God Bless Texas: Texas Senate Passes Bill to Display Ten Commandments in Public Schools

On Thursday, the Texas state Senate passed a bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms across the state.

The legislation, SB 1515, approved by a 17-12 vote along party lines, will now move on to the state House of Representatives.

The bill states that as “[r]eligious liberty was a bedrock of America’s founding,” a public elementary or secondary school “shall display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”

A copy of the biblical ethics must be “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.”

The bill’s author, State Senator Phil King (R), explained during a committee meeting earlier this month that showcasing the Ten Commandments recognizes “the role that fundamental religious documents and principles had in American heritage and law,” The Hill reports.

Sen. King referred to the recent Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District as the impetus for his legislation.

The landmark case saw the justices supporting a high school football coach who led prayers with students during and after games, effectively overturning the Lemon Test, previously utilized to determine whether legislation breached the Establishment Clause, the news outlet explained.

“This legislation only became legally feasible with the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Lemon Test,” King stated at the committee hearing. “I think this would be a good healthy step for Texas to bring back this tradition of recognizing America’s religious heritage.”

Sen. King said earlier this month, “I think this would be a good, healthy step for Texas to bring back this tradition of recognizing America’s religious heritage. Senate Bill 1515 restores a little bit of those liberties that were lost.”

The Ten Commandments are found in The Book of Exodus, chapter 20, which says (KJV):

And God spake all these words, saying,

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

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