Why Has the Lord Forsaken the Most Pious States?

A new wave of legislation pushing Christianity into schools won't solve their problems.

Photo by George Bannister

The Louisiana state legislature, where Republicans possess supermajorities in both houses, has been busy as the current session nears its end. Lawmakers repealed a law requiring that teenage workers be given lunch breaks. They classified abortion pills as “controlled substances” (though abortion is already illegal in the state in almost all circumstances). They made it illegal to get within 25 feet of police when they tell you to keep back, which will make it harder to film them. They passed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill barring teachers from discussing sexuality. 

And to top it off, they passed a bill requiring that a version of the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom in the state, and in every classroom of any school that gets state funds. When she was asked about Louisiana teachers who don’t subscribe to her religion being made to deliver religious messages in the classroom, the bill’s sponsor was dismissive. “I'm not concerned with an atheist. I'm not concerned with a Muslim,” said Rep. Dodie Horton. “I'm concerned with our children looking and seeing what God's law is.”

So congratulations, Louisiana: Your troubles are almost over. As a new wave of piety and biblical understanding spreads to your youth, the state is sure to become just the paradise of safety, health, and prosperity you’ve been hoping for. 

It isn’t just Louisiana: Republican legislators imbued with the holy spirit are looking to put religion — their religion — back into schools and other government sponsored forums wherever they can. States from Arkansas to Arizona have created or expanded school voucher programs meant to direct taxpayer money to religious schools. The Texas Republican Party’s new platform demands that the state “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance.” Florida schools are now allowed to hire chaplains under a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. “When education in the United States first started, every school was a religious school. That was just part of it,” DeSantis claimed. “What we are doing is really restoring the sense of purpose that our Founding Fathers wanted to see in education.” The state is also paying teachers $3,000 to attend a course infused with Christian Nationalist teachings about how government is inseparable from religion. 

This is all motivated by the belief that injecting Christianity throughout the government’s activities, especially the teaching of children, will be not only a moral good but have beneficial practical effects. It has long been an article of faith in certain circles that everything started going to hell in America after the Supreme Court outlawed sectarian prayer in public schools in 1962, and legislators like Rep. Horton are certain that if children are “looking and seeing what God’s law is,” they’ll be more likely to act morally and create a better society in the future.

So why isn’t religion working?

Here’s the problem, though. If the theory that infusing more Christianity into public life would produce a range of beneficial effects were true, the states that are the most religious would already be the best places to live — the most healthy, safe, and prosperous, even before they put up Ten Commandments posters to remind kids not to make graven images or covet their neighbor’s cattle.

Like Louisiana, which is one of the most pious states in the union. According to data from the Pew Research Center, 75 percent of Louisianans say they are absolutely certain that god exists, and 71 percent say religion is an important part of their lives. This puts the state right near the top in religiosity, alongside Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Tennessee. 

So you might be surprised to learn — or maybe not — that belief in the supernatural has not produced the desirable social outcomes the Christian nationalists in the state legislature predict. Louisiana has the second-highest rate of child poverty of any state, trailing only Mississippi. It has the second-shortest life expectancy, after West Virginia. It has the third-highest teen pregnancy rate, after Arkansas and Mississippi. It has the second-highest homicide rate, after D.C., and the second-highest gun death rate, after Mississippi. It imprisons more of its citizens than any state other than, you guessed it, Mississippi.

Why has God not delivered for the devout citizens of Louisiana? His ways are mysterious, but perhaps putting up the Ten Commandments in classrooms will finally do the trick. 

Were I a member of the Louisiana legislature, I might have proposed that if schools are forced to display the Ten Commandments, then alongside they should also display the Beatitudes, wherein Jesus explains that the poor and meek and merciful are blessed. I suspect that Republicans would have voted no; Christians they may be, but their hearts lie more with the cruel and vengeful God of the Old Testament. You don’t want to get kids thinking too highly of the poor — they might start to think everyone deserves health insurance!

Those pushing to give Christianity a more central place in public life are right about one thing: Although the United States still has much higher levels of religious observance than other wealthy democracies, religious identification, and Christian identification in particular, are in decline:

Where they’re wrong is in the hope that creating a de facto state religion will increase, rather than decrease, people’s eagerness to hold on to that religion and its tenets. The effort is likely to fail on the goals of both winning more converts and improving the lives of people in their states. But it will give Christians an even more privileged place than they already enjoy. Which may be the whole point.