Senate Backs State Commandments Mandate
with Language that Illicits Visions of Slavery

Capitol Inside
April 21, 2023

Texas Senate Republicans rallied unanimously on Thursday behind legislation that would force the public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every single classroom complete with language that triggers visions of slave owners.

The ruling party's members sent Senate Bill 1515 to the House on a 19-12 tally without a single vote of support from the Democrats. SB 1515 is political grandstanding of the highest order. That was evident when the Southern Baptists formally opposed the measure in the Senate hearing process. But the Republicans may have a poison pill in the proposal with an unconventional and needless terms in a formal description of the 10th and final commandment that revolves on greed and envy.

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's," according to the last commandment's listing in SB 1515. The line is a composite variation gleaned from countless transactions of the individual commandment that's evolved over time.

The authors could have summed up the 10th commandment with the neighbor's wife and house on the no-covet list without the antiquated words like manservant and maidservant. The decision to include them could spark a massive backlash among parents and others who would be highly offended if their kids were forced to read antiquated language that's a vestige of the most shameful chapter in history of the U.S. and the Lone Star State

The sponsors sought to customize the wording of the commandment with a Texas flavor and feel by substituting cattle for donkeys and oxen - the original terms for livestock in earlier versions of Ten Commandments #10. The House has an opportunity to remove the offensive language if it doesn't let the measure die like the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission has recommended with its opposition to SB 1515.

Some versions of the Bible include donkeys and oxen in the list of assets that people are not supposed to covet. The SB 1515 authors have customized the measure with a Texas feel by listing cattle as the token livestock that's on the list. But they could encounter trouble with the inclusion of manservant and maidservant on the no-covet list as terms that would be in students' view throughout the day.

GOP State Senator Phil King of Weatherford guided SB 1515 to fruition as the chief author with a supporting sponsors cast that includes Republican State Senators Brandon Creighton of Conroe, Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham and Mayes Middleton of Galveston.

he Senate proposal represents a dramatic leap from the few Ten Commandments bills that Republicans have hatched in the past dozen years. The House considered and buried legislation in 2011 and 2019 that aimed to protect school teachers who defied federal court interpretations and posted the Ten Commandments on their classroom walls. Twenty-two GOP representatives signed on as sponsors to House Concurrent Resolution 1 - a toothless statement of support for Ten Commandments freedom that cleared the lower chamber on a vote of 103-8 in the regular session in 2021.

SB 1515 takes the fight to the other extreme - however - with a state-sponsored mandate that's tantamount to a slap in the face of the seas of Texans from other faiths and other religions. King has pitched the bill as patriotic - saying it would serve as a constant reminder about "the fundamental foundation" of America in the public schools.

But the Senate measure ventures into unchartered territory by spelling the Ten Commandments out in the text of the bill. This could be risky given the ways that some Republicans in Austin have ignored the commandments and violated them repeatedly in recent years.

SB 1515 faces an uncertain in the House at a time when GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's team has astutely eschewed the temptation to get bogged down in social statement issues that serve little or no purpose beyond their value as red meat for the far right. SB 1515 sets the commandments in state statute as listed below.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2.Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.

3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee

6. Thou shalt not kill

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery

8. Thou shalt not steal

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's

The timing for SB 1515 is ironic in light of a furor that's embroiled Republican State Rep. Bryan Slaton of Royse City in the midst of allegations about sexual relations with a woman on his staff. The House has been engulfed increasingly in recent years in tantalizing tales of members cheating on spouses and families while away from home in the Capital City for their work.

The beltway is replete with stories of lawmakers who've been more likely to covet their colleagues' staffers than their wives. The Republicans have been frequent offenders of commandment number nine - which is another way of saying thou shalt not lie. SB 1515 would only honor parents from opposite sexes. The Republicans actually support government-sanctioned executions of criminals in a blatant breach of the sixth commandment.

more to come ...

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Copyright 2003-2023 Capitol Inside