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A heated exchange on Real Time with Bill Maher is drawing attention after Lauren Boebert and James Talarico sparred over religion in public schools.
Boebert defended displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms as a moral counterweight to modern curricula.
“So, you’re battling legislation to have the Ten Commandments in school and certain biblical stories taught as fact,” Boebert said.
“When I went to school, there was Greek mythology that we were required to learn and study about. Now, in Colorado, we have comprehensive sex ed where as young as kindergarten, children are taught all of these things. You can be whatever gender you want to be, and that is being forced down their throats, the sexualization of our children. I would much rather my children see the Ten Commandments that basically just gives a moral standard rather than saying you can pleasure yourself and here’s how.”
Talarico pushed back, emphasizing his opposition to religious mandates in public education.
“Here’s just where I would disagree because I don’t want indoctrination of any form whether it comes from the left or the right in our schools,” he said.
“I want education, not indoctrination. My problem is seeing politicians in Texas force everybody to put up a post of the Ten Commandments when they don’t even follow the Ten Commandments themselves.”
He continued, arguing that government-mandated displays risk undermining faith itself.
“As people of faith, we should be trying to follow those Ten Commandments rather than trying to force people to put up a poster. To me, that indicates a dead religion. If you have to force people to put up a poster to prove your legitimacy, that means we don’t have a living faith anymore.”
Talarico added, “I think this is not just a threat to democracy. I think it’s a threat to the church. When the church gets too cozy with political power, it loses its prophetic voice, its ability to speak truth to power. We got to get back to that in this era.”
The clash, which you can watch above, quickly became one of the panel’s most intense moments, highlighting a sharp divide over the role of religion in public life, although Boebert seemed to agree with some of Talarico’s points.
Earlier in the episode, Maher mocked Donald Trump’s reaction to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tariffs, joking that the former president was behaving like a “Karen” over the decision.
Maher used the quip to set the tone for the show, blending policy critique with humor, in typical fashion, before the panel’s church-and-state debate took center stage.
English (US)