The Ten Commandments could be heading to public school classrooms and public buildings across the state after the Arkansas House gave its approval Monday night.
The bill, which only needs the signature of Gov. Sarah Sanders to become law, will require the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings and classrooms. The Republican-dominated House passed SB433 with 71 in favor, 20 opposed and two voting present.
Republicans Rep. Steve Unger (R-Springdale) and Rep. Dolly Henley (R-Washington) voted against the bill. And Republicans Rep. Keith Brooks (R-Little Rock) and Rep. R.J. Hawk (R-Bryant) voted present.
Supporters have suggested that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 involving a Washington state football coach changed the legal landscape for what types of religious displays are allowable under the law. Among the bill’s supporters in committee was David Barton and his son, Tim, of the Texas-based WallBuilders organization. David Barton, who has prayed with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, is a self-styled expert on the subject, despite a 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson being pulled by its publisher amid a slew of criticism from scholars.
Opponents of the Arkansas bill have included the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of clergy who gathered at the Capitol last week to voice their opposition. Wendell Griffen, a pastor among the opposition group and a former judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, said the Washington case is different from the Ten Commandments issue at hand and the courts would consider the issue differently.
Rep. Alyssa Brown (R-Heber Springs) sponsored the bill and said on the House floor Monday night that the Ten Commandments is displayed in several public buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives and the National Archives.
Unger, a former military chaplain who described himself as an evangelical Christian, spoke against the bill. Unger delivered what felt like a sermon at times, criticizing the bill as a hollow display of what he called “cultural Christianity.” He compared the bill to “outward trappings of holiness,” public displays that didn’t amount to much.
Unger also criticized celebrity pastors more focused on outward appearances than changed hearts. He notably referenced Bill Gothard, the leader of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a conservative Christian organization closely associated with Northwest Arkansas’s Duggar family. Jim Bob Duggar is a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and his association with Gothard was captured in the 2023 documentary “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.”
Rep. Cindy Crawford (R-Fort Smith) spoke in favor of the bill, offering a simplistic timeline that attempted to prove that a 1962 Supreme Court decision to take prayer out of schools was the first domino to fall in a moral decline that included the free love movement of the 1960s; changing norms on marriage, birth control and adultery; abortion; the school shooting in Texas; and a lack of gratitude for Vietnam soldiers. She suggested that placing the Ten Commandments in schools could be the beginning of the country’s moral compass being reinstated.
Rep. Rick McClure (R-Malvern) spoke in favor of the bill, saying that the Ten Commandments are prevalent in most world religions. He also suggested that a wayward child could see the Ten Commandments poster and learn that stealing and killing are not proper actions. Keeping the Ten Commandment away from them would do more than exposing it to them, he said.
Rep. Marcus Richmond (R-Harvey) called for an immediate vote on the bill and, a low time later, the bill passed easily.
Brittany Stillwell, an associate pastor at Second Baptist Church Downtown in Little Rock, organized the group of clergy opposed to the bill. After the measure passed Monday night, she provided the following statement:
I’m disappointed in the action the House took today, but their vote doesn’t change the way we will continue to live out our faith. I am encouraged by the faith leaders who came together to speak up for religious liberty and am hopeful this won’t be the end of our collaborative advocacy work.
