Since the first Amendment was ratified in 1791, there has been a separation between the US government and religious institutions. But, in modern-day America, there has been a growing pattern of justifying political decisions based on biblical reasoning.
“Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies,” former NYC Mayor Eric Adams said at an interfaith breakfast he hosted for local spiritual leaders of all different faiths.
Many of the attendants of the gathering were alarmed that he thought the divide between church and state was unnecessary. They said, as mayor, Adams should take constitutionality seriously and that the church and state can co-exist without collaborating.
Though Adams is no longer New York’s mayor, the theme of combining church and state continues in other settings throughout America, a more recent instance being the requirement of public schools in Texas to display the Christian 10 Commandments.
Senate Bill 10 in the state of Texas requires schools to have the 10 Commandments in the classroom, and they’ve stayed in many schools since September.
However, some teachers refuse to put up the required religious display of unconstitutional government overreach, many even willingly leaving their districts in protest.
“I was not going to be a part of forcing or imposing religious doctrine onto my students,” a Texas teacher said after resigning from her job according to BCC.
Other states that tend to lean right, like Louisiana and Arkansas, have joined Texas in the decision to advertise biblical commandments.
Only displaying the beliefs of one religion leads children to believe that not all religions are valued in the United States. Especially when it comes to young kids, separating a singular religious ideology and educational expectations is important for developmentally understanding that all religions should be accepted, but not enforced.
Maybe instead of just promoting one religion, the curriculum could include a history of religion and teach kids to respect other beliefs and practices. The current movement to only have Christianity as a focus in education will teach kids that Christianity is above other faiths.
Politicians’ reasoning behind implementing the 10 Commandments is that biblical teachings are the answer to problems in the education system, like violence in schools.
“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Mayor Adams said later.
Gun violence and putting the 10 Commandments on classroom walls have little to no correlation. Statistically, gun violence is on the rise due to an increase in firearms to civilians, and was the leading cause of death among children in 2020, and even after the pressure to implement the 10 Commandments into Texan schools, according to the New York Times.
Beyond the education system, Christianity has been misused and twisted to fit the agendas of people in power and create mob mentality among Americans. The riots in Washington DC on January 6th showed how religious extremism and a spiritual response to politics has encouraged polarization in America.
Phrases on the rioters’ signs included “Jesus Saves, Trump Leads” and “Jesus is King, Trump is president”. President Donald Trump encouraged these violent rioters and supported the Christian nationalism they promoted.
The unsettling equalization between a believed divine being and our current president mirrors the worshiping of historical dictators, outside of being completely off script when it comes to the separation of church and state.
“If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,” Trump said in response to criticisms of the rioters’ posters.
Although religious freedom is essential to follow our Constitution, it should not be misused to encourage Christian supremacy and justify violent riots.
In July, the line between religious influence and political objectives blurred even further as conservative Christians under the Trump Administration were able to overturn the Johnson Amendment, allowing for charitable organizations – namely churches – to endorse political candidates.
The Johnson Amendment had been in place to prohibit all institutions that don’t pay tax dollars, including charities and houses of worship, from endorsing political candidates.
“To have a great nation, you have to have religion. I believe that so strongly. There has to be something after we go through all of this — and that something is God,” Trump said in September during a speech at the Museum of the Bible.
The increasing overlap of religion and political policies projects a certain religion and causes the government to lead with the objectives of that religion in mind, not with the country in mind.
So, let’s focus on Amendments instead of Commandments.