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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry offered some advice to parents unhappy about the Ten Commandments being displayed in their child’s school - “Tell the child not to look at it.”
During a press conference on Monday, Landry dismissed any potential criticisms about the state requiring public schools to display the religious directives in every classroom.
“I don’t see what the whole big fuss is about,” Landry said, calling Moses the “original lawgiver.”
When asked what he believes parents against the new law should do, Landry said if they “find them so [offensive],” then they should “tell the child not to look at it.”
Louisiana became the first state to require public schools to display the religious text in June after the Republican-dominated legislature passed the law with the help of a handful of Democrats.
But Landry lambasted those challenging the law, claiming the bill had bipartisan support from both sides and should therefore be respected.
“I think we’ve forgotten in this country that democracy actually means majority rules,” Landry said. “That does not mean when you don’t like something you have a right to impose that, which the majority likes.”
This year, Landry has vetoed 27 bills that passed in the Louisiana state legislature including one that would have prohibited the use of deepfake technology in political advertising.
Louisiana’s new law immediately faced legal challenges from civil liberties groups and parents who argued that the mandate pressured students to follow Christianity. Standing beside Landry at the press conference on Monday, State Attorney General Liz Murrill said her office is seeking to have the lawsuit thrown out.
While addressing concerns and questions about the new mandate, Landry and Murrill showed models of what the posters could look like.
The law requires public school classrooms to display the commandments in “large, easily readable font” on 11 x 14-inch posters at a minimum. It also must include a four-paragraph context statement.
One example showed a picture of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg alongside a quote from when she was in 8th grade when she cited the Ten Commandments as one of the “four great documents” that benefitted humanity.
Another compared the ideals of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to Moses.
One, titled “The House of Representatives & The Lawgivers” featured a photo of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Louisiana’s law is part of a larger Christian Nationalist movement that is targeting education. In June, Oklahoma school officials mandated that classrooms teach the Bible and Ten Commandments. That new rule is also facing pushback.
