Abstract:
The Republican Party 2012 platform supports public display of the Ten Commandments, in schools, courthouses, and state capitols. But the first words of the Ten Commandments are entirely contradictory to the first words of the Bill of Rights.
The Republican Party 2012 platform supports public display of the Ten Commandments, in schools, courthouses, and state capitols. But the first words of the Ten Commandments are entirely contradictory to the first words of the Bill of Rights.
First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
First Amdendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
First Amdendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
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First words are important.
First words focus our attention, they establish what is most
important in what we are about to read.
In any list, you will find the most
important thing in the very first words.
Let’s consider two important
lists: the Ten Commandments and the Bill
of Rights.
Here
are the first words of each list:
First Commandment: “You
shall have no other gods before me.”
First Amdendment: “Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.”
These statements are entirely incompatible.
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The Ten Commandments
establish a Covenant between God and the Jewish people. The Jewish people promised obedience to the
commandments in exchange for support from God and liberation from slavery.
The Bill of Rights
consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These amendments declared certain rights of
the people, and forbid the government to infringe on those rights. Although these rights are not essential to
the structure of government, America ’s
founders considered these rights necessary for a free society. And so, the Bill of Rights was added to the
Constitution immediately upon completion of the Constitution.
In recent years, conservatives have advocated public display
of the Ten Commandments. They wish to
put the commandments in schoolrooms, in state capitals, in courtrooms, etc. Notably, the Republican Party Platform of
2012 includes a commitment to public display of the Ten Commandments: “We support the public display of the Ten
Commandments as a reflection of our history and of our country’s
Judeo-Christian heritage.”
When
conservatives talk about the Ten Commandments, they always cite commandments 5
through 10, which deal with human relationships. “You shall honor your father and mother, you
shall not kill, you shall not steal”, etc.
The first four commandments are quietly neglected. These define man’s relationship with
God; specifically, the Judeo-Christian God.
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An Indian woman ran a convenience store in the
office building where I worked in Houston . She had a small shrine in the corner
dedicated to Shiva. She wrote her
prayers daily at the counter while waiting for customers. At other times, in quiet ritual, she
worshiped the statuette representing Shiva.
In the late afternoons, her daughter, about 11 years old, helped at the
cash register after attending school nearby.
Does this woman not have the
right to raise her daughter according to her own religion? Should the daughter come to school to face
teachers and schoolmates under a placard which says “You shall have no other gods before me”? If the woman goes into our courts, can she
expect justice in halls that say: “You
shall not worship any graven image”?
-----
There can be no question that
the purpose for public display of the Ten Commandments is the intimidation and
coercion of non-Christians. An advocate of posting the Ten
Commandments in schools wrote a very articulate essay on the topic, found here:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10ca.htm
* Part of
the essay appears below, in Addendum #2.
The Republican effort
to post the Ten Commandments in public places is part of a larger effort to
discourage religious pluralism in America America
an exclusively Judeo-Christian nation, and to create a society aligned with the
values of the conservative Christian movement.
These values include limiting the
reproductive rights of women, eliminating homosexuality, rejecting science in
favor of biblical literalism, supporting the expansion of Israel America ,
and would be deeply troubling with regard to our values as a nation.
If we are going to post a list of ten laws in the
schoolrooms, courthouses, and capitals of our nation, I suggest that we begin
with The Bill of Rights.
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Addendum #1 2005 Supreme Court Decisions
In 2005, a
sharply divide Supreme Court issued two narrow and ambiguous decisions. One decision allowed display of the Ten
Commandments at the Texas State Capital.
The other decision forbade display of the Ten Commandments in two rural Kentucky
courthouses. The reasoning separating
the decisions was the history of the display and local community
standards. If the display had been in place
for a long time without local complaint, it was allowed. If a new display aroused local opposition, it
was forbidden.
The decisions provide little guidance for local communities; it as if there had been no
decision. The legality of a display is now determined by whichever side clamors the loudest in a local community.
Addendum #2 Essay on Posting the Ten Commandments in Schools
* Consider
this essay, written by an anonymous advocate of posting the commandments in the
schools:
A portion of the essay follows:
“The complete text of Exodus 20:1-17, where the Ten
Commandments are delivered to Moses, must be posted and made clearly visible in
every classroom of every school. That
way, God's Word will speak for itself to our children, and they will absorb the
full meaning. Take, for instance, the
first two commandments:
Exodus 20:2-6
The meaning here is unmistakable. You had better believe in and worship the
Judeo-Christian God, and only Him. We
must put down everyone who rejects our God, whether atheist or pagan, by having
this posted. The message here is that
the one true God is extremely jealous, and will not tolerate any other gods
being worshipped, so much so that if you commit the horrible sin of rejecting
Him, your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will suffer. Atheists and pagans must be constantly
humiliated and brought to shame by seeing this message. It is their only hope
of realizing the truth.
It is so important to God that you worship only Him that he
orders the death penalty for those who do otherwise: Deuteronomy 13:6-10
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