Last month, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) signed HB 71, which mandates that all public schools display the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. While many Louisianans and Americans are celebrating this monumental action, many on the Left and in the media are outraged, claiming that this is a violation of the separation of church and state by forcing religion on a captive childhood audience.

Religion Is a Public Belief System

On “The View” shortly after the law was signed, Whoopi Goldberg proclaimed, “I’m not asking your kid to believe what I believe. Public school is public school. It means everybody can go to public school. I don’t understand why, if you want your child to have a religious education [you don’t just] send them to a religious school. …There’s nothing stopping you. Get out of my pocket. Get out of my body, and get out of my school.”

Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement Joseph Backholm responded to Goldberg on “Washington Watch.” “Public schools are religious schools,” he said, “and that’s really what this moment requires us to recognize. And it is ironic that this decision … has happened in Louisiana in June, which is perhaps the longest religious holiday in the West these days. … But we should see [Pride Month] as a religious holiday.” And the reality is, he explained, “Religions come in different flavors, shapes, and sizes, and we worship different gods.”

LGBTQ ideology and Next Gen Marxism fit this definition and therefore could be considered “religions.” So why should those religions be imposed on all children in public schools?

Society’s Ignorance about The Ten Commandments

Goldberg became visibly upset as she discussed the pending Ten Commandments displays in public schools. But does she know what The Ten Commandments say? Displaying the Ten Commandments is not a form of proselytizing. It doesn’t force children to follow Jesus or read the Torah. The Ten Commandments are a reflection of Natural Law (general revelationwritten on the heart) that has been foundational to moral civilizations for thousands of years. Why are Goldberg and others so offended by such teachings as “Honor your father and mother,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and “You shall not covet”? These reflect universal moral laws that have been expressed and observed by cultures around the world for thousands of years.

As Backholm went on to say, “The Ten Commandments have religious origins for sure. They also have historical significance to the United States and to the Judeo-Christian perspective, which is the foundation of Western civilization. And that’s just a historical reality. So there are objective, secular reasons to want the idea that we shouldn’t cheat on our spouses, and steal from each other, and kill each other. Those are values that we should be able to unite around. And of course, that’s what the Ten Commandments exist to do. But what Whoopi Goldberg is trying to convince us of is that if the Ten Commandments are not in government schools, that we are somehow dealing with a ‘neutral space’ where no values are being encouraged…”

Goldberg said, “I don’t understand why I can’t have my thought process, my child, my family. Why we can’t decide for ourselves. Why are you pushing this on … anybody?”

Backholm explained, “Pride Month is perhaps the best illustration of [an ideology being forced on people]. … But Pride flags represent a set of religious values about who is in charge, what is the source of truth. And they would say we are in charge and our feelings are the source of truth. And those are just different religious convictions than what Scripture gives us.”

No “Neutral Ground”: A Case for School Choice

Backholm went on to explain why there is no “neutral ground” when it comes to belief systems in public schools. He said, “We … need to understand there’s no neutral ground. … But as we become increasingly pluralistic in terms of our religious secularism and … a growing number of people who follow religions like Islam, it is making it clear how difficult it is to have a one-size-fits-all education system. … So what we have to do is stop trying.”

He continued, “And I think as a practical matter and as a policy matter, one of the responses needs to be that we need to give families the choice to determine what the religious upbringing of their children is, because what the government’s trying to do right now is maintain a monopoly on that and say, ‘Unless you’re wealthy, the only option you have is to go to our schools, which teach the religion of pride.’ And that, of course, is the establishment of religion that we should be trying to avoid.”

Backholm further argued, “What we need to do … is give parents the right to choose for themselves: ‘What institution am I going to go to and what are they going to?’ ‘What are they going to teach my kids?’ ‘And if I don’t like the values of that institution, if I don’t like the religion of Pride, or I don’t like the religion of Islam, or I don’t even like the religion of Christianity, I should not be forced to send my kid to an institution that does those things.’ And so choice is really the answer, because what we’re seeing is a one size fits all fits no one.”

Thankfully, Louisiana legislators and Governor Landry recognize the necessity of giving parents universal school choice, and Landry signed the Giving All True Opportunity to Rise Program bill into law on the same day that he signed HB 71. This made Louisiana the 11th state in the country to allow education funding to follow students instead of going to the schools. Parents will now have an education savings account that enables them to use public funds on education-related expenses, including tuition for private schools or homeschooling materials.

Naked Public Square or Religious Public Square?

Fundamentally, Backholm explained, the Founders of the United States ensured that religious freedom is protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution — not infringed upon:

“They wanted to make sure there was not an establishment of religion, that people weren’t punished for believing something different than what the majority believed. But in no sense did our Founders intend to disqualify ideas that happen to be religious. And, of course, we see the consequences when we get unmoored from any source of truth. And when every single individual believes that they are the final source of truth, it’s creating a chaotic environment for us today. But, no, our Founders did not believe that we must scrub the public square of every religious heritage. …We’re all equally eligible to participate. … The government doesn’t get to punish anyone because of what their beliefs are.”