State Sen. Keith Kelley (R-Anniston) joined Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5 this week to discuss legislation that recently passed the Alabama Senate requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in Alabama's public schools.
SB99, introduced and sponsored by Kelley, stipulates that each local board of education in the state must display the Ten Commandments as well as a context statement in each history classroom serving students in grades 5 through 12. Per the legislation, the commandments would also have to be displayed in a common area of each school, serving only fifth-grade students or above.
"In Alabama, it should be a given to have [the Ten Commandments] in the classroom. It shouldn't be a question at all," Kelley argued on "The Jeff Poor Show." "This particular legislation says the commandments must be displayed on a poster slightly larger than a legal-size piece of paper."
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Kelley told host Jeff Poor that a "lack of historical education" contributed to opposition of the bill, while likening the process of crafting and shepherding SB99 to a chess match.
"But you get into last year, we had public hearings on it, and some of the things that were being said, it really showed you a lack of historical education that a lot of people have," Kelley stated. "When you go back and look at it, that's the angle on this. We looked at lawsuits that have been filed, what the rulings were, the ones that were overturned and we looked at what other states were doing. It's been kind of a little bit of a chess match with the different lawsuits going on, trying to figure out exactly what it needed to look like."
According to the lawmaker, a significant portion of global cultures have been influenced by values found in the commandments.
"If you go back on the 10 Commandments, just about all of the world's law is built on those fundamental values, and especially in the United States," he said. "People want to play word games. But if you go back and you look just like on this poster. It also has the Mayflower Compact on there, and Constitution quotes."
Kelley contended that the principle of separation of church and state is absent from the Constitution, despite arguments to the contrary made by Democrats.
"They want to try to hang their hat on the separation of church and state, which is not in the Constitution," he noted. "But you're not in there trying to establish a religion like there was in England when our country was founded. It's not trying to make anybody a particular religion. It just amazes me that anyone could be against a child being told you shouldn't kill anybody, you shouldn't lie. Just common sense, but we do have some who feel that way."
The legislator referenced the Bible's former usage as an educational tool, noting the negative changes in Alabama's schools since the holy book and prayer were removed from classrooms.
"If you go back and look at history, the Bible was actually what was used for teaching reading," he said. "I think it was, to the 1920s or 30s. When you look at some of our founding fathers in the language that they spoke, you'll find how it kind of relates to the King James Version of the Bible. Since that and prayer were taken out of schools, in the early 1960's, look what's happened to our schools since that time."
Added Kelley, "I don't think you can take God out of our society. That's who we are, whether you want to acknowledge it or not."
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