Republican lawmaker proposes bill to require Ten Commandments in Missouri schools

By Natanya Friedheim

Columbia Missourian

A bill in the Missouri Senate’s education committee concerning religion in the classroom had senators, faith-based leaders and school advocates at odds Tuesday.

If passed, Senate Bill 594 would require classrooms to display a poster of at least 11 inches by 14 inches with the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

Missouri students would see the words “I AM THE LORD thy God” followed by the Ten Commandments posted in every public and charter school classroom they enter.

“I honestly believe that when prayer went out of schools, and religion was removed from schools, that guns came in and violence came in,” the bill sponsor, state Sen. Jamie Burger, (pictured) a Benton Republican, said during the hearing.

In opposition to the bill, Democratic state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern of Kansas City expressed concern about the costs of potential litigation. She also opposed the bill on principle. “This goes against the very founding of our nation,” she said.

Burger disagreed. After a back and forth, he said, “You know one thing, I think, when they talk about separation of church and state, I think they were talking about, we don’t want any church ran by the state. That’s my feelings. That’s my interpretation.”

Faith leaders testified both in support of and opposition to the bill — and people on both sides took issue with the version of the Ten Commandments included in the bill.

Faiths that adhere to the Ten Commandments, including Judaism, Catholicism and Lutheranism, have different versions of it, so the bill would “take sides in a deeply theological debate,” said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and president of Word & Way, an online publication.

“This bill would make many students feel like second-class citizens in their own classrooms, just because they come from a religious tradition that lists the Ten Commandments differently, they adhere to a religious faith that does not even include the Ten Commandments, or they have no faith at all,” he added.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a similar bill into law last year. A federal judge blocked the law in November, and the state appealed the court’s decision.

In 1980’s Stone v. Graham decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a similar law in Kentucky violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”

For Sage Coram of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the bill violates the U.S. and Missouri constitutions. Children are required to attend school, and SB 594 could pressure students into adopting the state’s preferred religion, usurping parents’ right to choose what religious doctrine, if any, to instill in their children, Coram said at the hearing.

Bev Ehlen of Liberty Link Missouri supported the bill but asked that “kill” be replaced with “murder” in “Thou shalt not kill.”

State Sen. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville, who chairs the education committee, spoke at length in favor of the measure. He cited his belief that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.

“We just need to be willing to plant that flag,” Brattin said, “that God, and the God of the Ten Commandments, is who gave us this amazing nation, and we need to be able to reflect and look at that.”

Photo by Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent

This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian.