A new law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in all Arkansas public school classrooms was signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The law is shrouded in religious and First Amendment controversies.
In resisting the law putting the Ten Commandments in every Arkansas classroom, the Rev. Britney Stillwell wondered: does this trivialize my religion?
“At best they blend in and become something we don't pay attention to,” she said. “And at worse, there used as a bludgeon for what faith should be.”
The law doesn't just apply to schools. The text has to be hung in all public buildings in Arkansas. And along with the Ten Commandments, public places have to put up a sign that says “In God We Trust.” And you can't cheat. You can't make the font illegible or the sign too small. You can't hang these posters in a supply closet.
The law doesn’t have penalties, though. It's unclear what would happen if a school just didn't hang one up.
And more than anything, it's unclear if this law would hold up in court.
The story of Ten Commandments matters to people who practice Abrahamic religions. For believers, it's the story of freedom, of escape from tyranny, and hope for a new land. But this is an ancient moral memory. It's not shared by every Arkansan.
And this version of the Ten Commandments is abridged. In the King James Bible, the first commandment is: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
On the poster required by law, it just says: “I am the Lord thy God.” So, it cuts out some of the context.
Detractors say the mandate is ironic. These 10 biblical rules were borne out of a famous escape from government tyranny. Now they have to be posted on taxpayer-funded buildings?
“What this is going is placing the ten commandments in the hand of Egypt,” Stillwell's colleague, the Rev. Preston Clegg, said. “Which is a total subversion of the way that story rings true in our tradition.”
Clegg and Stillwell are Baptist preachers, a religion founded after a split from the government-run Church of England.
Stillwell wants people to come to God on their own.
“Religious liberty is a core tenet of my faith,” she said. “Because I do not believe in the coercion of religion. And so, is it faith if your faith is coerced?”
The opposition to the Ten Commandments law, and the support for the same legislation, both came from Christians. They represent these diverging interpretations of the Bible; one camp says the youth are in moral decay. We need values again: faith and tradition.
The bill was sponsored by two Republicans in the legislature: Sen. Jim Dotson and Rep. Alyssa Brown.
“I think all of us agree that we want the next generation to grow up and be Arkansans who care about law and order,” Brown said, speaking before the House of Representatives.
Public comments from the two sponsors were sparse. Dotson only spoke a few sentences in favor of the bill. Brown spoke little more than the above quote.
In supporting the bill, the pair mostly relied on out-of-state groups. Representatives of two advocacy groups vouched for the bill in committee. One was called WallBuilders and the second was a legal nonprofit called First Liberty Institute. They’re the legal minds behind Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a case where a football coach was fired for praying during a high school game. The case overturned Supreme Court precedent establishing what exactly it means to have “freedom from religion.”
Matt Krause, a lawyer at First Liberty Institute, talked to Little Rock Public Radio. He says they are banking on the current Supreme Court to uphold a challenge to the Ten Commandments. He sees the posters as needed public value statements.
“The reminders, don't steal, don't kill, don't lie, those kinds of things, are beneficial in society regardless of their beliefs,” he said.
The Supreme Court has given mixed rulings on Ten Commandments monuments in the past. Public places have gotten away with the installation when they can show the monument comes from “history and tradition,” not religious preference.
For example, a 2005 Supreme Court opinion allowed a Ten Commandments monument to stay on the Texas Capitol grounds. It had been there for about 40 years. A ruling described this as a “passive monument.”
But, the exact same day, the Court struck down a Ten Commandments statue in Kentucky. The ruling called it an “active monument,” as in it was actively promoting a religious belief.
Bottom line: a public Ten Commandments may be constitutional, but it depends on the circumstances.
One of the only Republican lawmakers to oppose the Ten Commandments bill was Springdale Rep. Steve Unger. He gave a speech on the house floor.
“I cannot tell you how much I would rather not come down here to speak against this bill,” he opened his speech.
In an interview with Little Rock Public Radio, Unger describes faith as a challenge; a relationship; a process, something that is continually tested.
A seminal moment in his life came when he was working in an emergency room as part of his service in the U.S. Navy. One night, a victim of child torture was brought into the hospital. This kid had been burned by his father on an electric stove.
Unger says it was hours later in the hospital parking lot that the tragedy of it all hit him.
“I sat behind the steering wheel of my old Volkswagen Beetle, I just put my head down on the steering wheel and just wept,” he said. “That was really the death of my childhood faith.”
It took him reading books like "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis to better understand his experience of being a Christian, how pain fits in.
But part of Unger’s opposition to the Ten Commandments bill is that Christianity’s a huge part of Arkansas culture. So, people don't experience faith as complex. It's just a backdrop of life.
Unger refers to this concept as: “cultural Christianity.”
“There's sort of a belief that if you are born in the United States of America you must be a Christian,” he said. “And then you bump up against some of life's tragedies, there is sort of this preconceived idea that God should have insulated you from the wickedness of life.”
In his speech to the legislature, Unger spoke about “the outward trappings of holiness.”
In his mind, mandating a poster of the Ten Commandments go up in public spaces, fits into that “outward trapping of holiness,” like mega church preachers with sordid personal lives, they are performing Christianity without experiencing Christianity.
A week ago, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the Ten Commandments bill into law. So, it's possible these posters will soon show up on the walls of public buildings; one listing the Ten Commandments, the other saying: “in God We Trust” with a picture of the American and Arkansas flag.
