Hello everyone, and welcome back once again to the nonprofits. The Ten Commandments are making their way into public schools in Texas, but not if one representative has anything to say about it. AJ has more details.
Texas just continues to inch closer and closer to Christian nationalist status, which was one of the main goals of Project twenty twenty five. On May twenty eight, the Texas Senate voted to pass the Ten Commandments Bill, which requires all public school public schools in Texas to display the Ten Commandments. Yes, you heard that right, tax funded public schools, so regardless of the taxpayer's religion, they would be forced to get behind this nonsense. But our hope is not lost. Okay.
There is one very outspoken Texas representative by the name of James tall Rico, who is a Democrat, who has been gourwilling other representatives that support the bill during the hearings and on other public forums. This story is from The Friendly Eightiest by Herman Metta on May twenty eight, twenty twenty five.
Outstanding. Thank you, so, AJ, Let's actually come right back to you and just kind of give our audience a little bit of a clearer picture of what we're talking about here. What does the bill actually say and do you think it's actually going to help or is it expected to actually help in the way that Congresswoman Noble, the main sponsor of the bill, is claiming that it will.
What do you think help? I don't know about that, But the bill is actually ridiculously detailed. The bill says that the Ten Commandments posters will have to be the King James version, obviously the only acceptable Bible version according to Christian nationalists. Another thing that it details is that it will have to be exactly sixteen by twenty inches, very specific, and it even says that it must be made of endurable material so that it is not easily destroyed.
But get this, the posters could be either privately donated or purchased with district funds. So again, taxpayers, regardless of their religion, will be liable for funding these biblical rules posters for classrooms, whatever their schools. Ason. Meanwhile, you have other reals like being pushed, you know, to get rid of free lunches for school children. Teachers have to purchase all of their supplies with their own personal money. But sure, go ahead and give tax money to you know, districts
to pay for these tank commandment posters anytime, right. It seems like their priorities are as screwed up as they can be. If only God had added a commandment about taking girl kids, maybe then Christians will give a shit about the children the same way that they do before they're born, when they're just a clumbo cells.
Yeah, that's a that's a good cinema. But I'm kind of with Kelly there. I saw him like shaking his head. I think some of the videos in this article demonstrated that a lot of the the a lot of people don't actually know the commandments very well. Do you want to expand on that Kelly.
Brought I was about to say, yeah, and the ones that do they still break them anyway. All right, Aj, when you're doing the introduction, you said that Texas was moving closer to Christian nationalism. I thought to myself, what do you mean closer? Didn't they make it? They're already he's already pulled over.
He can't pull over any farther. Right, So, Kelly, while we have your attention, we're actually we're coming up on the We're about a month away from the one hundredth anniversary of the Scopes monkey trial or the Scopes trial, I think more officially, do you see any resemblance between like this bill and the Butler Act, for example, that was kind of central in that case.
I do. Now the Butler Act was passed along with the whole slew of that same different versions of it, but the same law was passed throughout many states, especially out through the South, all around the same time. And we're starting to see that now with this You know that Louisiana did it, Arkansas did it. I'm pretty sure Oklahomas is trying to do it as well. So we're seeing this kind of wave of this Christian idealism being put into the law, and of course that's unconstitutional, just
like the Butler Act was. Of course, I think we all know Scopes lost his trial, but he ultimately won the lord to get religion out of biology. But it wasn't until all those laws were challenged, just like this one's being challenged in Louisiana presently. That and they cost a lot of states very expensive trials. There was like three losses in a row, and the Scopes won his so but right after that there were three losses evolution
laws were repealed right after that. State senates and state governments were repealing them before a lawsuit happened, so they could save money. Lots of they were bleeding money through the courts because of it. And I think that we're going to see a similar situation play out here. I think we might see Missouri could pass one, Alabama and Mississippi.
It wouldn't surprise me at all, you know. But I think that after they get a couple of losses in the courts, after they spent a few million dollars trying to defense something that's constitutionally indefensible, I think we'll see everybody start dropping it, just like they dropped the evolution laws.
I would definitely hope that would be the case, but it seems to me in this instance, for this particular bill, it's going to have to come from the top down, and and I don't know how competent I feel about that happening. But the reason I say that is because before this bill passed in the House, there was an amendment added to it that would require the state attorney General to act in court as the defense for any district that gets sued as a result of this bill.
And if that district does not if that district district is penalized, is the right word is escaping me right now. But if they don't win that case, if the district that he's representing, doesn't win that case, the tax payers the state is like required to pay the damages, the losses, the penalty, any financial or economic h you could say, And.
I know, I'm pretty sure I know a taxpayer in Texas, So I wonder aging how do you feel about having to pay for that?
And not only and I do when you're you know, and not only that, but what was it like for you to in a place like Texas that's rife with Christian influence, to see a religious uh nonetheless representative speaking out so strongly against this bill, How like what was that experience like?
Well, obviously as an atheist, it's been really interesting, to say the least, to watch one. Firstly, because Representative tell Erico he's a former former school teacher, and so he has experienced me in a cstroom, right, And so I actually really enjoyed his exchange with the bill sponsor, the Republican Representative candyon Noble.
Every exchange everyone that he has, Sorry, go ahead.
Roasted her. He roasted her literally about this bill uh. You know that there's no other way to put it other than he roasted her to a quisp. So I've been seeing in tons of like short clips on the different questions and answers, and I was really shocked to learn that he's a Christian. A first, I thought he was maybe maybe one of the nouns, you know, like the no no, no religion.
And not really I have a relationship with Christ kind of thing.
Yeah. Like so, like I swear the way the way that he opposed the bill UH is something like one of those arguments that you will hear on the atheist experience, like like somebody experienced like I don't know, afreaking John Gleezon or something like that. But this told me one thing. He is a secular Christian, not a Christian nationalist. And that is the huge difference between all of these legislators.
One of them forces the religion down everyone's throats, and the other respects the separation of church and state as the constitution in the case. So he is an amazing example of the way that Christian legislators should behave while representing their constituents because they come from different faiths, like or like us, you know, no faiths. It's funny though. I think I mentioned this before we started the show that here in Houston specifically, we have one local representative
and he is Jewish. So what he did was he presented an amendment for this bill saying that they should have the Jewish Tank Commandments displayed as well. And what did Republicans do? They were like, no, they voted completely against it. And he was like, he was like, listen, I will never actually do that, but I had to do this to prove the hypocrisy of these people, like the hypocrisy that they will not allow even the Jewish Tank Commandments. No, only the like we said, the King
James version is the only acceptable one. And I thought that was pretty epic.
Yeah, and I like too, how the Sorry, I had a lot of thoughts just coming into my head all at once at the end there, I'm trying to choose
which one. There there was a group or an individual that started making like posters that technically fit the specifications that the law requires, which which you mentioned earlier, and I wanted to say that kind of reminds me a lot more of like signs that have the force of law, like, for example, in states where where a no no Weapons allowed sign has the force of law, it's required to meet certain size specifications. The print has to be of a certain size. It can't be smaller than this, you
know small. It has to be in plane view. And the specifications for this bill reminds me a lot of like the specifications for no firearms signs, which doesn't give you the impression that it's about making a history lesson available. It gives me the impression that it's about making sure that it is seen. And so there was one artist, or i'd call him a protester them, I should say, that made some versions of these signs that fit all the specifications that the law requires. But like one of
them is in Arabic. One of them they increased the visibility of the words kill, adultery, steal, and ass out of the King James versions of the commandments. So I thought that was really funny. But you also mentioned something earlier AJ that No, I'm sorry, I already said that thing. This is going to have to be a cut. I completely lost my train of thought.
It is some space to cut a Yeah, you can do this.
I remember what the sign was too from before two was in God we trust signs.
Oh got it? Okay, okay, I'm just gonna have to pivot. Oh okay, here is but as far as okay, sorry here let me do my silence. As far as James Talerico though, like this isn't really anything new, like he was doing this two years ago when the bill was first sponsored. I saw even before we knew that this, like before I knew that this is what this article was about, I saw another video of him opposing.
No, I'm going to break in right now, we lie and reprimand you because we covered that here on the Nonprofits. I myself covered that video two years ago, so you should have been watching. Damn it, that's on me.
I'll take that one.
Yeah.
But no, even like you mentioned aj, you thought like you had like kind of some presumption about like his his religious belieu. When I first heard him speaking, I thought that I thought he was a Republican or I guess I could could say they're not all Republican. That was religious, but just happened to be sort of like getting it right on this at the beginning of the video, It's like, oh, it was kind of unclear, like, oh,
probably a Democrat. Then I find out that he's religious, and then I find out that he's a religious democrat that's fighting for the separation of church and states. So I was really impressed with him as well. Kelly, did you did you have any thoughts about Representative to Allerica that you wanted to add.
I love the way he was bringing up the hypocrisy of his fellow politicians in Texas with the obvious references to Ken Paxton right. I don't know speaking of the earlier confrontation with Nobel right, Representative Noble, I don't know if I think the earlier one from two years ago was more I was like more burning than this last one was. So if you haven't seen this, if you've seen this one thought it was good, go find the other one. Watch it. It's great. Watch the prequel. He
did a great job of exposing her hypocrisy. And I'm really surprised that, like after two years, she had two years knowing this was going to happen to her again, that she didn't come up with any better responses. It was it was almost worse. She was just like almost like her brain got switched off, like happens to me every once in a while, and I think she spent too much time reading the Ten Commandments instead of paying attention to the in debate class there in high school.
I don't know, but one of the things I really enjoyed was Jamie Raskin coming out and commenting that that if the Texas Congress votes on each Commandment and no member could vote for anyone they had broken, none of them would be passed. So I thought that was pretty good.
Yeah, And you said, like if she if she would spend less time reading the Commandments, I'm not sure that that's the case, that that she spent too much. I ready, because there was a little bit of banter in like some of the videos in the article, and you hear one of like her her cronies. I guess I'm going to say in the background saying Representative Tillerico says something about legislation legislators not following the Commandments, and one of them says, well, maybe if they had them posted.
Is that what you would think you would think by now, this grown man who was a representative would know the Ten Commandments.
Right, especially if they've been like championing this bill or like this bill about them for two years because they're so important and foundational to our history. But that along those lines or along that note, aj you said earlier, how like it kind of reminded you of some of like our live show debates that we hear every every week.
And I thought it kind of reminded me of like some like like representative Nobles arguments were less effective than some of the less effective arguments we heard in AXP. Didn't you have an example of one that you said pointed out the hypocrisy pretty well?
Like there was one specific exchange that truly and clearly showed the irony of it all. And I haven't pulled up straight from the auticle, so I'm going to read it from there. And it's between tall Rico and Noble. So Taraico goes first and he's like, what is the fourth Commandment? And Nobel replies, are you referring to the way it's written in the ball He said, yeah. She makes a really long pause and starts looking at her paperwork, and she's like, keep the Sabbath. It's about Osbian here
on Saturday, and then she laughs, isn't it ironic? In tar Rico is like, well, so what does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? And she goes, well, I think it's do you want to get into theology here. I'd love to if you would like to. I think it's really important that we take a day of rest. I think God, who founded the world didn't need rest, and yet he took a day of rest after he did creation. And I think he was a good example to us to take a day rest that is enshrined
in our rules and our constitution. What it says accepting Sunday in our very early documents as aination. This is what people think that the Bible is in the constitution, so Tarica says, and so part of keeping the Sabbath holy is not working on the Sabbath, right, she said that is, yeah, they arrest. So he goes, and what is the ten commandments? You know they come from Judaism? Right, what day is the Jewish Sabbath? And she goes, Saturday? And what day is it today? And she will Saturday.
So Talarateed goes like, and the Christian Sabbath is what day is? And she goes Sunday in honor of the day of Jesus H when Jesus rolls from.
The day for yeah.
Yeah, and he said, well, and we're scheduled to give this bill the final voe on what day of the week. Yeah, it was going to be on a Sunday. And she's like, a serronic, isn't it. I'm like, yes, it is ironic.
You know what?
She was correct that the Constitution those mentioned counting days for passing bills, but Sunday, because it says, you know, six days or something like that, but Sunday should not be counted. It's kind of like the way that we say ten business days, right, we count Monday through Friday on a business day. So, but the wording of the Constitution does not say that you're not supposed to work on that day. So it has nothing to do with
the Bible. And another one that she is crewnin of following is the nine Commandment, which it says to not bear or fault with perfulse witness. And so it goes to show that there are they are currently not following either the Constitution or the Bible rules she's not respecting. She's not respecting either her question or her nationalist dogma.
So like, what is the point of having these same commandments if every person that is pushing for the bill is already enough funnewing some of them, you know.
It's worse than the obvious, obvious lack of intellect in this woman. She got elected. People fucking actually voted for her knowing, I mean, having heard her speak, and that just blows me away. Before we end this segment, though, Eli, you were talking about the science in Arabic. In twenty twenty two, Texas passed the laws saying that every school had to have a poster saying in God we trust.
And somebody donated some Arabic posters and some really cute rainbow posters, and none of them were accepted by the school district. So it's just an interesting.
Point of surprise there.
Yeah, yeah, they the school district said. The school districts said that they had already received enough posters and weren't taking anymore.
They didn't send them back though, they probably just threw them away or.
I'm not sure about the final destination.
Yeah, I'm speculating there obviously, But no, I think to both of those points, it's pretty clear that this isn't really about like, oh, this is foundational to our nation and to our constitution, because not only that entire exchange that you read out, AJ, but there was another one
where I really appreciated James Tillerico saying this. He says, I think there's a switching back and forth of saying that this is historical, but then through your comments, like as he's asking her to justify, like why is this
a good bill? The religious he goes on to say, the religion comes through right, And so it just really highlighted that for me, the purpose of this bill is so clearly religious in doctrination as early as possible, as often as possible, that once you get beyond their claim that no, this is foundational to our country and our laws and everything that we do, and you ask them to justify that just a little bit, it's always a
theological argument. Just like she couldn't help but continue to reiterate over and over again through her comments, even the section, the small section that that AJ read in comparison to how how much they spoke.
So go ahead, mister Slack, what is a man servant? And where is a doctory? Can you imagine kids asking.
That, Yeah, it's I mean it does say the word ass is in the King, James, So that you know kids are going to giggle at that. They're going to say, oh, that says as it's going to distract. And that's why even you know, Representative Talerico himself has said, you know, with his experience as an educator, this is far more likely not only to not help in education in the classroom, but not help Christianity either.
But you just brought up a good point. I just started thinking about do you think it's possible for a kid to get the second grade when he's really starting to read and not realize what, you know, what the concept of murder is, and then all of a sudden, I can't, I can't do murder? What? What? What is that that matter was?
Yeah?
Yeah, there wasn't a moment when I was in like elementary school where I was like, I should murder someone in this classroom and I needed a redirection on that.
There's like con there's concept adultery. Why would a second grader even know what the fuck adultery is? This is more I mean, isn't it like teaching kids sex and second grade? What the hell isn't it stuff they they're against?
Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah, there's no consistency on the matter. There's no it's it's it's it's just this new form of nationalism that's like, if it's not Christian, it's not right, and therefore it doesn't belong. Did you have something to add.
A No, I'm just gonna say to everybody's listening, you belong.
Yeah, absolutely, and you belong here. We want you here. Uh So, get in the comments to share your support for each other, not just for us.