Church and state

Dear Editor,

You report on the new Texas law requiring classroom walls to display the “Ten Commandments”. I studied the Louisiana version of this law for my forthcoming book Democracy after Christendom. Both laws, identically, prescribe the text to be displayed. This is a redacted version of Exodus 22v2-17 in the King James Version. Louisiana requires a “context statement” saying that the text forms part of the history of the USA’s educational and legal system. Neither law states the real Biblical context, nor that the display is a translation of an originally Hebrew text. I wonder what would happen to a teacher who explained to students the Biblical context and the Christian understanding found in Matthew 22.36-40.

These laws reflect two ideas. One is that Christians’ political duty is to apply the Bible as civil law. The other is that the USA is a “new Israel”.

As you say, the Louisiana law has been found to breach the constitutional “separation of church and state”. It is worth reflecting on why evangelicals have, historically, endorsed that separation. If the state’s role is to promote Christianity, then it must decide on what version of the faith is correct and lawful. It is bound, sooner or later, to endorse falsehood and suppress truth.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Lusk, By email