Clergy against forced display of Ten Commandments in schools rally at the Capitol

A group of Arkansas clergy rallied at the state Capitol today to oppose a state mandate forcing the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and public buildings. 

During a press conference in the Capitol rotunda, ministers from a variety of Christian denominations and a Little Rock rabbi criticized a bill making its way through the Legislature that would force public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library. The religious leaders said legislators had taken the Ten Commandments out of its appropriate context, and that the forced displays won’t be helpful in spreading the Christian faith.

“A coerced faith isn’t much of one,” said Preston Clegg, pastor at Second Baptist Church Downtown in Little Rock. 

The bill has cleared the Senate and a House committee. It only needs to pass the House floor before it reaches the desk of Gov. Sarah Sanders.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Jim Dotson (R-Bentonville) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R-Heber Springs). It has the support of Tim Barton and his father David Barton, self-styled experts from the Texas-based WallBuilders organization.  

Brittany Stillwell, associate pastor at Second Baptist Church Downtown in Little Rock, spoke against the Ten Commandments bill in committee this week. Credit: Brian Chilson

Brittany Stillwell, an associate pastor at Second Baptist Church, organized Thursday’s press conference and spoke against the bill in committee yesterday. Stillwell said the mandated displays of the Ten Commandments would violate the U.S. Constitution and her personal faith, which she said values religious liberty. Stillwell said the Ten Commandments should be taught in a faith community, not in public schools. 

Credit: Brian Chilson

Wendell Griffen, an outspoken Little Rock pastor and former judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, called the bill a mandate of a faith system apart from context. Griffen added that an auto mechanic wouldn’t be the appropriate authority for an appendectomy just as a school teacher wouldn’t be the appropriate authority on faith matters. 

Griffen also questioned the constitutionality of the bill. Proponents of such proselytizing displays in classrooms say a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the landscape for how religion can be injected into the public square. 

Griffen, a lawyer and former law professor, was having none of it on Thursday. 

“They haven’t read the case,” Griffen said. “As I used to tell my law students, it would help if you read the case before you came to class.” That case centered on a Washington state high school football coach who prayed on the field after a game. Griffen said that case was about the freedom of religious expression, while the Ten Commandments bill is about the establishment of religion. 

Stillwell, Griffen and Rabbi Barry Block of Congregation B’nai Israel in LIttle Rock also took issue with the language the bill requires schools to post. 

Block said he had read the Ten Commandments in Hebrew and that neither he nor his Christian colleagues could make heads or tails of the version that would be required for posting. The bill lays out a specific text of 12 commandments that must be displayed as a robust poster or a framed copy. Block listed several commandments and noted how the bill or the Legislature had violated them.

In committee meetings, Tim Barton of WallBuilders spoke in support of the bill and said the country had experienced moral failings, such as increased crime rates, without religion in schools. Block said he agreed the country is experiencing a morality crisis but maybe not in the same way Barton had intended. 

“America is suffering a terrible morality crisis,” Block said. “The oppression of people who are different from the majority is the height of a moral problem. The imposition of one set of values that emanate from white Christian nationalism is a terrible moral crisis. I fail to see how that’s going to be solved by posting a made-up version of the commandments in classrooms.”

Block also noted how Judaism and Christianity have flourished without government mandates. 

“Jewish life has thrived in America because of the First Amendment, because of the establishment clause (of the First Amendment), because of freedom of religion and separation of church and state,” he said. “That’s not only true of Jewish life in America but of Christianity. Look at how Christianity is prospering in America today. We do not need government mandates to make this a religious nation.”