Texas Senators Introduce Legislation To Bring Prayer, Ten Commandments To Public Schools

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Press releases shared with Million Voices Monday outlined SB 10 and SB 11, which could bring the Ten Commandments and prayer back to Texas public schools.

Two bills were introduced early Monday (Feb. 10) and aim to bring greater religious freedoms within Texas classrooms. SB 11 focuses on protecting the freedom to pray in school. Texas State Sen. Mayes Middleton filed Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s priority legislation, which “would allow a student, with parental consent, to opt into a period of prayer and the reading of the Bible or other religious texts,” according to a statement shared with Million Voices. (RELATED: God’s Big Return To US Classrooms Could Happen In 2025)

“Our schools are not God–free zones,” Sen. Middleton said in the statement. “We are a state and nation built on ‘In God We Trust.’ You have to ask: are our schools better or worse off since prayer was taken out in the 1960‘s? Litigious atheists are no longer going to get to decide for everyone else if students and educators exercise their religious liberties during school hours.”

Ten Commandments Heads Back To Texas

Texas Republican State Sen. Phil King introduced SB 10, which aims to bring the Ten Commandments to the state’s public classrooms. The move by King follows the introduction of similar legislation across multiple states. The laws largely revolve around displaying posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, along with explainer documents and curriculum on their importance to America’s history.

“The Ten Commandments are part of our Texas and American story. They are ingrained into who we are as a people and as a nation. Today, our students cry out for the moral clarity, for the statement of right and wrong that they represent. If our students don’t know the Ten Commandments, they will never understand the foundation for much of American history and law,” Sen. King said in the press release. “In fact, few documents have had a greater impact on the whole of Western Civilization than the Ten Commandments. That’s why for 200 years, up until 1980, they were displayed in public buildings and schools across America. Today you’ll still find them displayed inside the U.S. Supreme Court and a monument to the Ten Commandments stands prominently on the Texas Capitol grounds.” (POPULAR: EXCLUSIVE: Ten Commandments Bill Moves Forward After Close House Vote, Sen. Carley ‘Thankful’)

In 2023, similar legislation, called SB 1515, passed through Texas’ Senate but missed passing in the House by a narrow margin, according to Texas AFT. “To be honest, if you don’t know the Ten Commandments, you don’t really know the basis for much of American history and law,” King recently stated, according to Houston Public Media. “It played such a role in our founding and among our founders. It’s part of our legal heritage.”

State Issues Matter

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