A federal judge has blocked, at least temporarily, implementation of a recently passed state law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in Texas public schoolrooms. Those who oppose the law claim it’s an unconstitutional promotion of religion. But there’s less chance that the law, if implemented, will promote religious indoctrination then that it will actually undermine religious faith. Whatever the outcome of this latest dispute about religion or its lack in the public school classroom, parents who want their children to be more religious should assume more responsibility for their children’s religious education themselves, rather than rely on the state to instruct their children on religious matters.
Federal District Court Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio has blocked enforcement of the requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in the classrooms of the public schools of eleven independent school districts, including those of San Antonio and Austin, in response to a lawsuit filed by parents citing threats to their children’s religious freedom. Judge Biery claims that the law, S. B. 10, “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others.”
Maybe so. But if the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, called too cutely “the Nation’s Report Card,” is any indication, there is little if any danger that children will be successfully indoctrinated in the Christian faith, or any other, for that matter, in Texas or in other states, including Arkansas and Louisiana, where federal judges have also blocked the implementation of similar laws. The 2024 NAEP reports that math and reading scores continue their post-pandemic decline. The most widely reported findings include the assertions that only a third of 8th graders are reading proficiently while only a third of high school seniors are prepared for college-level work in math. If the nation’s public schools are unable to successfully teach their students basic reading and math skills, how can they be expected to successfully indoctrinate their students in Christian or any other religious beliefs? Parents fearing their children will become religious zealots have little to fear on that score.
The greater danger is that the faith of children (or adults, for that matter) may be weakened by tasking school districts with any responsibilities for any sort of religious instruction at all. Public schools are government schools. In other nations, the greater the connection between church and state, the weaker the public’s adherence to or faith in particular religious doctrines, probably because those who dislike a particular government’s policies and who identify the church with the state withdraw their support from the church. Thus in northern European countries which have, or until recently had, official state churches—the Church of England (Anglican), the Lutheran Church in Scandinavia, for example—the percentage of actual believers in official church doctrines number in the low double digits. In Latin America, the most rapidly growing denominations are the Baptists and Mormons, rather than the predominant Catholic Church. The Polish Catholic Church during the Cold War was vibrant and popular precisely because it was in opposition to Poland’s ruling Communist Party.
The best course of action for parents who want their children to grow up to be people of faith is to assume more responsibility themselves for their children’s religious education. They have a range of options. They can pray with their children. They can read them Bible stories. They can enroll their children in Sunday School and take them to church. But however the courts finally decide on the constitutionality of S.B. 10 and similar laws, they should not rely on government to do what they themselves can, and should, do. Government action will probably be at best ineffective, and at worst produce unwanted hostility to religious faith. Those who want America’s children to be more religious should realize that the religious education of our children is best left to their parents, their parents’ clergy, and other religious leaders.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville
Economic Development Authority since 2018 and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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