Alabama could require public schools to display Ten Commandments, ban LGBT pride flags

[Michie]

Alabama lawmakers have approved a series of bills that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments, ban LGBT pride flags and prohibit school employees from using pronouns that don't align with students' sex.

The Alabama House of Representatives passed the bills on Thursday, with House Bill 178 passing the chamber in an 88-11 vote. The bill would mandate that K-12 public schools display the Ten Commandments in an entryway or in common areas like cafeterias and classrooms where U.S. history is taught.

According to the bill, no local board of education is required to use its funds to comply with the mandate, and the bill states that it can accept donations.

Continued below.

Alabama could require public schools to display Ten Commandments, ban LGBT pride flags

Alabama lawmakers have approved a series of bills that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments, ban LGBT pride flags and prohibit school employees from using pronouns that don t

www.christianpost.com

 

[sanderabeer]

What benefit is there to displaying the Ten Commandments?

 

[FireDragon76]

What benefit is there to displaying the Ten Commandments?

It's become a culture war symbol.

I do not think putting the Ten Commandments in such a manner in schools could do much to actually advance authentic Christian belief, and it could indeed produce a great deal of harm to belief, if a religious symbol is appropriated in such a manner, as a symbol of state ideology.

 

[RileyG]

LGBT pride flags have no place in public schools because it's an ideology. I would also argue the 10 commandments, from a secular point of view, also have no place in public schools.

Focus on education, not an ideology.

 

[RileyG]

What benefit is there to displaying the Ten Commandments?

Some people claim The United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values, but that's a different can of worms...

 

[Jermayn]

It's become a culture war symbol.

I do not think putting the Ten Commandments in such a manner in schools could do much to actually advance authentic Christian belief, and it could indeed produce a great deal of harm to belief, if a religious symbol is appropriated in such a manner, as a symbol of state ideology.

I've always thought hanging the Ten Commandments in a school does more to promote Judaism than it does Christianity.

 

[FireDragon76]

I've always thought hanging the Ten Commandments in a school does more to promote Judaism than it does Christianity.

The Ten Commandments were important parts of early American Puritan religious instruction, and even before that, Martin Luther himself used the Ten Commandments in his catechism. so I don't necessarily see it as advancing Judaism per se. But the imposition of the Ten Commandments upon an otherwise pluralistic society would carry an entirely different connotation, one that might cause resentment, which is unhelpful if you want to inspire actual intrinsically-motivated Christian faith.

In Europe, for instance, mandatory religious instruction coexists with widespread unbelief in society. So clearly, state-enforced religious instruction is no guarantee of personal faith, and might actually be doing a great deal of harm, as many people associate religion there with a certain kind of oppressive anti-democratic clericalism or traditionalism.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

It's become a culture war symbol.

I do not think putting the Ten Commandments in such a manner in schools could do much to actually advance authentic Christian belief, and it could indeed produce a great deal of harm to belief, if a religious symbol is appropriated in such a manner, as a symbol of state ideology.

Pride is a sin. Perhaps displaying true and honorable values, instead of the primary vice of Lucifer, would lead children down a path of virtue as opposed to a path of debauchery.

 

[Durham Cicero]

I don't think there's anything wrong with displaying the ten commandments in classrooms. I work in public schools and regularly see various BLM and LGBTQ+ items in classrooms. I think that stuff is fine, but I'd find it inappropriate to mandate their placement. Likewise with the ten commandments.