Way back in the mid-1990s I found myself at parent-teacher’s night at a small elementary school in the lovely town of Fenton, Michigan. The Air Force had assigned me to a three-year education program wherein I would earn a Ph.D. in political science before returning to the AF Academy to teach that same subject to cadets. While attending grad school at the University of Michigan, my family and I lived in Fenton, about 45 minutes north of the campus in Ann Arbor, as it was the town my wife had grown up in and where her parents still lived. It was then, and remains, now, a lovely town with nice folks. Having grandparents close by was always a help, and we loved the small town atmosphere. 

Thus it was that I found myself in the aforementioned classroom listening to an angry parent’s rant against the teacher. It seems this classroom full of 4^th graders had an affirmation on the wall that the kids read aloud each morning. The affirmation talked about being nice and supportive, not being bullies, and such. The angry parent demanded to know why the pledge of allegiance, that many of us grew up saying every morning, was missing, especially the “under God” part.

The teacher explained that the US Supreme Court had long since ruled that schools (or any governmental entity) cannot compel those under its control to pledge allegiance under God. Now, I grew up saying the pledge every day and it was never an issue for me. But for some, it was, and I get that. At the Academy, I’d first ask my students if they were ok with the pledge being forced on students, and they (as they are mostly conservative) were generally fine with it. But when I then asked them if they would say the same pledge, but with “under Satan” replacing “under God,” they objected. So, it mattered deeply to them which religious tradition was included, which in turn is the very definition of state-sponsored religion. And our Constitution doesn’t let any government compel any particular religious observance.

Anyway, this mom was really ticked off, and the poor teacher was trying to explain the law. The mom stated, “how will our kids learn to be patriotic?” and for me that was the last straw. I raised my hand (we were in school, after all), and when called upon, I stated that I was a career military officer, a former nuclear weapons officer, and that if she or any parent is relying on the schools to teach their kids to love their country, they are missing the mark. The parents are the most important influence on kids, and she needs to step up and not demand that the schools do her job for her. She was displeased.

Which, of course, brings me to Bismarck, North Dakota…

As reported in Colorado Politics, the governor of that fair state recently signed a new state law that is designed to shield schools and teachers from lawsuits if they decide to post the ten commandments in their schoolrooms. Not other faith’s documents, only the ten commandments.

The GOP-sponsored new law seems to believe, as did that Fenton mom, that our problems as a nation are not, say, about wealth, poverty, race, gender, and such, but are at least partly due to kids in schools not seeing the commandments every day. Now, I’m not going to get into a theological discussion here as to the relative merits of said commandments. They seem, overall, to be pretty good thoughts on how to be a good person. But they are quite clearly part of the Judeo-Christian tradition that was certainly one of the – but not the only – traditions that influenced our nation. 

That said, the law is quite clear (as supported by many Supreme Court rulings) that the government, at any level, doesn’t get to pick one faith (or no faith) over another to promote to kids in schools. As is noted in the article, this law will certainly be struck down, as have been all previous efforts to force some version of the commandments on schools, courthouses, and other government buildings (Remember Roy Moore? Double sigh…).

Now, I can almost hear the eyerolls from many of you about what some may think is yet another libtard (can I call myself that? I’m actually a moderate, but these days any moderation is seen as a sin by far too many) yelping about keeping God out of our lives. Well, that’s partly right. 

I could go on for pages (Ed: please don’t) about the history of various groups trying to foist their particular world view exclusively on schools, but instead, I’ll just ask you this: if you support the ten commandments going up in a school room, are you equally ok with, say, the four noble truths of Buddhism put up in other classrooms? How about the principles of Sharia law? How about whatever the Church of Satan equivalent of the commandments?

If you are ok with one of these, but not with the others, then you are proposing that the government push one faith on our kids as an official government faith. And we don’t do that here, even if you personally like the faith the government picks, because others won’t.

I have no problem with the commandments being included in, say, a class on world religious history (that would include other faith’s documents as well). Heck, I took more than one class on world religion and it was very enriching to learn about the other few billions of people on the Earth. But I’m not ok with any government (like, say, Iran) picking one faith as the exclusive and only acceptable faith. And I’m certainly not ok with any US government, at any level, picking which religious views are ok and which are not. That, dear readers, is un-American, even as supporters of that view wrap themselves in the flag while carrying a cross. The North Dakota law is flawed, wrong, and should be quickly discarded, even if it feels good to some.

There, that should offend just about everyone…

(Ed: sigh…)