21 June 2024
Louisiana Requires All Public Classrooms to Display Ten Commandments
Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation on Wednesday requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana, making the state the only one with such a mandate and reigniting the debate over how porous the boundary between church and state should be. [NYT June 19, 2024]
This is obviously just an evangelical/christian nationalist prank to start some kind of political shenanigans since there’s zero chance the law will last very long. One person’s guess is that the idea is to elevate this to the Supreme Court, knowing of course that if it gets that far it will be overturned–even with the SCOTUS conservative stacking. A more general explanation is that it’s simply an attention-getting ploy–much like a 3-year old might pull–in order to put forward a claim that Christianity is in jeopardy of being “cancelled.” (Much like Christmas…oh, wait, no one has cancelled Christmas.)
Therefore our Words in Action team proposes the following vigilante response.
First off, create a 10 Commandments poster or plaque…in Hebrew, such that only Jewish students who have studied the language could read it. After all, that’s the language the Ten were given in.
Better yet…wait for it…
Arabic!
So here’s how it works. An impromptu group with a neutral patriotic name like The Heritage Commandments Foundation calls the local media–the more the merrier–and informs them that they’ll be supporting the new law by supplying complimentary posters and plaques for certain schools. They, of course, inform the principal and school board of their first victim…er beneficiary of their plan. A poster of The Ten in plain English is also prepared and sent around via email so the schools can see that they’re serious.
On the day of the presentation, THC Foundation members arrive in a fancy SUV with a set of large, beautifully wrapped posters stacked in the trunk. Two of the members make a big show of removing the top poster and carry it to the presentation space as the news cameras roll. Using their full showtime skills (but not too much), they unwrap the poster!
The principal and guests are confused. What the heck is this? “Oh,” our team says, “Those are the 10 commandments in a plain, easy-to-read type face. It just happens to be easy-to-read Standard Arabic. Where shall we put it?”
Words in Action: The Blog 