As roughly two dozen Texas families fight to keep the Ten Commandments off public school walls, one Austin-area mom is making no apologies for wanting them in her kindergartner's classroom.
asserted
mom → fight → classroom
Brittany McFarland, a Christian mother whose 5-year-old daughter attends public school in Texas, told Fox News Digital she was "pleasantly surprised" by the new classroom displays and said the fierce backlash over them reflects a much bigger battle over faith, values and religious liberty in America's public schools.
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backlash → attend → schools
"I feel like our country, we've been kind of forced to erase religion and discussion of religion in schools in general," McFarland said.
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McFarland → feel → schools
"Almost to the point where the topic is taboo, and our children are afraid and uncomfortable to mention their faith or talk anything about it."
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children → mention → it
McFarland said she and her husband had weighed whether public school was still the right choice for their daughter, but said learning about the Ten Commandments law gave her a "sense of hope" about the direction of public education.
"It gave me a renewed sense of hope in our school systems," she said.
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she → say → systems
Texas requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and roughly two dozen families want the Supreme Court to block the law.
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Court → require → law
The families, represented by groups including the ACLU, argue the state is crossing a constitutional line by putting a religious text in public school classrooms.
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state → represent → classrooms
They say decisions about a child's religious upbringing should be left to parents and faith communities, not the government, and warn the displays could make students from other religious or nonreligious backgrounds feel excluded or pressured.
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students → say → backgrounds
Texas has defended the law, and a federal appeals court upheld it, reasoning that students are not required to recite the Ten Commandments, believe them or affirm their religious origins.
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students → defend → origins
Now the families are asking the Supreme Court to step in.
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families → ask → Court
The justices have not yet agreed to hear the case.
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justices → agree → case
If they do, the dispute could become a major test of how the First Amendment applies to religious expression in public schools.
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Amendment → do → schools
McFarland rejects the characterization that simply displaying the Ten Commandments amounts to imposing Christianity on students.
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displaying → reject → students
"I look at the Ten Commandments as a reminder to do the right thing," she told Fox News Digital.
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she → look → Digital
"They're good standards for children to be exposed to."
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children → expose → ?
McFarland pointed to commandments against stealing and the instruction to honor one's father and mother as examples of principles she believes have value for children.
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she → point → children
"These are things that we should be talking about in our homes and in our classrooms," she said.
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she → talk → classrooms
McFarland also stressed that, based on what she has seen in her daughter's classroom and others, the Ten Commandments are not being presented as something students must recite or affirm.
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students → stress → something
"It's not like you're walking to the classroom and you're seeing a five-by-six poster with it in huge font, right, front and center.
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you → walk → font
That's not what's happening," she said.
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she → happen → ?
"I don't see this posting historically significant religious text as imposing religion at all.
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this → see → religion
It's not like the children are having to recite it.
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children → have → it
It's not like they're standing up and giving a Pledge of Allegiance to it.
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they → stand → it
McFarland said her school district recently informed parents that teachers are instructed to tell students who ask about the poster that it is displayed because of Texas law.
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it → say → law
According to the message McFarland read to Fox News Digital, teachers would contact parents if students asked specific questions about its contents rather than providing religious instruction themselves.
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students → accord → instruction
"To me, that's not imposing religion upon anyone," McFarland said.
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McFarland → impose → anyone
"That's giving them the opportunity to go home and talk about it.
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That → give → it
It's opening up conversation that can occur within the home and the walls of your home."
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that → open → home
Opponents, however, said the fact that students are not required to recite the text does not resolve their concerns.
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students → say → concerns
The ACLU has described the displays as government-imposed religion and argues they could lead to religious coercion, bullying or stigmatization.
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they → describe → coercion
Some parents involved in the challenge said the mandate could make children who follow other faiths or no faith at all feel that the state favors one set of beliefs over their own.
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state → involve → own
An Austin interfaith couple involved in the case has also argued that parents, rather than politicians, should decide how their children receive religious education.
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children → involve → education
McFarland said she actually agrees with that principle, but disputes that a classroom display constitutes religious instruction.
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display → say → instruction
"I would actually tend to agree with the family that politicians shouldn't have a role in how teachers are specifically teaching religion to our children or trying to influence them on religion," McFarland said.
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McFarland → tend → religion
"However, I see this very differently."
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I → see → this
"To me, having a poster up is not teaching your child that religion," she added.
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she → have → religion
McFarland compared the distinction to a student seeing a human anatomy poster hanging in a health classroom, arguing that the presence of the material does not mean the child is being forced to receive instruction about everything depicted on it.
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child → compare → it
She also pushed back on concerns that young children could feel pressured to adopt the religious beliefs contained in the Ten Commandments.
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children → push → Commandments
"Five-year-olds can't read, for the most part," McFarland said, adding that she does not believe her daughter is entering the classroom, reading the poster and feeling pressure to embrace a particular faith.
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daughter → read → faith
"Religion should not be taught from the teachers or enforced by the teachers, but this isn't that," she said.
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she → teach → teachers
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
