Testimony in Opposition to Ohio Senate Bill (SB) 34

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Chair Brenner, Vice Chair Blessing, Ranking Member Ingram, and members of the Senate Education Committee:

My name is the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp. I serve as Executive Director of LOVEboldly, an Ohio faith-based organization working to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish in Christianity and beyond, and as Pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus, a progressive Christian congregation. I submit this testimony in opposition to Substitute Senate Bill 34.

As a Christian pastor, I speak today not against faith in public life, but against the misuse of sacred texts for political purposes. SB34’s inclusion of the Ten Commandments among a list of civic founding documents fundamentally misunderstands both the nature of religious scripture and the proper relationship between faith and government in a pluralistic democracy.

The Ten Commandments Are Not a Founding Document

The Ten Commandments are sacred scripture, a covenant between God and the people of Israel, and for Christians, part of our holy text. They are not, however, a founding document of the United States. Including them alongside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Northwest Ordinance creates a false equivalence that distorts both our religious heritage and our civic history.

The Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are civic documents that established and govern our nation. The Ten Commandments are religious law given to a specific people in a specific covenant relationship with God. To present these as the same category of document is to diminish the unique nature of both.

This conflation sends a dangerous message: that American citizenship and Christian faith are intertwined, that to be a good American is to adhere to this particular religious text. This is neither historically accurate nor constitutionally sound.

Impact on Students and Religious Freedom

As a pastor, I am also concerned about the impact of this bill on students from many different religious and secular traditions. Ohio's public schools serve Christian students, Jewish students, Muslim students, Hindu students, Buddhist students, atheist students, and students of many other faiths and philosophical traditions. Each of these students deserves to feel equally welcome in their public school classrooms.

When a public institutions, including public schools, display the Ten Commandments, it sends a clear message to non-Christian and non-religious students: this classroom privileges one religious tradition over others. For Jewish students, the Ten Commandments may be sacred, but they are understood differently than in Christian tradition. For Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist students, they are part of another faith entirely. For atheist and agnostic students, they represent religious claims they do not accept.

These students do not forfeit their right to equal treatment when they enter a public school classroom. Yet SB34 would create an environment where some students’ religious traditions are displayed as foundational to American democracy, while others are implicitly excluded.

An Unfunded Mandate That Burdens Districts

SB34 requires school districts to implement these displays only if they receive donated funds or materials. While this may seem to address fiscal concerns, it creates an inequitable system where outside groups can effectively purchase influence over classroom environments. Wealthy donors or organized advocacy groups could flood certain districts with Ten Commandments displays, while other districts remain unaffected, not because of educational merit, but because of donor interest.

This approach also burdens districts with the administrative cost of evaluating donations, determining compliance, and managing potential conflicts over which documents to display and how to display them. These are resources better spent on actual education.

Religious Texts Deserve Better

As a Christian and as a pastor, I believe the Ten Commandments deserve to be treated as what they are: sacred scripture, worthy of study, reflection, and reverence within communities of faith. Reducing them to a “founding document” alongside civic texts trivializes their religious significance and misrepresents their purpose.

If we want students to learn about the Ten Commandments, that learning should happen in the context of religious studies: examining their meaning within Judaism and Christianity, their historical development, their theological significance, and their similarities and differences with other moral traditions. This is substantively different from posting them on a classroom wall as if they were equivalent to the Constitution.

Conclusion

I urge you to reject Substitute Senate Bill 34. This legislation does not serve our students, it does not respect our religious diversity, and it does not honor the proper boundaries between faith and government.

Thank you for your consideration of this testimony.

This statement may be attributed the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, on behalf of LOVEboldly.

The October Wall

Monday, November 17, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! I live next to a historic brick school. When it was first built, over 100 years ago, it was the town’s high school. Through subsequent changes and renovations, it has served different groups of students and now hosts students in grades K-5. This morning, I watched one of the students bolt down the sidewalk, up the stairs to the building’s front lawn, across the lawn, and up the stairs into the building. Arms flailing, book bag and jacket barely hanging on, they remarkably stayed upright and made it into school. I couldn’t have done that, but they were an apt metaphor for how I feel at this time of year.

I’ve lived much of my life on academic calendars and regardless of the school, college, or university, there is a reality we often call the “October wall,” though it tends to continue well into November. No matter how excited students, faculty, and staff are for the start of the school year or how much they dread the end of summer, there is always a feeling of newness that helps people transition into the academic year. September is, therefore, hopeful and filled with potential, but October, particularly the second half of October, is different. By about October 15 people—not just students—are no longer filled with so much hope. They’re in the long slog which feels like the middle of the proverbial tunnel: the light from the entrance has faded and the light at the end is just a spec on the horizon. Enter November and the loss of actual light by 5pm and the metaphor becomes reality. The October wall is not so much an obstacle to tackle as it is something one runs into without really seeing.

My October wall has almost always been boredom. I begin the semester excited for the newness and the challenge of courses and study, but by the end of October I’m ready to be done. I’m ready to move on. It doesn’t matter how decent or even incredible the material, I still feel an enormous level of boredom and even apathy.

Our lives often flow in similar waves of excitement and boredom. Have you ever enthusiastically volunteered for a committee or to plan an event only to find yourself questioning that decision a few months in? We learn to put on a “good” face and be positive about fulfilling our commitments even if we loathe every damn moment.

What is your “October wall?” How do you overcome boredom and apathy in the roles you’ve taken on?

Let us pray: God, we usually don’t think of you as being bored or apathetic, but maybe you feel that way too. Be our example and model for living with and fighting the internal forces which cause us to lose interest and struggle to meet our commitments. Help us find ways to show up, work, and live in the midst of our October walls and any time our interest wanes. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +

Unity and Inclusion

Sunday, November 16, 2025

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Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts forms one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

(1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

When we reflect upon the call for inclusion, we must remember that Christ has called us to love and affirm all humanity, not just those who are similar to us. While it might not be intentional, we find as humans an attraction to build a community with people who are similar to us. We often choose comfort in conformity rather than forcing ourselves into discomfort with those people who might look or act differently than ourselves. Think about it, when was the last time you intentionally walked outside of your comfort zone just to empathize with the lives others live?

Congregations often will raise money or perform “charitable” acts of kindness by working at homeless shelters, or free stores; but how often do you see them changing their lives in order to include those who are different in their daily lives?

Jesus taught us to live amongst the unwelcome and unwanted, as that is the only way to truly create a community built upon inclusion and diversity. I think back to my childhood church, where for a couple months the congregation invited a couple who was disabled and living in poverty. This couple was only able to attend if members of the congregation donated their time to drive them to and from the church. For a few months, members were eager to perform this charitable act, but soon it became a burden to members of the congregation. As members were not as eager to drive this couple, their attendance decreased to a point where they did not come at all. Is this what Christ calls us to do? It is important to create a congregation on diversity, equity, and inclusion; members will be forced into inconvenient and uncomfortable situations. Only when forcing yourself to step out of your comfort zone will you truly learn how to create a community that is truly preaching the message of Christ.

Remember that Christ loved and affirmed all of humanity, and constantly aligned with those who were not considered to be “accepted.” You are neither the judge of humanity nor one who can determine who deserves our Creator’s love and acceptance.

Reflection

What can you do to help your congregation or community become more inclusive and Christ-like?