Arizona Senate votes to allow Ten Commandments displays in classrooms

PHOENIX — When it comes to the Ten Commandments, thou shalt be able to post them in public school classrooms.

And read them aloud, too.

That’s the goal of the Republican-led Arizona Senate, which voted along party lines Thursday to add the commandments to a list of items teachers and administrators already can display and read. These range from the Declaration of Independence and the national anthem to the Mayflower Compact and the national motto of “In God We Trust.’’

Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, said his plan to add the commandments is justified.

“If you look back at the 1960s, the progressive slide in our country right now is because we have taken the Ten Commandments away from our schools,’’ he said.

Whether it is legal remains to be seen.

Schools removed the commandments after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that a Kentucky law mandating their posting violated constitutional provisions forbidding the establishment of religion by the government. The justices said the purpose of the display was essentially religious.

Kern said his plan is different. The key is that Arizona is not mandating the posting but making it an option, he said.

He is relying on a 2022 Supreme Court decision in which the justices, in a 6-3 ruling, said the decision of the Bremerton School District in Washington to discipline high school football coach Joseph Kennedy for praying after football games violated his rights to free exercise of religion and free speech.

Kern said the contents of his Senate Bill 1151 fit within that exception.

“This does not mandate that teachers must post the Ten Commandments,’’ but makes it an option, just like the other items already on the list, he said. “Teachers have full authority to post, to read, or not to read.’’

“Indoctrination”

But Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, said there is a crucial difference. Epstein, a graduate of a Catholic school, said the Commandments include the specific directive to love God.

“If this bill were to say a teacher may present the Ten Commandments as a comparison of different religions, or choose to present the Ten Commandments as a study of diverse cultures, that is a different thing from this,’’ she said.

“This is actually indoctrination,’’ Epstein said. “If you post the Ten Commandments and they are commanding people to love God, while that’s a beautiful thing, it’s not a beautiful thing if you do not subscribe to that religion. In fact, it could be very harmful to a family who does not subscribe to that religion.’’

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Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, said she sees the issue from her perspective as someone who is not part of the majority culture in this country.

“I have experienced what it’s like to feel ‘other’ growing up and having that diversity of experience in Arizona, the diversity of beliefs, of faiths that we know exist and will continue to exist,’’ she said. “Posting one specific religion’s tenets in every classroom would leave out the other religions that might be represented in that classroom and make a person who doesn’t subscribe to that particular religion to feel that they might not be as welcome.’’

Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Tuba City, said she, too, resents efforts by others to promote their own beliefs in that way.

“I know where I come from,’’ she said.

“I know my story and I know my identity,’’ Hatathlie continued. “And when someone pushes these ideas onto me or onto my children, I don’t appreciate that.’’

Versions differ by religion

There’s another issue: Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, pointed out that there are different versions of the Ten Commandments.

There are some similarities. For example, the Tenth Commandment in the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant versions all tell people they should not covet things that belong to another.

But the First Commandment in the Jewish version is more of a statement: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’’

For Protestants, it’s a command to have “no other gods before me,’’ with a variant in the Catholic version.

The command not to kill is the Sixth Command in Jewish and Protestant versions; it is No. 5 for Protestants. And there are similar mixings of the order of other commandments.

“And so I’m wondering which Commandments we’re going to have teachers display in their classrooms,’’ Gonzales said.

The measure now goes to the House.