In a sometimes-testy late-night hearing that continued into the early-morning hours on April 30, the Texas House Committee on Public Education heard public testimony on a bill mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom.
The Texas Senate in mid-March approved SB 10, introduced by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, on a 20–11 party-line vote. The bill requires all public elementary and secondary schools to “display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”
Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, a member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, is carrying the bill in the Texas House and testified on its behalf before the Committee on Public Education, where it was left pending.
“The Ten Commandments are foundational to our American educational and judicial system,” Noble told the committee.
‘Deep-rooted’
Noble pointed to multiple references to the Ten Commandments in the New England Primer and in the McGuffy Readers, used in American public schools from the 1830s to the 20th century.
“Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments,” she said.
“The way we treat others as a society comes from the principles found in the Ten Commandments. In these days of classroom mayhem, it is time to return to the truth … respect authority, respect others, don’t steal, tell the truth, don’t kill, keep your word.”
She maintained the Ten Commandments played a foundational role in shaping the beliefs of the Founding Fathers, and students need to be familiar with the commandments to understand the nation’s founding principles, its history and its traditions.
SB 10 prescribes the specific wording for the mandated Ten Commandments classroom display — an abridged version of the commandments based on Exodus 20 in the King James Version of the Bible.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
