Friends:

Attorney General Paxton’s claim distorts both history and constitutional principle. While the Ten Commandments in the Bible are part of the religious heritage of many, America’s legal and civic foundation rests not on a single faith tradition but on Enlightenment ideas, English common law, and a deliberate commitment to religious liberty.

Many of the framers themselves descended from those who fled religious persecution in Europe. From this history, they understood that a republic could only survive if it safeguarded freedom of conscience against state-imposed faith—an understanding that was ultimately enshrined in the First Amendment’s guarantee that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

In drafting the Constitution, the framers explicitly rejected the establishment of any religion as the basis for government, ensuring that all faiths—and those with none—could belong equally. To insist, as Paxton does, that the Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of American law is to erase the pluralism that has defined this country from the start and to undermine the very protections of the First Amendment. It is, in effect, a rewriting of history that asks the public to ignore the evidence before their very eyes.

This is why the third lawsuit filed against the Ten Commandments classroom display law is so significant. As Austin American-Statesman education reporter Keri Heath documents, fifteen families representing a variety of faith backgrounds—including Christian, Jewish, Lutheran, and nonreligious—have joined together to challenge Senate Bill 10 in federal court. Their action underscores that Paxton’s directive is not only constitutionally dubious but also deeply out of step with the diverse religious and civic traditions that make up Texas and the nation.

-Angela Valenzuela

Third lawsuit filed against display of Ten Commandments in schools

By Keri Heath, Staff Writer

A third lawsuit has been filed against school districts over a new state law requiring the placement of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms. / Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

A group of families on Monday filed a third lawsuit against a batch of school districts over a law requiring the placement of the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms. The 14 school districts, which include Georgetown and Comal, are among several dozen that have been sued over the law since Gov. Greg Abbott signed it in June.

The lawsuit also comes about a month after Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a memo to superintendents reinforcing that districts should display posters depicting the 10 Commandments, despite a federal judge temporarily blocking the law for a handful of districts.

The lawsuit also includes the Conroe, Flour Bluff, Fort Worth, Arlington, McKinney, Frisco, Northwest, Azle, Rockwall, Lovejoy, Mansfield and McAllen school districts. All of the districts listed in the lawsuit either received or already posted donated posters depicting the Ten Commandments, according to the lawsuit. 

The new lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Western District Court of Texas by 15 families of students in the named districts. The families are of a variety of faith backgrounds, including Christian, Jewish, Lutheran and nonreligious, according to the lawsuit.

“I address questions about God and faith with great care, and I emphatically reject the notion that the state would do this for me,” said Rev. Kristin Klade, a Lutheran pastor who lives in Fort Worth.

Authored by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, Senate Bill 10 requires that school districts post any donated copies of a specific version of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the third sparked by SB 10. In June, parents brought a lawsuit against three districts and the Texas Education Agency. In July, additional families brought a lawsuit against 11 other districts. 

A federal judge temporarily blocked the law for the 11 districts last month, prompting Paxton to issue instructions directing every other district in the state to abide by SB 10.

“From the beginning, the Ten Commandments have been irrevocably intertwined with America’s legal, moral, and historical heritage,” Paxton said in a statement when he issued the directive.

That July lawsuit included the Lake Travis and Dripping Springs districts. The Austin school district was eventually dismissed from the case as long as it adhered to any injunction the court placed.

Sep 22, 2025

Keri Heath

K-12 EDUCATION REPORTER

"Let Their Works Be Seen—At the City Gate and the Political Sphere," by Angela Valenzuela

Please read my tribute to this day, based on a nuanced re-reading of Proverbs 31 and the writings of Episcopal priest, attorney, and theologian, and graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York, the Reverend Dr. Patrick Cheng, author of Radical love: Introduction to queer theology.

Wishing all a Happy Mother's Day! -AV

AI Generated by A. Valenzuela

Let Their Works Be Seen—At the City Gate and the Political Sphere

By Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Proverbs 31 has too often been interpreted—and even weaponized—to confine women to narrow roles, uphold rigid gender norms, and sanctify domestic labor while ignoring the text’s deeper call to justice. 

But when I revisited it last night, I didn’t just re-read it with a progressive lens—I reimagined it through the lens of queer theology, as Patrick Cheng invites us to do. What emerged was not a checklist for gendered virtue, but a bold and expansive vision of radical love in action.

The text begins with a mother’s warning to her son, a king: don’t waste your strength. Don’t lose yourself in privilege while the poor are denied justice. True leadership is rooted in moral clarity. It speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves. It defends the vulnerable. It remembers the humanity of those our systems forget.

Then we are given a portrait—not of submissive womanhood—but of embodied wisdom: a person who leads with strength, builds economic independence, feeds others, uplifts workers, makes decisions, and extends hands to the poor. Their dignity is not performative. Their power is not inherited. It is created daily, through work, courage, and love.

Patrick Cheng writes that queer theology resists binaries—it makes visible the divine in flesh and community, especially in the lives of those who defy the boxes they’ve been forced into. In that spirit, the “noble character” of Proverbs 31 is not confined to straight cisgender womanhood. It belongs to anyone who labors in love and justice—queer parents, nonbinary caregivers, trans organizers, radical kin-builders.

Let their works be praised at the city gate—and the Texas State Capitol, for our purposes, I might add.

Let us honor those who refuse invisibility. Who resist erasure. Who carry the weight of communities and still rise with wisdom on their tongues and fire in their hearts.

This is the vision we need now: Not one of narrow gender norms, but of liberatory embodiment. Not a gatekeeping morality, but a gospel of radical presence.

Because when we let the excluded lead, when we see divinity in every human being—then, and only then, will justice roll down like waters (Amos 5:24).

Reference

Cheng, P. S. (2011). Radical love: Introduction to queer theology. Church Publishing, Inc.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Alberta, Tim (2023). The kingdom, the power, and the glory: American evangelicals in an age of extremism

Friends,

I highly recommend this book. It was authored by former Politico Magazine chief political correspondent Tim Alberta who now writes for The Atlantic. He grew up in a white protestant church where his father served as a preacher for many years. It documents in great detail how the white Evangelical church in our country has gotten politicized to the point of deeply divided and wounding internal politics with one side opposing Trumpism and the other, often quiet, timid, or numb, in the crosshairs of partisan politics playing out in the church. Alberta maintains that this mixing of partisan, defensive politics with religion—acting as if the church were "under siege," a claim he handily dismisses, or as if the Kingdom of God needed these self-proclaimed warriors' help—cheapens the Gospel.

It's hard to encapsulate all the drama, fractiousness and hurt that Alberta vividly captures in his visits to around 30 churches throughout the U.S. over three years, from 2020 to 2023. His text is punctuated throughout with soulful reflection on the meaning, purpose, and role of the church in today's world anchored in Christ's teachings that speak, even now, to the redemptive possibilities of a church rooted in compassion and justice.

One can get to the heart of Alberta's treatise from his conversation with former megachurch Pastor Brian Zahnd, pastor of the Word of Life Church who has a Youtube channel to which one can subscribe. In St. Joseph, Missouri, his church experienced great tumult during the last Trump presidency as white evangelical Christians took sides on the Trump agenda. At the end of Chapter 15, Alberta and Zahnd are in conversation about whether the church is optimally positioned to take a stand.  Here is his response.

"Taking a stand," Zhand scoffed. "There is this soft assumption of action we're called to take. The task of the church is simply to be the Church. All of this high-blown rhetoric about changing the world—we don't need to change the world. We're not called to change the world. We are called to be the world already changed by Christ; that's how we're salt; that's how we're light. (p.293)

This is just one of the many gems that grace the pages of Alberta's book, which he masterfully narrates in its audiobook version. Treat yourself to the wisdom and healing power of this timely and exceptional text that is among the best books I've read this year.

-Angela Valenzuela 

References

Alberta, T. (2023). The kingdom, the power, and the glory: American evangelicals in an age of extremism. Harper.

So outrageous. Does this mean we should ban the Bible because it mentions breasts multiple times? Geez, as a result of this piece, I now also know of multiple mentions in the Bible of men's genitals. See, this is what book bans and correlated teacher firings do. They make the "forbidden fruit" even more interesting, if not enticing. 

It shouldn't be this way at all where books like Anne Frank and the Bible get weird attention that just shouldn't be. And what's wrong with youth knowing about sexuality? It's all around them. And how normal for a young girl wonder about such things? This doesn't make it pornography. She's even more human and thusly, accessible now.

So why is this happening? The deeper, troubling issue is clearly that it's not important for children to know the truths of Nazi Germany, empathetically, through the eyes of this incredible young girl experiencing the horrors of this moment upon the occupation of the Netherlands where she lived.

I hope young people, students,  and families show up at their school board meetings and defend teachers like these while protesting this insane, fascist agenda behind book bans.

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas teacher fired for showing Anne Frank graphic novel to eighth-graders

Move comes as education laws restricting teaching of race, sexuality and other topics are being implemented across the US

Gloria Oladipo | Wed., Sept. 20, 2023 | The Guardian

Anne Frank's Diary, the Graphic Adaptation. Photograph: The Guardian