Rob Boston recaps 2025: Day three

Today we’re running the final installment of my picks for the top “Wall of Separation” blog posts from 2025. (If you missed them, here’s part one and part two.)

Let’s dive right in:

Hang a meaningful 10

Legislators in three states – Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas – passed laws requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Americans United and our allies are fighting these misguided measures in courts of law. In the court of public opinion, we have a better option: Hang 10, all right, but not Commandments – hang the Bill of Rights.

As AU noted, the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution – has profoundly affected American history, and, unlike the Ten Commandments and the Bible, it actually helps form the basis of our government. That list of 10 items, drawn from our Constitution, ought to be posted, celebrated and defended.

You can’t steal library books you don’t like

One of our more popular blog posts from 2025 focused on an appalling story from Shelbyville, Ky. In that community, some Christian Nationalists were so upset over the presence of LGBTQ+ books in the town public library that they stole them.

In a statement, three pastors with the Reformation Church of Shelbyville announced, “Yes – we have urged Christians, both locally and across the country, to search their libraries for books that promote sodomy, gender confusion and rebellion against God – and if found, to check them out and never return them as an act of civil disobedience.”

There’s one big problem: That’s not “civil disobedience” – it’s theft, and it should be prosecuted as such.

A state supreme court justice tells the U.S. Supreme Court it’s wrong

The U.S. Supreme Court has been getting it wrong on church-state separation for years now, and Americans United hasn’t hesitated to call the court out on that. In September, a justice on the Hawaii Supreme Court joined that chorus. Justice Todd Eddins calmly but powerfully told the nation’s highest court that its dismantling of the church-state wall will have drastic consequences. Here’s one of Eddins’ best quotes: “[T]he promise of religious pluralism and secular government depends on a durable wall separating church and state. Without it, religion, government, and civil society suffer.”

Release time: It’s baaaack!

A bad idea from the 1950s – allowing public school students to leave the building during the school day for religious instruction offsite – began making a comeback this year. The problem with “release time” is especially acute in Ohio and other states where a group called LifeWise Academy is pushing the concept. Americans United is not a fan. This blog post traces the history of release time and outlines the many problems with it.

‘We didn’t mean for Muslims to take part in our school voucher plan!’

Finally, the grand prize for short-sighted lawmaking goes to several Florida officials who are throwing a fit because Islamic schools are taking part in a private school voucher plan that those very officials created and supported.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson pushed vouchers when he was in the state Senate. Now the state has a wide-reaching plan, and Simpson is angry that Islamic schools are participating. He insisted that schools “that indoctrinate Sharia law should not be a part of our taxpayer-funded school voucher program.”

As we noted, there are a couple of problems here. One, there’s no evidence these schools are teaching Sharia law. But the larger issue is that government can’t play favorites when it comes to religion. If benefits are extended to Christian schools, other faiths are legally allowed to take part. (Ironically, there are schools in Florida that seek to indoctrinate young people in fundamentalist forms of religion – they are Christian academies that espouse Christian Nationalism.)

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re worried about schools using taxpayer money to promote other people’s faith, then don’t create voucher plans.

That’s it! We hope you enjoyed this opportunity to revisit some notable blog posts from 2025. Happy Holidays!