this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
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The version of the 10 Commandments Louisiana mandates be in every classroom is not from the Bible. It is from a "formerly" racist organization called the Fraternal Order of Eagles. (www.dailykos.com)
submitted 5 months ago by FlyingSquid to c/atheism
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

At one point the qualifications for membership were that one must be 21 years old, possess a good character, not be a Communist and be a Caucasian. By the late 1970s the all-white provision had officially been rescinded, but, because the Order used the blackball to admit new members, it was difficult for minorities to gain membership. In 1979 the FOE tried to get a lawsuit dismissed that alleged it was violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by not allowing African Americans to use their athletic facilities. The article stated that a local Eagle official could only cite Joe Louis as a black member of the FOE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_Order_of_Eagles

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I'd only heard about the 10C portion of the bill, but the rest of it is equally or more bonkers than that.

  1. THE BILL CALLS THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT “AMERICA’S FIRST WRITTEN CONSTITUTION”

...Louisiana legislators do not mention that this document was prepared for the local governance of a few hundred religious extremists as a giant FU to civil authority, or that the compact was written before any of them had even set a Pilgrim foot on North America.

Maybe we should do what England did and set these religious nutters adrift and hope for the best.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Nowhere else to send them, unless you wanna shoot em into space.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

Space is the final frontier. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Antarctica isn't overpopulated.

[–] Beldarofremulak 6 points 5 months ago (3 children)

And let them hit us with "the first colony in space was chrash'an"? No thanks.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Doesn’t the moon have a “nobody allowed to claim it” pact thing going on? We can just send them there and let them be impotent all they like. They can have their one dumb-ass dome colony of religious nutters, and we can watch them struggle without capable maintainers.

Hell, we could fund the whole thing by making it a reality show.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Nobody said we had to send them with life support

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Let them colonize the sun. That'd show us no-good heathens who's boss, when we have to look up at their new home every day. Surely their god will keep them safe on such a glorious bit of missionary work.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Let 'em loose on Lake Superior

[–] Viking_Hippie 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Too good for them. They can have Lake Mediocre.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Nah, let them think they're important juuuuust long enough to get far from the shore and experience a storm.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I knew when I first saw it that it was an unfamiliar version, bit I just assumed it was from one of the more modern versions of the Bible with which I'm not familiar.

In retrospect, I should've guessed that the version choice was a dog whistle. Fucking racists just can't pass up an opportunity.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago

From a cursury reading: the eagles club has never been a "racist" organization. That's just a byproduct of being upper crest "town and country" liberals in the 1800s.

My understanding is that the Eagles' version of the ten commandments is the most widely used in American civic life since the 50s when the Eagles (an historically performing arts based fraternity) got it placed in the most seen version of The Greatest Story Ever Told in exchange for helping fund the nationwide ad campaign.

The article and its headline are really grasping. The people trying to raffle you a car to raise money for hospitals are not the KKK nor are they on the level of the KKK or deserving of being called a racist organization. They are pretty much just the Freemasons without any of the heretical teachings. They are probably more right wing, but through classism, not necessarily racism.

[–] partial_accumen 14 points 5 months ago

Sounds like a "malicious compliance" teacher with backing of the ACLU should post the real 10 commandments from the Bible, and then get the state to sue the teacher stating that they need to display the Fake 10 commandments instead.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are multiple numberings and versions of the 10 Commandments recognized by different churches. Are we sure this one is only Order of the Eagles and not used by both them and a major protestant denomination?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

It would be good if the article pointed out what was different. There are a couple of sections not in the Wikipedia article, assuming it comes from this SCOTUS decision as stated.

The first comes from the KJV.

The second that I spotted also appears to be from the KJV.

Any actual passages that don't come from any translation of the Bible? Or is it the idea that the whole must come from one translation in consecutive verses?

[–] Feliskatos 2 points 5 months ago

This article provides more context to Trump's recent statement that he would defund schools that require vaccinations. Nevermind that vaccinations basically brought COVID under (better) control.

[–] homesweethomeMrL -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Huh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_Order_of_Eagles

Well, they’re weird, but don’t seem to be particularly evil or anything. I think pulling it verbatim from a supreme court case with the hope the SCOTUS would “have” to allow it makes sense as a stupid idea LA republiQans had. ~~I don’t think it’s some kind of KKK thing, or if it is, it’s not obvious.~~ Edit: Just saw the OP quote where yeah its explicitly racist, or “was”.

More like a run-of-the-mill faux-Masonic thing like Rotary Club, Elks, Gideons, whatever. Not my jam, but not as horrifyingly batshit as Qanon or the republiQan party proper either.

They are big on the ten commandments though which - as a private club if they wanna hand out ten commandment tshirts or whatever, sure, knock yourselves out.

It’s the “don’t say gay” poison pill in the bill that’s worse than where they got their hilarious “eleven” commandments unconstitutional garbage.

[–] FlyingSquid 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did you read this part about the Eagles?

Ten Commandments

In the 1940s, E.J. Ruegemer, a Minnesota juvenile court judge and member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, launched a nationwide campaign to post copies of the Ten Commandments in juvenile courts across the country. His stated goal was to provide a moral foundation for troubled youth.

In 1956, director Cecil B. DeMille's epic film "The Ten Commandments" opened across the country. DeMille and Ruegemer drummed up publicity for the film by working together to erect granite monuments of the Ten Commandments across the nation.

Although there is no official record of how many monuments were erected, estimates range from less than 100 to more than 2,000. The Fraternal Order of Eagles kept the project going long after the film opened, and some monuments didn't get erected until up to 10 years later. Many monuments went up in public places like parks, city halls, and courthouses.[22] On August 30, 1961, the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Texas presented the State of Texas with a 6-foot-high monolith inscribed with the Ten Commandments, which in 2006 became the subject of a divisive and controversial legal dispute (Van Orden v. Perry) that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.[23] The case was ruled 5–4 in favor of the defendant, the State of Texas, and the monument was allowed to remain on the grounds of the State Capitol.

That seems relevant.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 2 points 5 months ago

I . . didn’t, I made it through the timeline - is that from the wiki?

Anyway, it’s relevant because . . . they really really like the ten commandments? Or was there something about their interpretation of them or something? Or just that they’re religious nutballs.

I mean the Gideons would pass out bibles on the street corner, which is so not of interest to me, but it doesn’t seem particularly nefarious either (not that it isn’t mixed up with something nefarious, somewhere). It’s an old-timey thing groups would do, hand out “their materials”. It is still unconstitutional to put them in schools and the courtroom, but if they want to put them anywhere they can - ok, i guess?

Like, I expected Louisiana’s idiocy in publishing eleven commandments came from this group, or possibly that there were more hilarious mistakes in there. But neither seems to be the case.