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Workers repaint a Ten Commandments billboard off of Interstate 71 on Election Day near Chenoweth, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2023. Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) (RNS) — State officials in the South have recently reignited debates over teaching religion in public schools, with Oklahoma’s superintendent of schools issuing a mandate for schools to teach the Bible and Louisiana passing a law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments . The push is ultimately aimed at prompting the newly conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a 1980 ruling on a similar law in Kentucky. Their argument is that the Bible is a historical text as well as a religious one and should not be disqualified any more than founding documents that make references to God or a creator. Referring to religious texts in terms of patriotism and history may prove effective in inserting them into classrooms. But the argument that they are like any other aspect of American culture could backfire, paving the way Christian texts and symbols to […]