Ten Commandments displays would be moved to history classrooms and college buildings where history classes are held under the latest proposal Alabama lawmakers are considering.

However, one longtime advocate for Ten Commandment displays criticized the brief debate over HB178, calling it “amateur hour” and urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to take charge.

“She (Ivey) said she would put it in every public building including school rooms,” said Dean Young, an Orange Beach businessman who led efforts in 2018 to get Ten Commandment displays enshrined into the Alabama Constitution. “She brought it up during the State of the State address, and now she’s trying to put them only in the history classes.”

Ivey’s office was not immediately available for comment.

The debate on HB178, which requires biblical directives to be displayed at schools, is expected to resume next week in Montgomery. Lawmakers on the Alabama House Education Policy Committee decided Wednesday it was best to hold off on voting for HB178 until more information about it was provided.

Governor’s influence

Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, and pastor of Faith Worship Center in Glencoe, said revised version of the Ten Commandments legislation was the result of work supporters did with Ivey’s office.

Ivey called to incorporate “key historical documents” and the Ten Commandments in classrooms during her State of the State address in February, setting up for a potential legal showdown over separation of church and state. The original version of the legislation sparked a lively public hearing early last month.

The Ten Commandments, as recorded in the Bible, are a set of moral, religious, and ethical directives believed to have been given by God on Mount Sinai. They include directives for people not to steal, commit adultery, murder, honor one’s mother and father, etc.

“My ask was that it be placed in a strategic location,” Gidley said about the displays. “The (new version of HB178) asks that it be placed in the classroom where American history is taught. This brings the Ten Commandments into a strategic place and places it where the history of America is taught alongside other historic documents.”

The original version of HB178 required the Ten Commandment displays to be inside the “entry way or other common areas of a school, such as a school library.” It also required that each display be on a poster or framed document at least 11 inches by 14 inches.

The bill also does not require public bodies to spend money for the displays.

Payment, locations

Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, asked Gidley what entities were willing to pay to have the Ten Commandments displayed inside the schools statewide.

Gidley said he had “one entity” come forward willing to pay for the displays but declined to disclose any names.

“The main part of it is we don’t place a financial burden on our school systems,” he said. “It will be up to the people in the community and the school board to ask for donations and make sure people are aware this is not paid for with school dollars.”

Daniels expressed hope for more details in HB178 to clarify the requirement for schools to display the Ten Commandments.

The requirement applies not only for K-12 schools, but also higher education institutions in Alabama.

“For me, I just don’t know how you require something and expect the school system struggling for funds anyway to go out and solicit and find supporters to pay (for the displays),” Daniels said.

Rep. Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, said he was concerned about where the displays would be placed at colleges and universities.

“I can understand in a K-12 (having them displayed) in a prominent place where government and history is being taught,” he said. “But the institution in my district, there is a whole building full of classrooms that teach government and history. Are you requiring it to be in all 20 classrooms and all four floors of that one building?”

Gidley said he initially wanted the Ten Commandments displayed in “every classroom” throughout the state. He said he realized that position was what he classified as “overkill.”

“I would say if you have an entire building dedicated (to history classes), a prominent place would suffice,” Gidley said.

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and chair of the committee, said the bill needed more work. She also said there needed to be more discussion about what kind of inscription to include on the poster that would be displayed at schools statewide.

Reaction

Young, who watched the proceedings, said he felt Gidley was “ill-prepared” and called on Ivey to push forward the displays if she wants to follow up on a prior campaign promise.

Young has been critical of Ivey, who pledged with his political action committee to have the Ten Commandments displayed within the three months after the amendment was adopted in 2018. The amendment was approved with 72% of voters backing the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and public property.

The issue takes on heightened interest in Alabama, which was Ground Zero over the battles about Ten Commandment displays following Roy Moore’s defiant stand in the early 2000s after he installed – and refused to remove – a massive monument with the directives on them.

“The original legislation wasn’t solely focused on the Ten Commandments. It also allowed school boards to display other historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact (signed in 1620), which served as the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which outlines the process for admitting new states to the Union.

Ryan Jayne, senior policy counsel with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) Fund said the legislation is based on what he said is a falsehood in that they pretend not to promote Christianity over other religions.

He said that HB178 is based on “dubious claims that the Ten Commandments have an important role in America’s founding, and that posting them in public schools is based on history rather than on religion.”

“They’re trying to convert students to a particular brand of Christianity, plain and simple,” Jayne said. “But the bill sponsors know that if they admit this, they are admitting (it is) unconstitutional.”

Previous efforts to require Ten Commandment displays in other states have met legal challenges. A federal judge blocked a Louisiana law from going forward in November. The judge called the law “unconstitutional on its face” because it violated a separation of church and state. It is currently being litigated before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.