S6, Ep. 08: Ten Commandments and Trump’s first week

BJC Podcast

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In this week’s episode of the Respecting Religion podcast, Amanda and Holly discuss the problems with government mandates to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, focusing on a case out of Louisiana. BJC and other Christian groups filed a brief in that case to explain why, as Christians, we oppose the Louisiana law and how the government’s decision to choose a religious text to display in a public school setting not only cheapens our faith but also puts the government in a role it is not called to play. Plus, Amanda and Holly talk through President Donald Trump’s first week back in the White House, sharing where they saw concerning signs for religion and religious liberty.

First released January 30, 2025

SHOW NOTESSegment 1 (starting at 01:53): President Trump’s first week back and backlash to a sermon

Amanda and Holly talked about ways to handle a constant influx of news and the dangers of “God saved me” rhetoric when others died in the episode after the 2024 election: S6, Ep. 04: Election Day: What happened and where do we go from here

Amanda wrote a piece for Bloomberg Opinion about the backlash to Bishop Mariann Budde’s sermon at the service of unity and what it teaches us about religious freedom: Trump’s Response to Bishop’s Sermon on Unity Is Un-American

Learn more about the two new religious liberty cases to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in this piece on our website: U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear cases involving religious school funding, parent rights to opt out of grade school curriculum

Amanda and Holly discussed the issues with religious charter schools in 2024: S5, Ep. 16: The trouble with *religious* charter schools

Read more about the lawsuit filed by a group of Quaker congregations opposing raids in churches on religious freedom grounds in this article by Bernie Pazanowski for Bloomberg Law: Quakers Sue to Block Trump’s Immigration Raids in Churches

Segment 2 (starting at 15:35): Louisiana’s mandate to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms

Read the brief from BJC and other Chrisitan groups in Roake v. Brumley at this link.

Learn more about the case in this post on our website: BJC urges federal appeals court to reject Louisiana law requiring public school classrooms to post the Ten Commandments

Holly and Amanda discussed the Kennedy v. Bremerton decision and its abandonment of the Lemon test in this episode in 2022: S3, Ep. 21: Not solving a problem, but creating one: Dissecting the Kennedy v. Bremerton decision

Holly and Amanda discussed the Ten Commandments on two episodes in 2023 when a bill was being discussed in Texas: S4, Ep. 20: The Ten Commandments S4, Ep. 21: 613 Commandments: James Talarico on his defense of church-state separation as a Christian

Segment 3 (starting 31:08): Oral arguments and what’s next

Hear last week’s oral arguments in this case at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at this link.

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