What to know: Most Texas school districts required to display donated Ten Commandments posters under state law

The debate

Proponents of SB 10, including Paxton and Republican state lawmakers, have argued that seeing the Ten Commandments on a daily basis will help Texas students better understand U.S. history. In a summary of SB 10, bill author Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said he wanted to “remind students all across Texas of the importance of a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law—the Ten Commandments.”

“This bill is about honoring our historical, educational and judicial heritage,” bill sponsor Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, said on the House floor in May. “It is incumbent on all of us to follow God’s law, and I think that we would be better off if we did.”

Asked by a Democratic lawmaker if Texas public schools were “missing God’s law,” Noble said she thought some schools were.

Tony Keddie, a religious studies professor at The University of Texas at Austin, told Community Impact that he was concerned that lawmakers were advancing “a narrative that America is and should be a Christian country.”

Keddie suggested that if lawmakers want to expose students to historical information and teach them about morality, they should display the Golden Rule, a guiding principle referenced in various religious texts that directs people to treat others how they want to be treated.

Keddie and other religious scholars have emphasized that they are “not opposed to the Bible being taught in public schools,” noting that religious texts should be presented with the “appropriate educational context.”

“Students need to learn about religion broadly, and learning about religion broadly means learning something about the Bible, among other topics,” Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University, told Community Impact. “There are a lot of imaginable ways to teach about the Ten Commandments in public schools that would be pedagogically appropriate and that would probably be upheld by courts, but simply promoting them by putting them on the walls of every classroom ... is not one of those [ways].”

Chancey said high school students often discuss biblical passages in language arts classes when studying literary features such as “plot, characterization and theme,” while the Ten Commandments might come up in a social studies class.

More details

Before SB 10 was approved by the Legislature, Democratic lawmakers proposed amendments to the bill that would have required other religious texts, such as the Five Pillars of Islam or the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, be displayed alongside the Ten Commandments. Those amendments were voted down.

During a House committee hearing in April, Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat and seminary student, said he was concerned that non-Christian students could be bullied by their peers for not following the Ten Commandments.

“I know that my Jewish friends, Muslim friends, Hindu friends certainly felt left out [in school]. I worry now that politicians are forcing every teacher to post this poster, maybe against their will, of the Ten Commandments, and that will make those students feel even more left out,” Talarico said.

Noble pushed back against Talarico’s concerns, saying that if students are being bullied, “then we really need the Ten Commandments in there on how to treat others kindly.”

“Maybe it would make them curious about what made our forefathers tick. Maybe it will help them wonder, ‘How can I treat others better?’” Noble said during the hearing.

Some Texas Republicans have indicated that they want more students to learn about Christianity.

In May, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told conservative commentator and minister Tony Perkins that under SB 10, “in every classroom in Texas, [students] are going to see the Ten Commandments, and they’re going to know about God.”