Hello, and on this first day of Pride Month, welcome to Talk Heathen, the show where we value good ideas over old traditions and ancient poetry and where beliefs are expected to have a good reason.

I'm Christy Powell, and today I am desperately looking for any reasonably good reason to explain a bill on its way to Governor Abbott's desk.

Senate Bill 10, recently passed by the Texas

Senate, would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every public school classroom

across the state. Not suggested, required. Not a well-rounded history of the people of the state,

not a collection of quotes from influential lawmakers and founders,

but a list of rules about how to protect God's feelings and how to feel about your neighbor's

possessions, including his wife. Let's not get ourselves. This is not about history. It's about

control. It's about whose worldview gets to be centered and whose gets pushed aside. Because

when the government

mandates one religious text in a public classroom, it's not just promoting values, it's promoting

a religion. And when that happens, our Muslim neighbors, our Jewish students, our secular families,

and of course, everyone who believes in real religious freedom are left standing outside the circle.

So let me say it plainly.

The government doesn't get to pick your God or any God for you.

That's not freedom.

That's coercion in a gold leaf red letter edition.

So today, I'd love to hear from you, especially if you grew up in a school

where religion crept into the classroom. How did it shape you? How did it silence you? And what

does it mean for a child to be told by the state which believes are worthy of a poster on the

wall? This conversation matters. Because neutrality isn't oppression and inclusion

doesn't mean erasure. It means every student, every family has the right to belong without

...