Holy Commandments, Batman! Louisiana's Gone Biblical

[00:00:00] Welcome to Sacrilegious Discourse. For this is what the sovereign Lord says, Why do you need prophets to tell people who you are and what you want? If you can justify everything that the God of the Bible has done

[00:00:12] then you can justify any of your behavior. A lot of this mentality is trickling into what is now mainstream right wing Christianity. I am capable of empathy greater than this God of the Bible. This is a Bible that they tell kids. This is a Bible

[00:00:28] that they tell kids. This is the good Lord. This is the good book. This is he is fantasizing about murder, mass murder. And over to Sacrilegious Discourse.com right now I got a house review or some who just on patreon. Husband wife, I'm back. You are back.

[00:00:51] I'm back. What happened there? I was sick. You were so fucking sick. I was the sickest. Yeah you're like throat swallowing shut at one point. I had to go to the emergency room. Yeah. I had a fever. You did.

[00:01:05] For several days. Yeah. Yeah. And we've been gone for like a week. Today is the first day that my voice has actually sounded decent and I've been awake and energetic enough to even think about trying to put

[00:01:19] something together. Well, I am happy to have you back. Oh, thanks. I'm happy to be back. So just in the week that you missed it, you know, it was literally all perfect, wonderfulness in the world and nothing bad actually happened at all.

[00:01:33] Did you know that? Something about gum drops and lollipop? Yeah, I think that's, I think that's no way. Wait, wait, something did happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it? It was Louisiana Governor is a

[00:01:47] fucking bitch and he uh whatever you want to call him. Yeah. He's a son of a gun. Right. He signed a law so that Louisiana has become the first state to require the 10 commandments be displayed in every single classroom. Yeah, well, let's not

[00:02:05] lay all the blame on him. There was a whole state legislature that passed the shed in the law too. Oh, but he's so excited. I have some things to say about him. Did you know that you know I saw a video of him? He had somebody, I don't

[00:02:17] know if this was staged or not, but the video is so just sickening when he's doing the signature for the bill and then there's a little girl behind him that faints as he says he's going to sign the bill. Faints.

[00:02:29] Yeah. Like it's like some sort of fucking play act bullshit. Yeah. I could be wrong. Maybe the girl fucking truly fainted. I have no idea, but holy crap. This whole thing is just such absolute horseshit. Yeah, I've got some things to say when we come

[00:02:43] back. Okay. All right. So with it obviously you guys have figured this out. This is a little bit of a different episode than we normally do. Uh, I feel like we couldn't let this just pass without saying something because honestly,

[00:02:55] this is why we do this podcast. These things that are happening in politics. This is why we're reading this Bible. This is why we're reacting to it. This is why we're trying to call out bullshit where we see it in the Bible.

[00:03:07] This continues to answer the question, oh my God, why you guys always talk about politics in your religion podcast and sadly it keeps coming true in the real world in politics in the United States as to why we have to focus on this bullshit. Yeah.

[00:03:25] Yeah. Yeah. Because sadly it's not just their required to stick a poster up in every classroom. No, no, it's more than that. Oh, okay. Yeah. So we'll talk about that. All right. Um, it's great to be back guys. Let's go ahead and get into this. Okay? Okay. Okay.

[00:03:49] All right. Let's talk about Louisiana. Do we have to? I mean, okay. Tell me some of your favorite things about Louisiana. I have always, always, always one of the go down to New Orleans and go down there for Montagreau and see some jazz. Like I mean,

[00:04:05] just and to see the French Quarter and just that's one of my places that I have to visit before I die. Right. I just have to. And you want to eat crawfish or whatever? Yeah.

[00:04:15] Yeah. And then I had some gumbo at once but it was not from Louisiana. I was, I was, I was in Memphis at the time. And that is, that is, you know, it was one of my favorite

[00:04:23] dishes I've ever had in my entire life. Yeah. And that wasn't even in Louisiana. Right. So I'm like, I got to go to Louisiana. Obviously. Obviously. Now, I have always wanted to go visit

[00:04:33] the French Quarter ever since I read and rice books. All of her main fair witches, stories, and a lot of the vampire stories take place in that area. And I mean, it's known for like old world. I do

[00:04:49] as like voodoo and things like that. So like that, it's a very intriguing hown. It's such a mix of current and old. Yeah. Just on, in all different cultures, all mixed into one. Yeah. Beyond that, beyond New Orleans, there's not really much down there that I would know

[00:05:07] about other than, that's really all I really know about Louisiana and in that that is. It's a very Republican state. Yeah. Of course. We know that. Right. It's down south.

[00:05:17] You know? It is what it is. It is what it is. And it shaped like an owl. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I recognize it on the map. Got it. Okay. So up until this point, I didn't really

[00:05:30] give a shit one way or the other about Louisiana except for the things that I knew I wanted to see about it and also the things that I knew that I didn't like about it. Yeah. The end.

[00:05:41] I feel like that's as, you know, I feel like that's as far as my curiosity about states went prior to maybe the last 10 to 15 years, you know? Yeah. But there's become this thing that is happening

[00:05:54] in states because there are political action groups that have realized they can use states as tools to push forward ideas that they want to push forward that they can't get through national legislatures or the national, you know, the national, the Congress and the Senate and the presidency.

[00:06:09] They can't put them through there so they're focusing in on states and they do these, well, I'm going to let you get into it. But long gone. Yeah. It's a long gone.

[00:06:17] Yeah. I mean, it has to do with the whole putting stacking the PTO and the town councils and the libraries, you know, and the board of education and all that. It has to do with the sheriff.

[00:06:30] Yeah. You know, just, there's Republicans all the way down. Yeah. Yeah. Just loading it for the long con. You got it. And then putting the judges up and then eventually bumping them into the

[00:06:41] Supreme Court. And to be fair, Republicans have played this game perfectly over the last 40 years. Yeah. And they are now reaping the benefits of winning the local politics game. And how? Yeah. So we were not prepared for this? No. No. And this is just the most recent, right?

[00:07:00] This is just a string of things that has been happening for years now that people are, we're having to start to pay attention. Yeah. But we're not paying enough attention. Yeah.

[00:07:11] And I think we need to, this is that we want to do this episode because we want to point out what this is and what it's going to do. What the risk is? Right. So Louisiana has become the first state

[00:07:23] to require. Re-quire, not like you can if you want to, but actually require the 10 commandments be displayed in every classroom. Yeah. And when I say every classroom, I think that most of us

[00:07:36] had in mind that this was just K through 12, right? Um, this is that was my, this is K through University. Really? Yes. Wow. Yes. Huh. Uh huh. It was signed into law last week on June 19th

[00:07:52] by Republican Governor Jeff Landry. Okay. And this is only the first such mandate to be passed in the country in more than 40 years. So I got to say something about that when he passed it and

[00:08:04] the one he signed it into law. So I think I didn't cover this in the beginning because we did two intro. We had to redo the first one. Oh, I did. Okay. Yeah. So where the girl passed out

[00:08:15] behind him and everything like, okay. All right. Yeah. You talked about that. Okay. All right. So when I said this is the first mandate to be passed in the last 40 years. Yeah. Lawmakers in Oklahoma,

[00:08:27] Mississippi, and West Virginia, which of course are all three very Republican. Yeah. They introduced similar bills this year. This year, it's only June of 2024. Well, because it's probably and I don't know that we looked into this exactly but it's probably all done by some specific political

[00:08:46] action. It is. Oh, yeah. It is. Okay. All right. Yeah. On none of them passed, this is the first one that was got to get passed. Yeah. But this will be the first of many. And they may not hold

[00:08:59] through the Supreme Court. Yeah. The whole legal process, right? But and I'm going to get into that in a minute. Well, my feeling is that with regard to how the Supreme Court has been handling

[00:09:09] cases that aren't going to pass, right? They don't hold water. Yeah. Right. They're using those cases as a way to signal ways that they can do similar laws and still get what they want. Well, that

[00:09:21] and like what they just did with the methapyristone, they didn't answer the question as to whether or not that medication can be mailed or sent in the mail to patients for abortion care. Right.

[00:09:37] They didn't answer that question. What they did is say, y'all should not have brought this case in the first place and so they lightly sidesteped the actual question which means that it will come back to the Supreme Court but phrased in a different way. Right. And I believe

[00:09:52] and in correct me if I'm wrong, what I think they utilize the time, their statements. They utilize their statements to kind of hint at ideas on how they could rephrase the framework of a bill that

[00:10:02] might actually hold water in the Supreme Court. I don't know about that but wouldn't surprise them. Yeah, I know they've used that in other cases at the very least. So this is what Landry said.

[00:10:13] I have a few quotes from him that I've sprinkled throughout my notes. Yeah. If you want to respect the rule of law, you've got to start from the original law giver which was Moses

[00:10:23] who got the commandments from God. But that's not even right. Like there are so many people that did laws before that like the the code of Is it the homerobie code, the code of homerobie or

[00:10:33] something like that that came before this before Moses and and moreover all you have to do is read the fucking 10 commandments and see that there's like 2.5 commandments in there that make some

[00:10:46] sense in a very generalized sense of what laws are in our codes for law today and nationally. But they're not they there no basis for what our fucking government was based on. It's all it's all

[00:10:57] centered around God. No, no, it's true and he's not trying to say in this particular quote that you know our country's laws are based on God which are the 10 commandments like he's not saying that

[00:11:10] in this quote. Right. Okay, but a lot of Republicans do think that no our our laws totally based on the 10 commandments and as you point it out only 2.5 of the commandments actually are applicable to American

[00:11:25] laws. Yeah. Because there is no law against being a liar face. There is to us in 2 an extent. You can't lie in court. Right? That's why I call it a half of a half of a okay. Okay. So there are rules

[00:11:38] against lying in certain circumstances. But there's no rule there's no law that says you have to honor your mother and father. There's no law that says that you know you can't covet your neighbor. There's no law against adultery really there's no law against building idols. There's more

[00:11:54] law that you says you have to worship on the Sabbath or rest on the Sabbath. Yeah, hold this Sabbath holy. Yeah, there's there's so many things that are just not at all applicable to anything

[00:12:04] in society unless you're Christian. Yeah. I mean, if that I don't think that they really hold them up as you know, something that they follow either to be perfectly honest. No, I don't either.

[00:12:13] I don't either. What they have to actually display is a poster-sized display no smaller than 11 by 14 inches of the religious rules, the 10 commandments in large easily readable font. And again, this will have to appear in grades K through publicly funded colleges. And this

[00:12:35] will all have to start in 2025. Got it. So in my research, I did a little bit of research myself on this and some of the information that I came across. I actually found a person that I'm really

[00:12:46] interested in and I think everybody should check this out. He's actually a very, I guess kind of well known activists. He's done some things as far as separation of church and state in Florida in the past

[00:12:55] and has had some lawsuits that have been very public with regard to separation of church and state. This person's name is Chaz Stevens and he is a political activist artist and entrepreneur from Florida. He is gained a lot of notoriety just recently with regard to his malicious compliance

[00:13:15] posters that he has created for the 10 commandments essentially. So he's like, if you go to his website, I'm going to put a link to his stuff in our show notes. So please definitely go check it out

[00:13:26] because it's so cool. Yeah, you show me some of it. I'm like, okay, that is cool. Right. Right. I mean he's got ways to display them that are within the rules but but bending it quite a bit.

[00:13:40] Yeah. So I mean like he's definitely not as intense. He's got one where he's got basically a Chinese flag and it's like all the the 10 commandments are all written in Chinese and he's got

[00:13:49] one that's written in Arabic and you know he's got another one that like highlights the word ass and whatever. There's just like it's so funny. It's so funny. It's all those rules. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:59] No, I absolutely love it. I love people that get out there and they're like fine. We got a follow rules. Fuck you then. Here it is. Yeah. So that's absolutely perfect. So Chaz Stevens,

[00:14:09] check them out. So not only must the 10 commandments appear. The text must also be paired with a four paragraph context statement describing how the 10 commandments were quote a prominent part of the American public education for almost three centuries. Oh my what a fucking mind-fuck

[00:14:32] lie. Yeah. I mean like that's absolutely a lie. True. Right. We are, what was it that you felt that this country was built upon as you were growing up 40 years ago? Separation of church and state

[00:14:43] and a melting pot, right? Oh yeah. Like we were a melting pot. We brought in all cultures. We we allowed for everybody, everybody walk alive. Every creene culture type of a different whatever. Everybody's welcome, right? And we take everybody in. That was the beauty of what I understood

[00:15:00] America, the United States to be when I was younger. Same. And now we're like fuck y'all if you're not white and Christian get the fuck out of here and stay the fuck gone. And definitely be straight.

[00:15:11] Yeah. I don't even recognize the country that we're living in anymore with some of the shit that's happening. It is, it is and I really don't even think it's the majority of Americans.

[00:15:20] I think it's this small, not small, this large minority of people who are fighting with everything they have to make sure that their ideas are forced upon everybody else. You know? And they're doing

[00:15:34] everything they can to take control where they can and implement these things, where they can and make their presence known to everybody and just piss us all off apparently. Well I saw one chart

[00:15:45] and I wish I had taken note of this but it kind of reminded me of what you just saw where there is about 30% of Americans who believe that there is not enough religion in the country.

[00:16:00] Another 30% who thinks there's too much, which we would fall into there. Oh yeah. And then there's another 30 that thinks is either just right or don't give a shit. And so that adds up to 90.

[00:16:11] Right? Is that last 10% that makes the big difference? I mean, yeah I guess. I mean like how do you have no opinion? Like what does that last 10% mean? That last 10% is the people

[00:16:23] that didn't answer. You know what I mean? So like also it depends on what day of the week. Sure. That I mean it's something where the numbers change periodically. There's a plus or minus direction. Right. So my point being it's about evenly split into thirds.

[00:16:42] Sure. Our country is. Right. So we've got that loud third trying to make all of the rules for the other two thirds. Yeah? No, and that's absolutely what's happening. And that's fucked up.

[00:16:53] It is. So I'm not trying to discount, yes they are a large piece but they are not the largest piece. They are just the loudest piece. Right. And their their way is no more better than hours. No.

[00:17:08] Or no more correct than hours. Yeah. As a matter of fact I'm reading their rulebook and it fucking sucks. Yes it does. So anyway, obviously this rule is going to be challenged. And there

[00:17:19] are a bunch of groups that a bunch of civil rights groups that are coming to file a lawsuit to challenge the law and they're all working together. If I understood it correctly I think the ACLU is leading

[00:17:30] the way and like the freedom from religion foundation is signed on. And I'm not sure who the other groups were. The American United for this Americans United for the separation of church and state

[00:17:40] and the American civil liberties union of Louisiana. Okay. And they yeah, they are all marching together basically to make this one giant lawsuit. Yeah, and I'm also going to put links to all of those

[00:17:52] groups in the show notes as well because I highly encourage everyone if you're able to. I know we usually ask for donations for our podcast, but right now this is very important. You know there

[00:18:03] this is this is actionable. This is something that needs we need to not not that we don't want donations. We need to keep our stuff going, right? But this is really really important. This is scary

[00:18:14] important. And it's something you know I know we're helping get the word out. So that's I guess we're helping in our own way. But these people are fighting with lawyers and dollars and on the ground

[00:18:25] right there doing the work that needs to be done. And I couldn't appreciate them more. This this is the real work that needs to actually happen to change the direction of this theocratic law

[00:18:36] that is these laws that are that are that are angling towards the theocracy that are kind of infiltrating our laws, you know like I mean that's that's this is the work that needs to be done.

[00:18:45] Right. So sadly putting up the posters is not the only thing that this law that that's the loudest art. But that's not the only thing that this law did. Okay. So other measures will

[00:18:58] authorize the hiring of chaplains in the schools. So so they get this all as part of the same law. And Landry said that that's a great step for expanding faith in public schools. Teachers will be restricted from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity.

[00:19:20] Not be allowed to say anything about it. And parents must be informed if a transgender student wishes to use a different name or pronoun from that listed on the birth certificate. Oh my gosh.

[00:19:32] Yeah. And about that he said, God gives us our mark. Oh wow. You know, God tells us who we are. And that's what we write down on our birth certificate. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I'm just a

[00:19:45] some backwards asset. Like I mean it's like that this I don't understand how we live in 2024. And we still are dealing with this just absolute bullshit Christian backwards ass crap medieval

[00:20:01] in in in modern society. It doesn't make any fucking sense. We can go to the moon. We can create vaccines on the fly. We can do so much. We can put computers in our pockets. Yeah. You know?

[00:20:15] We can do so much but yet we're fighting fucking Christianity. Yeah. It's ridiculous. It just boggles the mind that there are some states now where not only can't you have an abortion,

[00:20:30] but if you are caught carrying any kind of medication, you can be jailed and finding thousands of dollars. Wow. Yeah. I came across some of that and I was like nope can't go there right now.

[00:20:41] Right. That's a rabbit hole but yeah. So Doty Horton, the state representative who sponsored the Louisiana bill said that having the commandments posted would allow students to look up and see what God says is right and what he says is wrong. Mm-hmm. And I mean obviously

[00:21:02] morality shouldn't be dictated by religious texts. Hello. Moreover that list of laws from ancient biblical times which is like 2500 years BC at least is one no I think I was well whatever it

[00:21:18] was a long fucking time ago. Yeah. It doesn't have morals in it. It's just laws. Yeah. These are just laws that you have to follow. Morals are the reasons why you follow the laws. Morals are your

[00:21:31] reasons for not doing things and God cannot write down morals. You cannot write down morals. You have to have morals. Right. And that's the problem. People think that they can be dictated to people.

[00:21:43] They cannot. You have to have them. It's the it's the difference between when you want people to use their seat belt for example. You hope that they will buckle up because it's the safe and

[00:21:56] responsible thing to do but Americans are very slow to adopt good ways. So instead of doing the moral thing which would be you know the responsible thing and buckle up for the right reason. Yeah. No. Instead, the majority of Americans buckle up because if they don't they'll get

[00:22:16] stopped by police which could lead to you know interactions with police that you don't want and at the very least the ticket. And in general I'm not saying that laws don't help people do

[00:22:26] things that they should. But what I'm saying is that's the difference though. It's the difference between complying with laws versus morals and doing things for the right reason. Right. Are you buckling up

[00:22:41] because you understand that it's safe and that you are being responsible for your body and the other bodies in your vehicle and the people that might have to clean up your your bloody mess.

[00:22:52] Should you get thrown from your car or because somebody else told you to do it or a list of things told you to do it and you're going to either go to hell or jail. Right. That's the difference.

[00:23:02] Yeah. You're either moral or you're following the set of rules. Yeah. Those are the two that they only possible. That's what I was trying to say. Right. Yeah. To me, that's a really great example like examine yourself. Why are you following rules? Any rule? Do you stop at

[00:23:17] a stop sign because it's safe and you know you check all ways for traffic? Because do you believe in the law? Do you believe in the reason behind the thing you're doing or are you doing it because

[00:23:28] you might get it ticket? Right. Exactly. If you're doing it because you might get a ticket, you might want to re-examine why you're doing it and what the reasons they built that wall law for

[00:23:37] in the first place because if you're doing it for the wrong reasons, it gives you less of an incentive to follow it. Because because what that tells me if you're doing it for the wrong reason,

[00:23:45] what that tells me is oh you're that asshole that does the California roll through the stop sign doesn't really look both ways and T-bone somebody. Right. You know you're that asshole. Yeah.

[00:23:56] Because the law doesn't apply to you. Right. Right. You're special. And I'm going to say this one more time while we're on this subject about this but that list of commandments in the 10 commandments literally has very little bearing on anything in American law rather than some vague references

[00:24:12] to some things that are like don't steal. Don't steal. Don't murder and those are the two songs that you saw at once. Yeah. The rest of it is kind of like fluffy and bullshit and mostly based

[00:24:21] round God. Yeah. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. That's definitely not even a little bit part of our law. Man we would be so in jail for a podcast. I was the case. I don't know what

[00:24:33] fuck ever. So one of the things that they will be looking at when they go to fight this law Louisiana is an older case called Stone V-gram. Okay. And that was from 1980 and it was a court case

[00:24:50] in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a Kentucky statute was unconstitutional and in violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment because it lacked a non-religious legislative purpose. How does this apply? Like what did I just say? That was a mouthful. Right.

[00:25:09] Sure. Yeah. The statute required the posting of a copy of the 10 commandments on the wall of each public classroom in the state. Some familiar? Yeah. Right. The copies of the 10 commandments were purchased with private funding but the court ruled that because they were being

[00:25:23] placed in public classrooms, they were in violation of the first amendment. Right. And so the holding, the final answer which is called a holding is a Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the 10 commandments purchased with private contributions on the wall of each public

[00:25:39] classroom in the state is unconstitutional because it lacks a secular legislative purpose. Right. Okay. And I just wanted to get into this a little bit more since this is what case will be cited.

[00:25:52] Yeah. And let me just say this real quick too. If you want the 10 commandments on your child's school wall, send them to a goddamn Christian school. Yeah. I don't I don't fucking care.

[00:26:01] You can have the 10 commandments on your kid's school wall but you send them to the school where it's allowed or tape it on their folders. It tape it on their textbook. Right. Don't

[00:26:10] force my kid to endure your God because you won't send your child to the school that let's them do the things that you want them to do. Right. It's not my choice to have your kid in my classroom

[00:26:23] and therefore having to have the fucking 10 commandments displayed on the wall because you agree with your goddamn governor about these stupid ass fucking commandments being displayed. And more over me saying no, no you you really can't force those to be there. That's not me squashing your

[00:26:40] religion. That's me standing up for my right to not be exposed to your religion. May I please walk on the street without having your religion sneeze all over me? Right. When they need to be careful

[00:26:53] because if they go down this road where they say okay we'll let you have the 10 commandments. The answer to that is going to be okay we'll let you have the 10 commandments but you also have to let the

[00:27:03] satanic temple have their commandments up on the wall. You have to let the Islamic community muslim community have their laws up on the wall. Right. The Jewish community, the the sign Scientologist community you know like they're all gonna get in the wall. That's one thing I was going

[00:27:17] to say how the hell are these people so fucking in love with their their rules and their laws and their supporting Israel and they're like yeah we always support the Jews and then

[00:27:32] we want to put up these 10 commandments and it's like okay yes the Jews also do the 10 commandments as part of their Torah but they don't really go to town and partying Jesus' style

[00:27:44] like you guys do. How come you love you love Israel Jewish is great but the Jew in the classroom can fuck right off. I mean that's essentially how we work in this country. There is very much

[00:27:58] a stigma in this country against Jewish folks generally and it's largely the Christian community of Has it and it's the same time they are supporting Israel and the Jews over there. Yes well

[00:28:11] because that's the best that Jesus God wants them in their homeland so that they can get you know so that they can get you know hurry up and do their little fucking flash stands into oven.

[00:28:22] Yeah yeah that's when the revelation thing is going to happen and all the people are going to dissipate into thin air or whatever so. So planes will crash. Sure yeah and we will all party down.

[00:28:34] To interpret the first amendment in this case the court used the precedent established in another case called Lemon V Kurtzman. Okay that's from 1971 and they refer to this as the Lemon Test. I've heard that before. I've been listening to just a don't normally recommend

[00:28:53] other podcasts on our podcast but we dissent is an amazing reference for Supreme Court law and cases that are regarding separation of church and state specifically. You should all be listening to we dissent. For sure. Again I think this is the only time I've ever just freely

[00:29:11] maybe we've talked about them before. Yeah but they are very very excellent, excellent resource for learning more about what is going on in the courts with regard to secular viewpoints so. Right now is a really great time to hop on listening to them because they're like here's what's

[00:29:28] still left on the docket before this session ends. Well they just covered a myth of pristone and their last episode and this time they just got done talking to uh I forget what the

[00:29:38] woman's name was but she's a lawyer who and they were they were talking about oh man now I'm drawn a blank it was about women's rights and an abortion and things like that. Yeah I

[00:29:47] probably wasn't that I'm trying I'm doing this no justice here so I apologize but definitely check out we dissent there. I just listened to like a few days ago and I've already forgot what I was

[00:29:56] listening to but that doesn't mean I forgot the information I just have a really bad memory so no yeah but it's a it's a really great podcast I highly recommend. I'm gonna I'll find it here

[00:30:06] in a second. Alright well while you're doing that I will talk more about the lemon v Kurtzman. Yeah so the court concluded that because requiring the posting of the 10 commandments in public school rooms has no secular legislative purpose it is unconstitutional right so we've already said

[00:30:23] that a couple times now and the court approached the case through the lens created in this other case lemon v Kurtzman and it agreed that if Kentucky statue broke any of the three guidelines outlined in what I called the lemon test the statue would violate the establishment clause

[00:30:42] got it. The majority held that the commandments kavei a religious undertone because they concern the religious duties of believers and then there's a list of four of those duties worshiping the Lord got along avoiding idolatry not using the Lord's name and vain

[00:31:01] and observing the Sabbath day. Okay now since the commandments are not integrated into the school curriculum where the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history in that context or even in maybe literature where you are learning about different literary styles

[00:31:23] legends or whatever right because it's not being used in that fashion they have no secular purpose and a definite religious purpose. So the court concluded in this Kurtzman v lemon that even though the commandments were paid for by a private institution and were merely posted

[00:31:40] on the wall the mere posting of the copies under the auspices of the legislature provides the official support of the state government that the establishment clause prohibits. So just by being there

[00:31:55] it makes it look like the state supports that. Yeah and that's generally why we don't allow those displays in public places unless it's offset with other displays. Right. Like that's the one time

[00:32:06] that you're allowed to do things like that sometimes. Right. And even that's a little bit touching go to pin on them with the situation is so real quick the it was my a rooper that was in the

[00:32:16] Maya rupert that was in the episode that they had as a special guest and they were talking about on we descent I'm sorry the podcast I was just talking about they were talking about women's

[00:32:26] reproductive rights so I was very close to just I couldn't get exactly what the exact topic was but that was that was what they were talking about in the last one. Sorry but yeah they put in stuff up

[00:32:36] is it's just endorsement. It's an endorsement and that's the reason you cannot do it. Right and that's exactly what the establishment clause discusses. Right first of all. But the danger right now is

[00:32:46] that the establishment clause is in a lot of danger with this new with the spring court. Yeah. It's not it's very questionable whether it's going to survive the next few years and it shouldn't

[00:32:56] be and that that's problematic. Right. So just to like encapsulate this because it endorsed religion and had no secular purpose so both of those not just one or the other both of those. Yeah. The

[00:33:09] court concluded that the Kentucky statute was unconstitutional. As they should have been. Right exactly. And so I just feel like it's really important that we are familiar with these two cases because

[00:33:21] they're the ones that will be referred to and if we hear about them in the news at all, that's what those are. Right. I always my question to Christians when they are for putting the

[00:33:34] 10 commandments in the schools on the Louisiana right and they have I've run into this conversation multiple times over the last week with this coming with this whole thing coming up. And my question

[00:33:43] to them is what if? What if Christianity is allowed to take hold in a classroom? Who gets to pick which denomination? Right. Who gets to pick? I mean let's say that Muslim becomes the dominant

[00:33:54] religion in a certain area. Who gets to say that that's not going to take over what's displayed in the wall? Right. You don't get to pick if we decide that religion is the way to dominate our society.

[00:34:05] You're not the person that's going to get to pick which one of the religions and there are so many. You don't get to pick which one of this. You see Christian but yet I'm I'm going to seriously

[00:34:16] doubt that you mean Catholic. Right. Because a lot of Christians don't think that Catholic is actually Christian because it is you know so old. It depends on what part of the country you're

[00:34:27] I mean if you're in Boston yes Catholic is going to be very dominant. You know what if you're in Louisiana it's not going to be Catholic that's dominant. Exactly. It just depends on where you are. No yeah totally

[00:34:36] but I'm just saying like for example Southern Baptist they are not really they don't chuck with Catholics. No but that's right now right? Yeah. Even if you're a Southern Baptist in the Southern Baptist heart of the country right? Who's just saying that that's going to be the case

[00:34:54] 20 years from now? Right. You don't know you don't know who's going to be in charge of that those theocratic ideas that are filtering into our schools and into our political systems

[00:35:03] and then you've made a decision now that you're okay with this but you may not be okay with it 20 years from now when something else takes over. Right. So it's you need to be careful what you wish for

[00:35:13] sometimes is what I kind of am getting at. You can't control what's going to happen if you don't have a secular way of dealing with this because if it's not secular it's religious and that that's the

[00:35:25] only two options really. And that's why we don't try to be secular in order to be many panes says you can't pray fuck your God no it's not just a protector religion. I say that at my

[00:35:37] table okay no seriously like I'm just trying to be honest like I don't want to like talk out of both sides of my mouth. Sure. No I say that at my dining room table fuck your God but out in the world? No that

[00:35:51] is your thing and I absolutely respect individuals right to worship as they please. Yes absolutely. If it does not interfere with me I'm fine with that of course. You know do your thing. I have no

[00:36:02] problem with you having your own faith and following your own tenants and following your own moral guidelines from your God or whatever that it is. Whatever brings you peace man. You do you. Yeah. But let

[00:36:13] me do me. You know I don't have any problem with your God but let me do me. Yeah and you can do you. And the thing is that they think it's their responsibility to do you for you because you're not doing

[00:36:26] you right and I'm like you need to get the fuck off me. Yeah. Seriously y'all way too worried about my vagina. And among other things yes. We have come to the why now section okay podcast.

[00:36:39] Republicans have controlled the state legislature for more than a decade. Yeah and the party gained a super majority last year. Womp, womp. Right. And the difference this session has been in the governor's office. For eight years governor John Bell Edwards a Democrat used his veto powers

[00:36:58] to thwart the Republicans agenda but with Landry in place now they have a guy. Yeah right. I know God. Yeah right. It's funny that you mentioned that there was a Democrat in office as the governor's

[00:37:10] office which I'm sure he was a very he was actually a Republican. Right but Democrat enough to be able to stand them to the legislature. But the fact that the super majority in their state

[00:37:21] Senate means that there is a lot of jerrymandering going on in the state because they're not that Republican. They just have created it to be down Republicans. Yes clearly. Which is a problem in a lot of

[00:37:32] states. I know we live in Ohio it's a huge problem. Huge. So the new law will face legal challenges that will result in costly litigation for who the taxpayers. Of course. So not only do you

[00:37:45] have to have this bullshit on your school walls, you get to pay to fight it and then you get to pay to have it removed after you've already paid to have it put up in the first place. But this is

[00:37:56] this is a convenience factor for the Republicans though right? They can call the people that are fighting evil because they're taking the taxpayers money. Look at these liberal you know assholes coming

[00:38:06] into our state making you pay all this extra money to fight a law that we wanted because we passed this with a super majority and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah but you don't speak for everybody

[00:38:14] guys. Yeah. The the part that speaks for everybody is the Constitution, the guarantees are rights. Yeah. That's what speaks for everybody. Not not you fucks down on Louisiana. You can create certain

[00:38:23] laws but not ones that infringe upon our rights. So fuck off with that shit and give me your gumbo. So Landry actually welcomes the fight. Remember remember that's what I'm saying he's going to

[00:38:36] call them evil he's going to he's going to he's going to he's going to he's going to he's going to not just that here's the thing even if he loses the case he still wins on the larger

[00:38:45] implications for sure across the country. Yeah. As Americans begin to recognize his name and for better or for worse attach him to the growing religious battle. Yeah. So he cannot go wrong and

[00:38:57] he is specifically said I welcome the fight, I invite it and I look forward to it. No this put in one step closer to us the the White House on. I was going to say I mean he's probably got stars in

[00:39:09] his eyes thinking that this will put him if he plays this card right if he plays this card right he couldn't not present in the United States someday because of something like this. Yeah. Why not?

[00:39:19] If he if he plays the media cards right you know like this is something that could definitely propel him forward with that. So politicians in Louisiana are not only passing a series of laws that imputes Christianity into public schools and divert public funds to private religious schools

[00:39:37] said Rachel laser chief executive of Americans United for separation of church and state. That's one of the other stations. I'm a little bit actually okay. Yeah. So not only are they doing this they're bragging about their goal of creating a Christian nation. Of course that is what she

[00:39:54] has said. Yeah. Like she's absolutely right. It makes them more popular. It works to promote their brand. Yes. So I mean that that's exactly that's all their branding Christianity is what they're doing. Yes.

[00:40:07] And they're creating this environment where they're trying to grow the brand by dumping as much of this idea into different areas of the country as they can. And then they're having these discussions

[00:40:19] in the public and trying to convince everybody that these are the right things to do. And slowly chipping away at the people that might have thought that it wasn't you know that's where the

[00:40:28] the danger of this comes at is that they're having they're able to have this discussion for two reasons. They've got people backing them with money pushing these laws through. And then the media is

[00:40:38] allowing them to come on to their networks and talk about these ideas publicly and not push back hard enough. And that moves the over Tim window. Yeah. And that's what this is all about. We are not fighting

[00:40:51] this as hard as we should. We are not fighting this the way that we should there is and there's no good answer. I'm not saying that I have the answer on how we should fix this. No, but we should

[00:41:00] all be screaming. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. There is so much going wrong that it's terrifying to me actually. It's pretty scary to me as well. I'm just going to leave off on this one final note that I think

[00:41:14] pretty much circles back around to why we are doing what we're doing in a podcast. Remember during that thing in Arizona where they were fighting over an abortion band from 1864. Yes. The speaker of the

[00:41:29] house Ben Tomah at that time told the New York Times just this last April that all of our laws are actually based on what the 10 commandments and the book of Genesis, which are thousands of

[00:41:43] years ago. Oh my god. And that right there is why we do what we do. That is why we're reading the Bible. And that is why we talk about politics in a religious or anti-religious podcast.

[00:41:58] Yeah. Because ignorance is just getting worse and worse and louder and louder and louder and harder to fight. It is openly in our politics and in our politicians at this point to where they're gleefully promoting these ideas in public and front of their constituents

[00:42:15] and they're not getting punished for it. They're not getting taken out of office. They're not being reprimanded. They're not being chastised. They're not being laughed at. These things should all be happening.

[00:42:24] Yeah. They would have happened 30 or 40 years ago. Yeah. And I don't, I don't know how we get back to laughing at these people, but we need to laugh them the fuck out of office. Yeah. That's all I got.

[00:42:35] That's all I got. All right. Fuck Landry. Yeah. That fuck all is bullshit. Honestly. Thank you guys. We've been missing for about a week now. So thank you for not ditching us completely. And I hope you enjoyed this podcast today because it's not our normal

[00:42:51] run-of-the-mill thing here and this is going out publicly because we could have done this as a patreon episode. This is kind of normally kind of something we would do for a patreon episode.

[00:42:59] So if you liked this episode, head over to patreon.com and subscribe over there so you can get more like this. But we felt like this was a very, very important issue that needed to be discussed

[00:43:09] and have the idea out there in the world and to put our voice on this. Yeah. You know, just just to have it out there and say what we can say about it. So that's why this is going out to everybody. And we also

[00:43:20] haven't talked to anybody in a week on our podcast's wife has been so sick. So we're happy to be back and we love you all. Thank you for hanging in there with us and we'll see you actually. We'll see

[00:43:30] later today probably because I'm getting this podcast out late on Sunday night which is almost Monday morning. And we're going to get up and we got the day off tomorrow so we're going to get up

[00:43:40] to pick up our regular Monday episode at some point today. I don't even remember what chapter we're on. 31. 31. Is it 31? Okay. So that's what we're going to do. Yeah, so as he killed 31 later.

[00:43:51] All right. Easy Kyle. So we'll see you guys then and bye. Bye. Hey wife, I guess that's the end. But husband, that's just sad. It doesn't have to be. We are on lots of social media platforms like

[00:44:07] Twitter. Our handle there is sacraled to son of scordy. For these nuts. Oh my god. Stop doing that. Anyway, we're also on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. There's a link to all of our social

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