Bill Ignores SeparationÂ of Church and State, Science, Atheists, Agnostics

A recent House Bill introduced to the Louisiana State Senate would require all public school students in grades 4-6 to recite every day a passage from the Declaration of Independence claiming that their rights are given to them by “their Creator.” The House has already passed the bill, 70-23.

State Representative Valerie Hodges’Â HB 1035, which arrived in the Louisiana Senate last week, injects the following into elementary school students’ morning pledges, taken from the Declaration’s introduction:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatÂ all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

While the Pledge of Allegiance already contains verbiage referring to “one nation under God,” added to the original in 1954, HB 1035 takes the now religiously influenced declaration a step further with this addition to schoolchildren’s morning routine. Though many see the bill as innocuous, as it would only affect three grade levels, others worry that this is simply inching towards more aggressive policies enforcing the inclusion of religion in secular spaces.Â

Rep. Hodges’ biography on her website notes she “was a missionary along with her husband for 18 years,” and states they founded and still oversee a dozen churches inÂ Nicaragua and Mexico.

Patheos blogger Hemant Mehta asks, “What happens if atheist students donâ€™t want to say the passage because they donâ€™t believe in a Creator? What if students refuse to recite it because they know people are not treated equally in this country?” He notes that there is no “opt out” option within the bill as it exists.Â

This echoes concerns expressed by Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger op-ed writerÂ Sid Salter, who says that opponents of the bill noted that at the time that the Declaration of Independence was written, only white, male landowners were regarded as free. “Leave it in Louisiana,” writes Salter, as the bill continues to advance through the Senate.

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