Mark Davis: Keep Commandments off school walls, and let parents handle religion at home | Opinion
When the Supreme Court issued rulings 60 years ago that curtailed mandatory Bible reading in public education, many referred to the historical moment as “kicking God out of schools.” An assessment of the years since provides substantial arguments for those who lament those rulings.
School discipline has declined to shocking levels. Overreacting administrators have sometimes curtailed even voluntary exercises of religious expression on students’ own time. Curricula have muted the teaching that America’s founders were deeply aware of God’s hand in our nation’s creation.
Seeking to swing the pendulum back toward a less fractious time, Texas legislators have advanced measures seeking to re-establish a foothold for specific religious exercises and messaging in the state’s public schools. Their motives are noble, but the Constitution objects.
From the moment toxic atheists such as Madalyn Murray O’Hair began railing against prayer in school as the ’60s began, devout parents pushed back against her outright hostility to God and those who worship him. But the best argument for religious neutrality in education never came from people hostile to faith; it came from people of all faiths who recognized that religious teaching should come from parents and churches, not from government schools.
It is easy to note that student behavior and public morals in general have been in a nosedive for decades. But is that because parenting has eroded, the culture has soured and behavioral standards have plunged, or is it because kids are not engaged in religious exercises as the school day begins? Public school days without religious instruction may have led to those various ills, but a policy’s results, good or bad, do not settle constitutional questions.
The two Texas bills present many. The first is a measure requiring a prominent display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Some of the commandments are valuable advice for all people, forbidding wrongs like murder, adultery and theft. The other half are specific instructions for the religious faithful, requiring primacy for the God of the Bible and observance of a Sabbath.
When the founders crafted the First Amendment, its references to religion include a free exercise clause guaranteeing that government will not impede the practice of our faith and an establishment clause stating that the new nation would not declare a preferred official religion. It seems that the first thing a nation with an official religion would do is post its precepts in every school classroom.
The second measure is somewhat less insistent, providing a period for prayer and the reading of the Bible and other religious texts, provided all such exercises are voluntary and under parental consent. Again, the importance of prayer and scripture cannot be overstated. But haven’t we had years of hand-wringing that American schools lag behind much of the world in classroom instruction time? Even after the pervasive ditching of physical education, we remain concerned that we’ll be lapped in short order by education systems in China and elsewhere. One wonders where the minutes will spring up for these admittedly important religious practices.
The answer is simple. These are things students should do on their own time, as their families and churches direct.
It is understandable to look to schools to fill gaps and heal wounds of our fallen society. It is also true that schools have too often seemed hostile to religion, not neutral about it. Our founders did not foresee this classroom conflict for one reason: They did not envision today’s massive network of heavily regulated government schools.
But that’s what we have, and it requires government to take a stance that neither prods kids toward faith beliefs nor away from them. Our nation was built on a Judeo-Christian foundation of law and ethics, but the very concept of religious freedom means government leaves religious instruction to families.
No one is more American or less because of a chosen faith or a lack of faith. Is the Christian family arriving in a majority-Muslim community just supposed to suck it up when it’s time to face Mecca and praise Allah?
Children should never feel religiously out of step with the public school they attend. Every American school child should be taught the vital role faith played in the founding of our country, and the role of the Bible and the Ten Commandments in the history of society, culture and jurisprudence.
When we do a better job of showing faith the respect it deserves in our public education system, perhaps there will be fewer temptations to expect those public schools to do the job of parents and churches.
Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdavis.
