Church-State Separation Under Attack in Louisiana and Oklahoma Schools

Conservative religious politicians aim to push their Christianity in public spaces, especially in school settings. From dangerous Supreme Court appointments to state courts favoring Christian nationalists, from Project Blitz to Project 2025, attacks on public education and the separation of church and state are accelerating rapidly. Louisiana and Oklahoma schools are among the latest battlegrounds and conservatives are feeling emboldened by religious-leaning courts.

In June, with Governor Jeff Landry’s signing of LA HB71, Louisiana became the first state to mandate that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Although the state isn’t purchasing the displays, it still violates the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause by promoting religious scripture and making schools unsafe for those who don’t follow this or any version of the Ten Commandments. Rob Boston, senior adviser for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and an AHA board member, noted that the mandate is another of many examples of lawmakers caring more about divisive culture wars and diverting resources away from public schools than properly funding sufficient education in Louisiana. Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are suing Louisiana on behalf of a multi-faith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools. The plaintiffs argue that it’s the right of families, not the state, to determine if, when, and how children are introduced to religious texts and it’s a personal decision of which, if any, faith to practice.

To claim that the Commandments are foundational to our legal system is absurd as less than half refer to a matter of justice, about half refer to forced devotion to a deity, and none are referred to in any of our founding documents. A better example would be The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, which directly inspired our Constitution. Also, none of the Commandments address classroom etiquette or support education. A better example of positive actions students can take each day is the American Humanist Association’s Ten Commitments, which are inclusive and emphasize accountability for the collective welfare of humanity, other beings, and the resources of our shared planet.

A week after Louisiana, Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters directed all public schools to teach the Christian Bible, describing it as an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone” and “basis of our legal system.” He announced that,

every teacher, every classroom [grades 5-12] in the state will have a bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma in accordance with our academic standards and state law.

To determine new social studies standards (overhauling the previous standards he, as a history teacher, helped develop and that he endorsed in 2019), Walters gathered an executive review committee of “right-wing political activists, including the main co-author of the controversial ‘Project 2025’ plan.” The team consists of nine white males and one black female, none of whom are historians or educators, and all have few, if any, ties to the state of Oklahoma.

Instead of learning from current educators in Oklahoma, Walters is threatening to take away their teaching licenses if they refuse to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments as determined by the committee. Teachers were already able to include the Bible in their lessons but this current decree would force a purely positive perspective without critique and go against current Oklahoma Academic Standards that “Do not dictate how teachers should teach” and “Do not mandate a specific curriculum.” (Currently school districts have such authority.) It neglects the equal influence of other religious and secular texts on our country’s history and eliminates diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curriculum, creating an incomplete and exclusionary narrative.

“Oklahoma’s state-superintendent-mandate that all public schools must teach the Bible, and Louisiana’s legal requirement that all public schools display the Ten Commandments are not only direct assaults on religious freedom, but they also narrow the margin between separation of church and state,” said American Humanist Association Education Director Kristin Wintermute. “It is discriminatory and ignores a large percentage of American society that doesn’t adhere to Christian ideology.”

Project 2025 claims it will better America, when in fact it will endanger many aspects of a functional and prosperous society. This includes an educated population, governmental checks and balances, a multi-party system, a free press, an equitable economy, multiculturalism, environmental protections, bodily autonomy, and religious freedom. People of faith and conscience must join together to defend a democracy that represents and supports us all.