All public school classrooms in Louisiana are to display the Ten Commandments under new legislation.
On Wednesday, Governor Jeff Landry signed into law House Bill 71, which requires every classroom in state-funded schools and universities to show a poster-sized, simplified version of the biblical text.
Alongside the Ten Commandments, schools must also mount a “context statement” outlining the prominent part they have played in American education.
The law states that “each public school governing authority shall display the Ten Commandments in each classroom in each school under its jurisdiction”.
It also requires the display to be no less than 11 inches by 14 inches, and the text to be “the central focus of the poster or framed document”, printed in a “large, easily readable font”.
JUST IN: Louisiana becomes 1st U.S. state to require the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms pic.twitter.com/oO7pXC7aOj
— BNO News (@BNONews) June 19, 2024
Schools must fund the displays through donations, and the law is due to come into effect on 1 January next year.
Republican Dodie Horton, the Bill’s author, welcomed the prospect of God’s “moral code” being displayed in Louisiana classrooms and Governor Landry said: “If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law”.
John L. Mackay
There is much confusion amongst Christians over the role of the moral law. Some raise objections of ‘legalism’, others say ‘love’ has replaced ‘law’. Professor John L. Mackay shows that the moral law still applies and is bound up with God’s glory, his nature, his salvation purposes and with the preservation of ordered life following the Fall.
New teaching material in Texas is set to introduce under-11s to the cultural importance of Christianity and the Bible.
Elementary school children will learn about the Christian allegories contained in the writing of CS Lewis, and read the biblical text that inspired one of Leonardo DaVinci’s most famous paintings.
Other lessons point children to the evangelical Christian belief that led William Wilberforce to become involved in the abolitionist movement and teach about the “dedication and sacrifice” of Queen Esther, “a woman who saved the Jewish people of Persia”.
Local school districts that adopt the material, expected to be approved later this year and available for use from August 2025, will receive $60 in state funding per pupil.
Religious Education in schools ‘lacks sufficient substance’
Children’s Commissioner: ‘Good RE teaching cornerstone to national life’