The Center for Inquiry is sounding the alarm in Arizona: We need CFI supporters to contact their governor’s office and urge Governor Katie Hobbs to veto legislation that would instill the Ten Commandments in Arizona’s public schools.
SB 1151 recently passed in both chambers of the Arizona State Legislature and was transmitted to the governor’s desk on April 10. This bill provides that a “teacher or administrator in any school in this state may read or post in any school building” a copy of the Ten Commandments.
SB 1151 is misguided because the Ten Commandments are a highly sectarian document. The Ten Commandments reflect a Judeo-Christian belief in a specifc divinity.
As such, they have no place in a public school, where students from all backgrounds are meant to learn. They detract from a secular education and violate the separation of church and state, one of the founding principles of our nation. Moreover, parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. The government and public schools should not be usurping that authority.
SB 1151 would amend state law that currently allows posting the Declaration of Independence, the national anthem, the preamble to the Arizona constitution, acts of Congress, and other documents with historical relevance. Yet unlike these secular documents, the Ten Commandments are biblical exhortations that are not historically relevant to American law and democracy. They are purely religious in nature.
Arizona’s citizens must make their voices heard. Please contact the governor’s office and urge a veto of this theocratic bill.
