The Big Easy, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

The home of jambalaya, Creole and Jazz
The Superdome and Saints, Madi Gras
Does anyone remember Judge Roy Moore
The 10 commandments pushed before

Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists
Looks like Louisiana forgot “no religious test”
Seems like the fundamentalists are doing their best
To ignore the Constitution, destroy our education

Those on the far right, rightfully look to the east
To places like Iran and Saudi Arabia theocracy beast
They look at the youth in Afghanistan, indoctrination
Is the plan. Barbary Treaty written for contemplation

John Adams signed without confrontation, clearly stating
There was no Christian foundation to the laws ratified
In in our Constitution. 4,543 words you will not find
Any of theocratic mind, no “Jesus”, “Bible” “Christian” sign

5 parents in the court case, put indoctrination in it’s place
Long forgotten, but none the less true Engel vs Vitale
Justice Hugo Black knew, that indirect influence
Could put undue pressure on kids that did not subscribe

To the majority tribe. If any other texts were in the classroom
You know these same theocrats would not make room
For the minorities in their midst, silence of such
They would insist. Second class status at their best

The courts told Moore to remove the monument
Religious favoritism cannot be dominant
In public schools it is beyond arrogant
It will inherently teach kids to be intolerant

Schools are not Mosques you would agree
So why are you blind, why can you not see
The danger you are causing to our democracy
To make them churches is the height of hypocrisy

Jefferson’s Virginia Religious Freedom Act
Pulpit politics will negatively impact
Lets leave those bibles out of backpacks
Let kids think for themselves

If Sharia Law makes no sense
Then there really is no pretense
To pretend that youth are your clay
And no others shall have a say

Nobody will burn down your churches
Nobody will have you arrested
But education is what all have invested
And that should never be divested

Into tribalism, otherism, anti pluralism
“E-Pluribus Unum”, “out of many one”
Teach the kids inclusion, never to shun
Learn from past history, and what the King had done

“My mind is my church” words of Thomas Paine
From The Age of Reason, I hope not written in vein
He saw the toxic mix of religiously fervent men
Seeking dominance, and corruption, always happens when

Left to it’s own devices, no checks on it’s power
Religion left unbridled, freedom it will devour
When that school bell rings, neutrality shall be the rule
Indoctrination centers never shall be in school.
(end)

Admittedly I put a lot of history into one poem. So here is some deeper historical context.

1. Back in the 90s Alabama Judge Roy Moore erected a stone monument of the 10 commandments in his courthouse. The Judge was successfully sued and forced to remove the monument based on the establishment clause of the Constitution of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion”.

2. Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists was signed January 1rst 1802, reassuring them that freedom of religion was protected, but could only be protected through his “wall between church and state”. Jefferson’s concept of neutrality.

3. United States Constitution’s oath of office, does not contain the words “So Help Me God”, that part is strictly voluntary. Words that are in there are “no religious test”.

3. President John Adams penned in part and signed “The Barbary Treaty” and it’s article 11 which states, “As the government of the United States Of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”. It was signed in to law without dissent.

4. There are 4,543 words in the Constitution, none of them are “bible” “Jesus” or “Christian”. If the founders had intended on biblically based law and not government neutrality, why the failure to mention Christianity by name? “

5. A Jewish man, Steven Engel, along with 4 other parents, one a Unitarian, sued The Hendrix School District and it’s school board President William Vital in 1951 Supreme Court Case challenging the forcing government lead prayer in school.

Justice Hugo black wrote as part of the majority opinion, ” It is a matter of history that this practice of establishing governmentally composed prayers for religious services was one of the reasons which caused many of our early colonists to leave England and seek religious freedom in America.”

6. Thomas Paine in his book “The Age Of Reason” wrote about the dangers of religious power infecting government institutions:

“My mind is my church……. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”

Paine accepted that people would be religious, but like any institution religion could and would become abusive if it overran government. The religious indoctrination of youth in the Middle East and places like Afghanistan is all the more reason to leave religion out of public schools.

Those who are not in the majority at a particular school, will be marginalizes or seen as outcasts if they don’t participate. It is bad enough that a parent will teach their kid to be intolerant of others, but the school system should not be playing favorites to one religion over another.

Jefferson’s Virginia Religious Freedom Act was the prototype for Maddison’s First Amendment. Jefferson did believe in the God of Jesus, but did not believe that Jesus was a magic man with super powers. Nor did he believe that God intervened in human lives after he started everything.

Now, play close attention to these words in that law that became the prototype for Madison’s first Amendment.

Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom reads in part:

” Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own
will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that
Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, YET CHOSE NOT TO PROPEGATE IT BY COERCIONS ON EITHER.”

Forcing kids to walk by are stare at plaque on a daily basis is coercion by implication. It is a passive aggressive way of indoctrinating kids while claiming that is not what you are doing. Any kid or parent objecting to religious favoritism is going to be seen as a malcontent, an outsider, and be subject to harassment, bullying, or even violence.

To the advocates who want the 10 commandments in public schools, think about the religious indoctrination of kids in Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. You fully accept what they do is indoctrination. You also accept their theocracies are bad. The founders fought a King who forced his religion on the colonies.

Schools are not mosques, they are not synagogues, or Buddhist or Hindu temples, and they are also not churches. There are 380,000 houses of worship in America on private property that anyone can go outside of government time. But the government itself is ours. It does not belong to one religion, our motto is “E-Pluribus Unum”, out of many one. Our youth should be taught inclusion, tolerance and neutrality. Schools are for learning, math, science, history, second languages, sportsmanship. They should not be indoctrination centers.