The Biblical Passages I Support Putting In Classrooms

The MAGA Christo-fascists are preoccupied with pushing Christianity into the classroom. This manifests with efforts to impose by law requirements to hang the Ten Commandments in every classroom. These efforts are misguided. They provide little guidance on how children should conduct their lives and the Ten Commandments are overly concerned with how we should treat God, rather than each other. However, the Bible has powerful messages on how we should live our lives, and I support posting selected passages with those messages.

Here is my list for the Biblical passages that should be displayed in every classroom in America. For that matter they should also be prominently displayed in every legislative body in the country, to include the national House and Senate.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

“The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34).

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matthew 6:5–6).

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3–5).

Let us teach children that the Christian faith is a guidepost for how people should live their own lives, not a yardstick by which they measure the failings of others.