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A Texas-based national pro-life leader this week praised a state bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public elementary and secondary school classrooms, telling Fox News that he sees it as a way to bring Christianity to places that desperately need God.
SB10 is currently waiting for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has publicly supported the measure, to sign it. In a May 28 interview with FOX News, President and CEO of 40 Days for Life Shawn Carney said the state bill points toward positive change in the country broadly.
The initiative appears to be part of a larger trend that has arisen “after the chaos of 2020,” Carney said, where people are “reevaluating some of these things that we have allowed in our culture.” The results of those reflections include allowing prayer in school and reversing Roe v. Wade, he added.
According to Carney, the Texas bill is part of this movement and counteracts anti-Christian trends, especially those that make Christians feel “they should be embarrassed of their beliefs” when they should not be.
“They’re putting up statues of Satan in courthouses and statehouses. We should certainly be able to and push to put the Ten Commandments up and express our faith,” he said.
He added that violence in schools demonstrates a need for the Ten Commandments to be placed in classrooms, stating, “They’re places that need God.”
Carney said that the inevitable claim that the bill violates the separation of church and state contradicts founding father Thomas Jefferson’s intention to protect the church, not the state. Carney also said that the Ten Commandments have been celebrated by Americans for decades, so placing them in schools is “just not a big deal.”
He later added, “[W]e in our society need the Ten Commandments. We need guidance; we don’t do very well on our own. We’re at each other’s throats. We’re the most divided we’ve ever been and the Ten Commandments point us to good; they point us to discipline; they point us to truth and to love and to mercy.”
CatholicVote previously reported that, last year, Louisiana became the first state to pass legislation mandating Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms. The state is currently facing a lawsuit filed by teachers and parents who argue that the bill is unconstitutional. According to NBC, Arkansas has also passed a similar bill.
