Christian-secular clashes grow in the US

Nine Louisiana families are suing the state of Louisiana over a new law that orders every public-school classroom to display a poster of the Ten Commandments.

And in a further sign of growing clashes between Christian and secular worldviews, Oklahoma’s top education official has ordered schools there to begin incorporating the Bible into lessons. The BBC reports there has been significant push back to these measures.

Under the Louisiana legislation, every school receiving state funding must, by 2025, prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The lawsuit, backed by secular civil-rights groups, claims that such a display violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, and that the display ‘pressures’ students into adopting the state’s favoured religion. The law ‘simply cannot be reconciled with the fundamental religious freedom principles that animated the founding of our nation’, wrote the plaintiffs.