By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
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 conclusion of the state Senate which voted along party lines Thursday to add them to a list of items that 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, who crafted the measure, said it 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.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether it is legal.
Schools removed the Commandments no later than 1980 after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded 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, however, said this is different. And the key, he said, is that Arizona is not mandating the posting but making it only an option.
He is relying on a 2022 Supreme Court decision where the justices, in a 6-3 ruling, said that 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 what is in his SB 1151 fits within that exception.
"This does not mandate that teachers must post the Ten Commandments,'' he said, but simply becomes an option, just like the other items already on the list. "Teachers have full authority to post, to read, or not to read.''
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.''
Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, said she sees the issue from the perspective of being 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.''
And there's one other problem: 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, its a command to have "no other gods before me,'' with a variant in the Catholic version. This is the Second Commandment in the Jewish version,
The command not to kill is the Sixth Command in Jewish and Protestant versions; its No. 5 for Protestants. And there are similar mixings of 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.
In separate action Thursday, the Senate voted to set up a system of fines for schools that do not display the U.S. flag, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights in each classroom.
That already is required. But SB 1122 would require both the state Department of Education and the state Board for Charter Schools to not only have a process for complaints but also investigate if the law is being violated.
A first offense would give schools five days to fix it. Failure to do so would result in a $1,000 fine, with further $1,000 fines for repeat violations.
"This is yet another punitive measure on our already overburdened educators,'' said Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, who also is a teacher. She said 99% of the classrooms already comply.
"And when they don't it's probably because the classroom flooded, somebody had to move classrooms at the last minute,'' Marsh said.
That measure, too, also now goes to the House.
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