A standard tactic in the Christian Nationalist playbook is to label efforts to defend the separation of church and state as anti-religion. We’ll be sure to see that in Louisiana, where Americans United and its allies have filed a lawsuit to block a new law that requires posting of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.
The argument may be hard to sustain, given that some of our plaintiffs are members of the clergy.
Among them is the Rev. Jeff Sims of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In a statement to the media, Sims remarked, “By favoring one version of the Ten Commandments and mandating that it be posted in public schools, the government is intruding on deeply personal matters of religion. I believe that it’s critical for my children to receive and understand scripture within the context of our faith, which honors God’s gift of diversity and teaches that all people are equal.”
He added, “This law sends a contrary message of religious intolerance that one denomination or faith system is officially preferable to others, and that those who don’t adhere to it are lesser in worth and status. As a pastor and father, I cannot, in good conscience, sit by silently while our political representatives usurp God’s authority for themselves and trample our fundamental religious-freedom rights.”
Another plaintiff, the Rev. Darcy Roake, a Unitarian Universalist minister, noting that her family is interfaith, remarked that the state-mandated religious displays will “create an unwelcoming and oppressive school environment for children, like ours, who don’t believe in the state’s official version of scripture. We believe that no child should feel excluded in public school because of their family’s faith tradition.”
Other plaintiffs in the case come from a mix of religious and nonreligious traditions. Americans United is a broad coalition of people of faith and those of no particular religion We find great strength in that diversity.
These facts won’t stop Christian Nationalist groups from spreading misinformation about the lawsuit, of course. But those who care about truth will know that this lawsuit isn’t about attacking or harming religion – far from it. One of our goals is to protect religion from being co-opted by any unit of government for its own ends.
That is exactly what the separation of church and state is designed to do. And it’s why the majority of the people of this nation, religious and nonreligious, rally around that basic American principle.
