October 27, 2025 • 10 mins
In this episode, Mike Smithgall examines the growing push to hang the Ten Commandments in public classrooms and the larger campaign to rewrite history under the banner of “heritage.” He explains how Christian nationalism turns nostalgia into propaganda, and why real heritage requires facing uncomfortable truths.
Question: How should schools teach history without whitewashing or politicizing it?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Thanks for tuning in.
I'm Mike Smith Gall, theunelected mayor of Atheistville,
and this is today's Mic Drop.
Louisiana wants the TenCommandments on every public
school.
They say it's about heritage,not religion, as if the
difference is just a matter oftiming.
But here's the thing (00:18):
the same crowd is also busy erasing
lessons on slavery, on racialviolence, and Juneteenth,
because suddenly the heritage istoo uncomfortable.
So which is it?
History or comfort?
The Ten Commandments debateisn't really about faith at all.
It's about power and about whogets to define what counts as
American history.
(00:38):
Today we're going to talk aboutwhy this fight over classroom
posters matters far more than itseems, because when religion
becomes heritage, honestybecomes optional.
In 2024, Louisiana passed a law,HB 71, requiring every
classroom, kindergarten throughcollege, to display the Ten
Commandments in large, legiblefonts.
(00:59):
And I'm putting that in quotesbecause that's what they said.
Large, legible font.
Supporters called it a moralcompass for youth.
Critics called it what it was: government endorsed scripture. (01:06):
undefined
A federal appeals court struckit down this summer, but the
Fifth Circuit, easily one of themost conservative courts in the
country, agreed to rehear it.
That means it's headed to theSupreme Court.
Texas and Oklahoma have nearlyidentical bills waiting in the
wings, all modeled after talkingpoints from Christian
(01:28):
nationalist groups like theAmerican Family Association.
Its theology copy and pastedinto a civics class.
The heritage label is a shield.
It lets lawmakers promote theirreligion while pretending
they're just preserving history.
And look, they're not protectingculture, they're imposing it.
As I mentioned, these samelegislatures are removing
(01:48):
lessons about slavery and racialinjustice from their history
standards.
Apparently, the parts of ourheritage that challenge us, they
don't count.
That's not education, that'sairbrushing the past.
For half a century, theestablishment clause kept
government out of religionthrough a simple rule from Lemon
versus Kurtzman.
Policies had to serve a secularpurpose and avoid advancing
(02:13):
faith.
That's gone.
In 2022, the Supreme Court'sKennedy versus Bremerton
decision, the praying footballcoach case, replaced the Lemon
test with a new history andtradition test.
Under this logic, if a religiouspractice has historic roots,
it's constitutional, which isconvenient because in a majority
(02:33):
Christian nation, almost everypractice has Christian roots.
And just like that, the TenCommandments became a heritage
display.
When courts equate history withholiness, neutrality doesn't
stand a chance.
And here's what they won't sayout loud.
When religious conservativesinvoke tradition, they don't
mean the messy, contradictorypast.
(02:55):
They mean the filtered one, theNorman Rockwell version, where
Christianity and patriotism areindistinguishable.
And while they resurrect thatillusion, they suppress the
parts that contradict it.
Ask Florida teachers, who weretold to skip lessons that make
white students feel guilty withHB 71, the Stop Woke Act.
Ask Arkansas why black historycourses were labeled
(03:18):
indoctrination in the LearnsAct.
The Kennedy decision didn't justchange one case, it changed the
entire framework.
Instead of asking, does thisadvance religion?
courts now ask, is thistraditional?
And in a country with aChristian majority, that
question has a built-in answer.
If we judge constitutionality bytradition, then oppression wins
(03:41):
by default, because oppressionhas plenty of tradition too.
The Lemon test wasn't perfect,but it forced governments to
prove their policies wereneutral.
The history and tradition testjust asks if something feels
American enough.
And American enough tends tomean Christian enough.
That's not legal analysis,that's cultural nostalgia with a
(04:02):
gavel.
All right, so let's talk aboutthe word heritage.
It sounds noble, it soundsinclusive, it feels very good,
but in practice, it's become atheological branding campaign.
Lawmakers argue the TenCommandments are foundational to
our legal system.
They're not.
Our laws come from Enlightenmenthumanism and English common law,
(04:24):
not from Exodus.
Thou shalt not kill predatesMoses by tens of thousands of
years of human evolution.
Humans figured out murder wasbad long before anyone carved it
on a stone tablet.
But here's where the hypocrisyreally stands out.
If we're honoring heritage, thenwhere's the rest of it?
Slavery is our heritage,segregation is our heritage.
(04:48):
So is Juneteenth, the dayenslaved people in Texas finally
learned they were free two yearslate.
Yet those days get whitewashedbecause they clash with the
comforting narrative of aChristian nation.
And here's what just kills me: the Bible being celebrated in a (05:00):
undefined
classroom is the same one thatwas once used to defend slavery
and oppose interracial marriage.
Preachers quoted Ephesians 6 5,slaves be obedient to your
masters, to keep people inchains.
They cited Genesis 9, theso-called curse of Ham, to
(05:20):
justify segregation and baninterracial marriages well into
the 60s.
That's heritage too.
But suddenly, when heritage getsuncomfortable, it's too divisive
to teach.
Look, if the commandments wereIslamic or Hindu, those same
lawmakers would be screamingindoctrination.
Imagine a poster quoting theQuran in a Texas classroom.
(05:42):
You have to imagine it becauseyou're never going to see it.
It wouldn't survive a singleschool board meeting.
That's because this isn't aboutfaith diversity, it's about
faith dominance.
Christian nationalism isn'tcontent with free exercise, it
demands cultural supremacy.
You can see the pattern inholiday recognition.
The Trump administration resistsrecognizing Juneteenth as a
(06:05):
federal holiday, claiming it wasdivisive.
Yet those same voices insistAmerica must honor biblical
heritage.
Apparently, again, some heritageis holier than others.
By sanitizing history, they keepmoral authority firmly in their
own hands.
A child can read about the TenCommandments, but not learn
(06:25):
about how scripture justifiedslavery.
That's not protecting religion,that's protecting ignorance.
When you cherry pick heritage,you're not teaching history,
you're selling propaganda.
If we're going to celebrateheritage, we have to include the
uncomfortable truths too, notjust the parts that make us feel
good about ourselves.
That'd be great if we could justdo that, but that's wrong.
(06:47):
We're not just including theverses that sound inspirational
out of context.
If the Bible must hang inschools as heritage, then so
should Frederick Douglass'sspeeches, Sojourner Truth
sermons, Thomas Jefferson'sletters warning that kings are
the servants, not theproprietors of the people.
Real heritage isn't comfortable.
(07:08):
That's the point.
Otherwise, heritage becomestheocracy draped in a flag.
All right, quick pause.
If this conversation is landingwith you, consider subscribing.
Atheistville keeps growingbecause people like you want a
place where we can talk aboutbelief and doubt and reason
without the usual noise.
It's free and it helps othersfind us.
(07:28):
And there's something thatmatters more than you might
think.
Leave a comment.
I actually read them, all ofthem.
Whether you agree with me or youthink that I am completely
wrong, I will engage you like anadult.
That's the whole point.
Your comments also tell thealgorithm that real people care
about this content, which meansmore people get to see it.
And one last thing, if you knowsomeone who benefit from hearing
(07:52):
this, share the episode.
Maybe it's a friend who'squestioning.
Maybe it's someone who's stillin their faith andor someone who
just values honest dialogue.
Sometimes the best conversationsstart with, hey, I heard this
thing that made me think.
All right, let's get back to it.
Now, some people, I can hear youout there rolling your eyes and
saying, Mike, calm down, man.
(08:12):
It's just a poster.
But small breaches are exactlyhow walls fall.
The First Amendment doesn'tcollapse in one dramatic moment.
It erodes through loopholes, oneharmless display at a time.
School prayer came back asvoluntary reflection.
Religious funding came back asschool choice.
(08:33):
The Ten Commandments, it'sreturning as heritage.
Each step chips away atneutrality, and to neutrality
looks like hostility to faith.
And that's the point to redefinesecularism as the enemy of
morality.
But morality isn't exclusive toreligion.
We can teach honesty,compassion, and justice without
(08:53):
pretending they require divineauthorship.
We can build character withoutscripture.
We can encourage virtue withoutmandating belief.
If lawmakers truly cared aboutmoral education, they'd fund
teachers, not monuments.
They'd protect truth, notnostalgia, and they would teach
kids to question, not just obey.
(09:14):
The child who learns the fullstory, not the flattering
version, is also learningmorality.
They're learning empathy.
They're learning to questionpower.
They're learning that right andwrong don't depend on who's in
charge or what religiondominates the room.
And empathy doesn't need amonument, it needs examples, it
needs conversation, it needsadults willing to admit that
(09:37):
history got it wrong.
That's harder than hanging aposter, but it's also more
honest.
All right, that's my two cents,unblessed and unfiltered, agree
or disagree.
That's what I got for you today.
The fight over the TenCommandments in classrooms isn't
about religion invading schools.
It's about the state abandoninghonesty.
When we pretend that heritagemeans only the good parts, we
(10:00):
don't preserve history.
We erase it.
If we want to teach morality,start with the truth.
Truth doesn't need scripturecitation, it just needs courage.
All right, I'm Mike Smithgow.
Thanks for tuning in, and I'llcatch you on the next one.
Thanks for tuning in.
I'm Mike Smith Gall, theunelected mayor of Atheistville,
and this is today's Mic Drop.
Louisiana wants the TenCommandments on every public
school.
They say it's about heritage,not religion, as if the
difference is just a matter oftiming.
But here's the thing (00:18):
the same crowd is also busy erasing
lessons on slavery, on racialviolence, and Juneteenth,
because suddenly the heritage istoo uncomfortable.
So which is it?
History or comfort?
The Ten Commandments debateisn't really about faith at all.
It's about power and about whogets to define what counts as
American history.
(00:38):
Today we're going to talk aboutwhy this fight over classroom
posters matters far more than itseems, because when religion
becomes heritage, honestybecomes optional.
In 2024, Louisiana passed a law,HB 71, requiring every
classroom, kindergarten throughcollege, to display the Ten
Commandments in large, legiblefonts.
(00:59):
And I'm putting that in quotesbecause that's what they said.
Large, legible font.
Supporters called it a moralcompass for youth.
Critics called it what it was: government endorsed scripture. (01:06):
undefined
A federal appeals court struckit down this summer, but the
Fifth Circuit, easily one of themost conservative courts in the
country, agreed to rehear it.
That means it's headed to theSupreme Court.
Texas and Oklahoma have nearlyidentical bills waiting in the
wings, all modeled after talkingpoints from Christian
(01:28):
nationalist groups like theAmerican Family Association.
Its theology copy and pastedinto a civics class.
The heritage label is a shield.
It lets lawmakers promote theirreligion while pretending
they're just preserving history.
And look, they're not protectingculture, they're imposing it.
As I mentioned, these samelegislatures are removing
(01:48):
lessons about slavery and racialinjustice from their history
standards.
Apparently, the parts of ourheritage that challenge us, they
don't count.
That's not education, that'sairbrushing the past.
For half a century, theestablishment clause kept
government out of religionthrough a simple rule from Lemon
versus Kurtzman.
Policies had to serve a secularpurpose and avoid advancing
(02:13):
faith.
That's gone.
In 2022, the Supreme Court'sKennedy versus Bremerton
decision, the praying footballcoach case, replaced the Lemon
test with a new history andtradition test.
Under this logic, if a religiouspractice has historic roots,
it's constitutional, which isconvenient because in a majority
(02:33):
Christian nation, almost everypractice has Christian roots.
And just like that, the TenCommandments became a heritage
display.
When courts equate history withholiness, neutrality doesn't
stand a chance.
And here's what they won't sayout loud.
When religious conservativesinvoke tradition, they don't
mean the messy, contradictorypast.
(02:55):
They mean the filtered one, theNorman Rockwell version, where
Christianity and patriotism areindistinguishable.
And while they resurrect thatillusion, they suppress the
parts that contradict it.
Ask Florida teachers, who weretold to skip lessons that make
white students feel guilty withHB 71, the Stop Woke Act.
Ask Arkansas why black historycourses were labeled
(03:18):
indoctrination in the LearnsAct.
The Kennedy decision didn't justchange one case, it changed the
entire framework.
Instead of asking, does thisadvance religion?
courts now ask, is thistraditional?
And in a country with aChristian majority, that
question has a built-in answer.
If we judge constitutionality bytradition, then oppression wins
(03:41):
by default, because oppressionhas plenty of tradition too.
The Lemon test wasn't perfect,but it forced governments to
prove their policies wereneutral.
The history and tradition testjust asks if something feels
American enough.
And American enough tends tomean Christian enough.
That's not legal analysis,that's cultural nostalgia with a
(04:02):
gavel.
All right, so let's talk aboutthe word heritage.
It sounds noble, it soundsinclusive, it feels very good,
but in practice, it's become atheological branding campaign.
Lawmakers argue the TenCommandments are foundational to
our legal system.
They're not.
Our laws come from Enlightenmenthumanism and English common law,
(04:24):
not from Exodus.
Thou shalt not kill predatesMoses by tens of thousands of
years of human evolution.
Humans figured out murder wasbad long before anyone carved it
on a stone tablet.
But here's where the hypocrisyreally stands out.
If we're honoring heritage, thenwhere's the rest of it?
Slavery is our heritage,segregation is our heritage.
(04:48):
So is Juneteenth, the dayenslaved people in Texas finally
learned they were free two yearslate.
Yet those days get whitewashedbecause they clash with the
comforting narrative of aChristian nation.
And here's what just kills me: the Bible being celebrated in a (05:00):
undefined
classroom is the same one thatwas once used to defend slavery
and oppose interracial marriage.
Preachers quoted Ephesians 6 5,slaves be obedient to your
masters, to keep people inchains.
They cited Genesis 9, theso-called curse of Ham, to
(05:20):
justify segregation and baninterracial marriages well into
the 60s.
That's heritage too.
But suddenly, when heritage getsuncomfortable, it's too divisive
to teach.
Look, if the commandments wereIslamic or Hindu, those same
lawmakers would be screamingindoctrination.
Imagine a poster quoting theQuran in a Texas classroom.
(05:42):
You have to imagine it becauseyou're never going to see it.
It wouldn't survive a singleschool board meeting.
That's because this isn't aboutfaith diversity, it's about
faith dominance.
Christian nationalism isn'tcontent with free exercise, it
demands cultural supremacy.
You can see the pattern inholiday recognition.
The Trump administration resistsrecognizing Juneteenth as a
(06:05):
federal holiday, claiming it wasdivisive.
Yet those same voices insistAmerica must honor biblical
heritage.
Apparently, again, some heritageis holier than others.
By sanitizing history, they keepmoral authority firmly in their
own hands.
A child can read about the TenCommandments, but not learn
(06:25):
about how scripture justifiedslavery.
That's not protecting religion,that's protecting ignorance.
When you cherry pick heritage,you're not teaching history,
you're selling propaganda.
If we're going to celebrateheritage, we have to include the
uncomfortable truths too, notjust the parts that make us feel
good about ourselves.
That'd be great if we could justdo that, but that's wrong.
(06:47):
We're not just including theverses that sound inspirational
out of context.
If the Bible must hang inschools as heritage, then so
should Frederick Douglass'sspeeches, Sojourner Truth
sermons, Thomas Jefferson'sletters warning that kings are
the servants, not theproprietors of the people.
Real heritage isn't comfortable.
(07:08):
That's the point.
Otherwise, heritage becomestheocracy draped in a flag.
All right, quick pause.
If this conversation is landingwith you, consider subscribing.
Atheistville keeps growingbecause people like you want a
place where we can talk aboutbelief and doubt and reason
without the usual noise.
It's free and it helps othersfind us.
(07:28):
And there's something thatmatters more than you might
think.
Leave a comment.
I actually read them, all ofthem.
Whether you agree with me or youthink that I am completely
wrong, I will engage you like anadult.
That's the whole point.
Your comments also tell thealgorithm that real people care
about this content, which meansmore people get to see it.
And one last thing, if you knowsomeone who benefit from hearing
(07:52):
this, share the episode.
Maybe it's a friend who'squestioning.
Maybe it's someone who's stillin their faith andor someone who
just values honest dialogue.
Sometimes the best conversationsstart with, hey, I heard this
thing that made me think.
All right, let's get back to it.
Now, some people, I can hear youout there rolling your eyes and
saying, Mike, calm down, man.
(08:12):
It's just a poster.
But small breaches are exactlyhow walls fall.
The First Amendment doesn'tcollapse in one dramatic moment.
It erodes through loopholes, oneharmless display at a time.
School prayer came back asvoluntary reflection.
Religious funding came back asschool choice.
(08:33):
The Ten Commandments, it'sreturning as heritage.
Each step chips away atneutrality, and to neutrality
looks like hostility to faith.
And that's the point to redefinesecularism as the enemy of
morality.
But morality isn't exclusive toreligion.
We can teach honesty,compassion, and justice without
(08:53):
pretending they require divineauthorship.
We can build character withoutscripture.
We can encourage virtue withoutmandating belief.
If lawmakers truly cared aboutmoral education, they'd fund
teachers, not monuments.
They'd protect truth, notnostalgia, and they would teach
kids to question, not just obey.
(09:14):
The child who learns the fullstory, not the flattering
version, is also learningmorality.
They're learning empathy.
They're learning to questionpower.
They're learning that right andwrong don't depend on who's in
charge or what religiondominates the room.
And empathy doesn't need amonument, it needs examples, it
needs conversation, it needsadults willing to admit that
(09:37):
history got it wrong.
That's harder than hanging aposter, but it's also more
honest.
All right, that's my two cents,unblessed and unfiltered, agree
or disagree.
That's what I got for you today.
The fight over the TenCommandments in classrooms isn't
about religion invading schools.
It's about the state abandoninghonesty.
When we pretend that heritagemeans only the good parts, we
(10:00):
don't preserve history.
We erase it.
If we want to teach morality,start with the truth.
Truth doesn't need scripturecitation, it just needs courage.
All right, I'm Mike Smithgow.
Thanks for tuning in, and I'llcatch you on the next one.
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