concept adultery. Why would a second
Speaker 3: grader even know what the fuck adultery is? This is
Speaker 3: more I mean, isn't it like teaching kids sex and
Speaker 3: second grade? What the hell isn't it stuff they they're against?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah, there's no consistency on the matter. There's
Speaker 1: no it's it's it's it's just this new form of
Speaker 1: nationalism that's like, if it's not Christian, it's not right,
Speaker 1: and therefore it doesn't belong. Did you have something to add.
Speaker 2: A No, I'm just gonna say to everybody's listening, you belong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and you belong here. We want you here.
Speaker 1: Uh So, get in the comments to share your support
Speaker 1: for each other, not just for us.