Kate Murphy: The blasphemous GOP push for religion in public schools
Kate Murphy is pastor at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. Writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, she notes the various attempts to force Christianity into the classroom. She holds up the policies of Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana to require the Ten Commandments in every classroom, Oklahoma’s new Bible in every classroom policy, and Florida’s new law allowing religious chaplains to serve in schools.
I am a pastor and a practicing Christian, but all this blasphemous foolishness has me declaring this Festivus in July because, in the words of the fictional Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, “I got a lot of problems with you people.”
If the govenor of Florida can, by the power not vested in him, unilaterally declare that the church of Satan isn’t a religion, then he can also wake up one morning and decide that Islam isn’t a religion, or Hinduism, or Catholicism or any faith that allows women to preach or doesn’t handle snakes.
The point of the separation of church and state, as any fourth grader with a reasonably competent history teacher can tell you, isn’t to limit a citizen’s ability to practice their faith, but to protect it.
I do not want DeSantis to be able to decide what is and isn’t a religion. For an agent of the American government to seize this kind of power is incredibly ironic, since this is precisely the kind of oppression that some European Christians were fleeing when they settled in the “New World.” It wasn’t that they were prohibited from being Christians, it was that their government had declared that their understanding of Christianity wasn’t a legitimate religion.
I pastor a church and we don’t display the Ten Commandments on any of our walls. Because honestly, it’s a kind of idolatry. It’s tempting to conflate displaying the commandments with keeping them, but nothing could be further from reality.
The sacredness of these or any words of scripture comes in the messy, sacrificial practice of living them out in community and discerning together how God is calling us to keep them. This is work for a voluntarily formed faith community, not a government institution. I want my daughter’s math instructor to teach her how to do quadratic equations, not how to honor her father and mother.
All these men believe they are doing the Lord’s work, but they really haven’t thought it through. I know they don’t want someone like me teaching students how to interpret scripture. Because I’d teach the kindergartners that all people are created in the image of God and must be treated with reverence and respect. I’d teach the fifth graders that God is as much female as male and that God hates the patriarchy and all systems of oppression. I’d teach the middle schoolers that Jesus and the prophets saw amassing wealth and the pursuit of power as the worst kinds of sin and idolatry. And I’d teach high schoolers about restorative justice and God’s preferential option for the poor. Because that’s how I read the gospel.
I know Landry, DeSantis and Walters don’t want me and a Bible anywhere near their children, and I don’t want them and their Bibles anywhere near mine.
Let’s agree to protect the rights of all peoples to be guided by their consciences and not their governments when interpreting scripture. Mandatory Ten Commandment posters, Biblical instruction and pastor chaplains do not belong in publicly funded schools.