History of Posting the Ten Commandments in 20,000 Kentucky Public Schoolrooms
In the 1970-71 school year at Shelbyville High School, Claudia Badgett posted a 16x20 framed copy of the Ten Commandments in her Biology classroom as other Kentucky teachers and judges had done for over a century. In 1978, as a newly-elected KY State Representative from the 36th Legislative District of Jefferson County, Mrs. Claudia B. Riner introduced her first bill, House Bill 156, requiring the posting of 16”x20” framed Ten Commandments plaques in every public school room and every courtroom with the legislative intent: “The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States.” The bill passed the House 81-4, but was stalled in the Senate Education Committee in retaliation for Rep. Riner calling for roll call votes on legislative pay raises. Christian school students successfully lobbied the Senate Education Committee. The Lord Jesus heard their prayers and gave the students miraculous favor in the sight of God and man. Instead of killing the bill, the Senate voted 32-4 to pass it. The ACLU challenged the new law (KRS 158.178). However, it was implemented through (KRS 160.580) allowing local school boards to accept gifts. Rep. Riner and her husband, Tom, formed the Kentucky Heritage Foundation to fund posting 20,000 framed copies of the Ten Commandments in all public schoolrooms. The ACLU challenge was overcome at each level until it reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In Stone v Graham (1980), the Court accepted a law clerk’s opinion and issued a 5-4 summary judgment stating the law was unconstitutional because the “Lemon Test” dictated the need for a secular legislative purpose. Justice William Rehnquist disagreed and noted the Legislature had clearly stated the secular legislative purpose on each plaque. Also
In the minority, Chief Justice Warren Burger indicated he wanted to hear oral arguments. The Court did not mandate the removal of the plaques or address what to do with the plaques. However, Attorney General Beshear issued OAG 81-12 stating in his opinion the Ten Commandment plaques must come down. There was overwhelming resistance to Beshear’s opinion throughout the Commonwealth. Perry County officials firmly stated the National Guard couldn’t remove Ten Commandments plaques from their schools.
In 2022, the U. S. Supreme Court abandoned the “Lemon Test,” in rendering Kennedy v Bremerton School District. On page 23 of that decision, it states, “In place of Lemon and the establishment test, this Court has instructed that the Clause must be interpreted by reference to historical practices and understandings . . . of the Founding Fathers.”
“The New England Primer, introduced in Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris, was the first textbook printed in America. It continued as a beginning textbook for over two centuries until the 1930 edition was printed. The Founders, as well as millions of other Americans, learned to read from The New England Primer and the Bible. This history is documented on page 1 of the Forward by David Barton in his 1991 reprinting of the 1777 edition printed by Edward Draper in Boston. The Ten Commandments are listed and were taught as part of the Shorter Catechism in The New England Primer. Regarding Colonial education laws, the Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647 enacted in Massachusetts placed the Bible in schools to counter ignorance of the Bible. Noah Webster wrote in his 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary: “Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America’s basic textbook in all fields.”
From approximately 1607 to 1966, American families were well armed with both Biblical values and firearms without a single student killing another student in the classroom of an American elementary or secondary school. However, a gradual change began to occur within public educational philosophy after John Dewey, philosopher and atheist, published his The School and Society. He stated in his book, “the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are organized” (The School and Society, 1899). He signed the Humanist Manifesto I in 1933, and ushered in a revolution in public education when Bible-based values held by American Founding Fathers began to be replaced with the religion of Secular Humanism. Dewey thought instruction should be centered on socializing and molding the student for fulfilling the goals of the state, rather than learning the 3 R’s and developing the student according to his or her individual, God-given talents and aspirations.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, while a soldier in the Red Army, grieved over Stalin’s torture and murder of millions of God-fearing innocents who opposed “hard totalitarianism” under Russia’s Marxist dictatorship. The communist government imprisoned him from 1945 to 1953 in sub-zero Siberian slave-labor camps. There, he wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich exposing the murder of millions of Russians in the Gulag. He won the 1970 Nobel Prize for Literature while in prison. Before being exiled to America, he released his earthshaking essay, “Live Not By Lies.” In it, Solzhenitsyn said, “And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul – don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.” Rod Dreher’s New York Times bestselling book, Live Not By Lies (endorsed by Ignat Solzhenitsyn) should be mandatory reading for every school teacher and student to appreciate the importance of not affirming lies. The atheistic foundation of communist nations gives all control to dictatorial politicians. Yet, our Declaration of Independence acknowledges Americans have been “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
A restoration of the Biblical foundation of America is being seen as the Ten Commandments are returning to public schools. The Bill of Rights, as the first Ten Amendments to the U. S. Constitution, enumerates our God-given rights. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances.” (https://constitution.congress.gov) Since Congress is not to make laws regarding religion, that jurisdiction should remain with the states. (Article 10, U. S. Constitution).
Source: Tom And Claudia Riner
