Shaming Sharia law but enforcing Ten Commandments is hypocritical | Opinion

 Shariah law doesn't belong in politics? 

Regarding "At Texas Faith Fest, lawmaker urges pastors to preach politics," (Sept. 26): The front page of the Sept. 27 issue of the Houston Chronicle certainly highlights a hypocritical dichotomy. State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress encouraged Christian pastors to "discuss biblical principles and their place in public policy" at Texas Faith Fest. 

Across the page from this story is an article where Gov. Greg Abbott and GOP leaders target Shariah law in Texas. Then, on Page 2, we have Lamar CISD banning more than 700 book titles. So Sharia is bad, but the Christian nationalist version of it is good?  

Isn't inserting a particular denomination's beliefs into public policy and banning books the same as Sharia? Forcing public schools to display a particular version of the Ten Commandments? It's just Sharia under a different guise.

When I was little, in church we sang a song called "They will know we are Christians by our love." All that I see now from Christian nationalists is hatred and vilification for anybody who is not a white, cisgender, male evangelical Christian. I see cruelty to the less fortunate, in direct opposition to the edicts in the gospels to feed the poor, heal the sick and feed the hungry.  Wouldn't it be something if the Christian nationalists concentrated their energies there?

Gov. Greg Abbott is for requiring Texas public schools to post a non-Jewish, non-Catholic version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom while opposing the efforts of a local Muslim clergyman to pressure private businesses owned by Muslims to stop selling pork and alcohol in violation of Islamic laws. How to resolve the governor's stances? As UT-Austin political scientist Josh Blank told the Chronicle, both parties are looking for a new enemy to target. For now, the enemy apparently is one of the world's three Abrahamic religions. 

Alan Bernstein, Bellaire

Keep religion out of schools

Regarding "Texas is right to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms," (Sept. 23): I am not sure that Heather Hefner ever taught in a public school or learned the Constitution of the United States, which, in the First Amendment, prohibits the government from establishing a religion.  

By requiring every classroom to hang a specific version of the Ten Commandments, that is what Texas is doing - forcing a specific, narrow religious view on every student and teacher. In public school, we provide an education for every child, no matter their race, religion or socioeconomic status. 

If Hefner wants her children to learn a specific religious text, she is welcome to teach her children those values at home, or better yet, to pull her children out of public school, use the vouchers which our state Legislature has provided and enroll them in a private religious school. 

I have been teaching science in public school for 24 years. I don't want to explain to my students what "thou shalt not commit adultery" means, and I trust the social studies teachers to cover how the Constitution came about and what our Founding Fathers intended when they wrote it.  

As for a moral compass, I expect my students to follow rules of good behavior, good ethics and good fellowship every day - I model that in my classroom and our school rules support that. I don't need a religious text on my wall to make my students behave like good citizens.

Diana Gano, Pearland

There is a much easier solution to providing "a moral compass" to students in our schools that supports every person, regardless of religious beliefs. Post the following: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or more simply: Be kind to all!