Church and state

Dear Editor,

You report on the new Texas law requiring classroom walls to display the “Ten Commandments”. I studied the Louisiana version of this law for my forthcoming book Democracy after Christendom. Both laws, identically, prescribe the text to be displayed. This is a redacted version of Exodus 22v2-17 in the King James Version. Louisiana requires a “context statement” saying that the text forms part of the history of the USA’s educational and legal system. Neither law states the real Biblical context, nor that the display is a translation of an originally Hebrew text. I wonder what would happen to a teacher who explained to students the Biblical context and the Christian understanding found in Matthew 22.36-40.

These laws reflect two ideas. One is that Christians’ political duty is to apply the Bible as civil law. The other is that the USA is a “new Israel”.