The Ten Commandments in Texas

My new essay for The Hill explains the many problems with Texas’s new law requiring a poster of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, not the least of which is that the statute actually specifies eleven (or maybe twelve) commandments.

Here is the gist:

Why the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms could become a dozen

The Texas legislature has passed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom in the state.

Although titled “An Act relating to the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms,” the law’s mandatory language, with no changes or additions permitted, actually includes 11 commandments (or even 12, depending on what counts), without numbering them. 

There is no universally accepted set of Ten Commandments, because different religious traditions use different renderings. The Texas legislature evidently attempted to avoid this difficulty by expanding the Ten Commandments to please everyone. 

Although that may seem ecumenical, it again underscores the religiously restrictive nature of the display. Favored faiths are included, even at the cost of innumeracy; all others are not.

Everything might be bigger in Texas, but that does not justify legislating an unmistakably religious schoolroom display of 11 or 12 commandments.

You can read the full essay at The Hill.