The Republican Platform, the Ten Commandments, and the First Amendment

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.

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 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.

------------------

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. 

-----

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.  The intent is to make 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, and global confrontation with Islam.  A Republican victory in 2012 would be a blow against religious freedom in America, and would be deeply troubling with regard to our values as a nation.

http://www.reclaim7mountains.com/

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.

----------------------

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:

 http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10ca.htm

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

 Immediately after that, God orders the genocide of cities which do not worship Him.

 Deuteronomy 13:12-16

 Are you getting the picture?  God places exceedingly high importance on worshipping Him and only Him.  Absolutely no ignoring Him or turning to other gods is tolerated.  We must not allow anyone who does not worship our God to forget for one day what grievous sin they are living in.”

An Opinion about Abortion Rights

A long time ago, my wife and I sat on the carpet with another young married couple to play a game.  The game was called “Scruples”.   The game posed challenging hypothetical ethical situations for the players to answer.  Our answers were sometimes simple and direct, sometimes with embarrassed laughter, and sometimes after considerable squirming.

I remember one question very well.  I drew my card, and the question read “If you knew that a pregnancy would result in a highly disabled child, would you have an abortion?”    My answer was simple and direct.   

I would not knowingly bring a highly disabled child into the world.

-------

About two years later, the hypothetical question became an anguished reality.  A sonogram of my wife’s growing belly showed a cyst developing in the brain of the fetus.  Water pressure was building up in the brain.  The pressure was slowly splitting the brain apart from within.  

We had three options.   The first option: do nothing.  Let nature take its course, and allow the pregnancy to go to term.  The second option: attempt an experimental, invasive brain surgery on the fetus in utero, to install a stent to release the fluid pressure.  Third: end the pregnancy by abortion.

We chose the abortion.   The pregnancy was still early, before the formation of the higher functions of the brain.  We had certainty that we were doing the right thing.  After a few years, we tried again for a baby, and had a healthy, normal girl.

---------

A few years earlier, I had seen the results of the first option.  A baby with such a condition, left untreated, is doomed at birth.   I saw grief-stricken young parents holding a baby whose head was the size of a small melon, filled with fluid.  I cannot image the pain of having the brain torn apart from within.  The baby died within hours.

Years later, I read a review of the stent procedure.  The procedure proved ineffective, and resulted only in severely disabled children.  The value of such a life is debatable.  I know that some disabled individuals lead rewarding lives.   But some disabled children suffer greatly and die young, and others live long, empty and lonely lives.   I have seen both, and known those who cared for both.

---------

In modern medicine we define death as the cessation of higher brain functions.   When such a death occurs, we often take organs from the deceased to give life and health to the living.   Responsible people carry donor cards to give the gift of their bodies when they die.  The higher function of the brain is accepted as the definition of human life, and its cessation is accepted as death.  

So, to me, a fetus cannot be considered a living person before the brain is fully formed.  There can be no higher brain function without the higher parts of the brain.  Beyond that, after the physical form of the brain is complete, it seems to me that humanity does not exist until the brain is illuminated by the experience of living. 
We cannot have a different definition of human death and human life. 

---------
The Religious Right holds that life begins at conception, that the human soul is formed at the moment sperm meets egg.   I do not know by what authority they make such a claim.  It is certainly not through word of the Scripture. 

The Republican Party would outlaw all abortions.  The 2012 Republican Platform calls for a ban on all abortions, regardless of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother.  They are attempting to move the center of the debate, so that by compromise on these issues, most abortions in the USA will become illegal.  The landmark Supreme Court ruling “Roe v. Wade”, which granted the right to abortion nationwide, is in danger of being repealed, and hangs by a single vote in the Supreme Court.  If the Republicans win the presidency in 2012, the right to choose abortion in the United States will disappear, probably for decades.  

If such a ban had been in place 23 years ago, my wife and I would have been faced with the choice of carrying a doomed baby for nine months, or to undergo ineffective brain surgery on the fetus, resulting in a severely disabled child.   Instead, today we have our healthy daughter.   She is now a college student.  She laughs, she talks (and talks, and talks), gets grouchy, loves deeply, and lives a fulfilling and normal life.

I agree that abortion should be avoided.  There are many reasons for abortion.  The health of the baby, or the health of the mother; perhaps a mother is unable to care for a baby; perhaps a couple is not ready for a baby.  Every abortion is a possibility for life that has gone wrong.  But not every possibility can or should be realized.

In my opinion, in a free society, the choice to carry a pregnancy, or have an abortion belongs to the woman carrying the child and her husband or partner, after consultation with their doctor and spiritual advisor.

The decision to have a child should not be dictated by the government.

The U.S. Federal Budget and the Collapse of the Roman Republic

Rome Didn't Fall in a Day

Marcus Cicero was a philosopher, orator and statesman of the ancient Roman Republic.  It is said that Cicero had the greatest influence by any individual on European language, literacy and ideas.  Marcus Cicero rose through Roman society to become Consul, the highest position of the Roman Republic.  Cicero’s younger brother, Quintus Cicero, was a leading commander of the Roman army.

In the year 64 B.C., Quintus Cicero wrote a letter to his older brother Marcus, regarding Marcus’ political campaign for Consul.   The letter concisely states the themes of both ancient and modern politics.   Quintus advised Marcus to make promises liberally. “If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse, you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.”

In other words, Promise everything to everybody.  [by translator P.Freeman, "How to Win an Election".]

Quintus also wrote about political issues of his time.   His text could be a letter to the editor in this morning’s newspaper.

“The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”  

----------

We are now in the silly season of American presidential politics.   

Both parties have nominated their candidates for president, written their platforms, held their conventions, made endless pleas for donations to run political advertisement.  Heeding the advice of Quintus Cicero, they have distorted and disparaged the record of their opponents, avoided clear discussion of the issues, promised everything to everybody, and lied liberally about everything.

Let’s look at the United States’ Federal budget for 2012

Federal spending is shown in the following chart.   Total spending is $3.894 trillion, or 26% of GDP.   

Social Security and Medicare represent about 32% of total Federal spending.  Defense and Veteran’s benefits are about 22%.  Interest on existing debt is 6%.  Together, these items are about 15.5% of GDP.

Tax receipts, according to the budget, are expected to be 2.469 trillion dollars.   A small increment of additional funding is found in the budget as line item 950, Undistributed Offsetting Receipts, adding about 98 billion dollars.   Total funding is thus expected to be $2.568 trillion dollars, or about 17 percent of GDP.

The total Federal deficit for 2012 is about 1.3 trillion dollars.  Federal spending exceeds tax revenue by an astonishing 51%.

Federal debt held by investors (“public debt”) is now about $11 trillion dollars, or about 72% percent of GDP.   Public debt is growing at a rate of about 20 percent per year, a rate that would double the debt in 3 ½ years.  Foreign investors hold $5.3 trillion, or nearly half of the public debt.   Obligations between government agencies, such as the social security trust fund, amount to an additional $4.7 trillion, bringing total Federal debt to $16 trillion (107% of GDP).

Against this backdrop, Republicans propose an amendment to the constitution requiring a balanced budget.  Mitt Romney proposes to cut marginal tax rates by 20 percent.  He also proposes raising Defense spending by about 5% (excluding war expenses), adding 100,000 members of the military, modernizing weapons, and building more ships and aircraft.   He said that budgetary changes will not affect current retirees or veterans.   

Defense, Elder-care programs, and Interest are about 60 percent of Federal spending.  If all tax revenues were applied to these categories with no reductions and a balanced budget, as proposed by Republicans, it would eliminate 83% of all other government functions.  This is without even considering the proposed tax cut.

We cannot eliminate 7/8ths of the functions of the Federal government to pay for defense and elder-care.   It is absurd.

Democrats have been equally negligent in providing a clear blueprint toward solution of the crisis.
Both sides are simply promising everything to everybody.   

It is clear that any solution to the budget crisis will require a combination of increased taxes, cuts to defense spending, and reductions in elder care.  And these changes must be implemented sooner rather than later.

---------

Marcus Cicero was successful in his election campaign.  He was elected Consul in the year 63 BC.  Shortly thereafter, the Roman Republic collapsed in a series of civil wars followed by dictatorship of the Caesars.   

Quintus Cicero, his son, and Marcus Cicero were declared enemies of the state and executed in 43 BC.  The Roman Empire continued as a dictatorship for four hundred years.
------------
Addendum:   A few days after I wrote this post, retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter was interviewed, as part of a civic education project in New Hampshire.  Souter is worried about 'pervasive civic ignorance' in America.   Here are his words.

"What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible.  And when the problems get bad enough - another serious terrorist attack, another financial meltdown - some one person will come forward and say, 'Give me total power, and I will solve this problem.' That is how the Roman Republic fell....That is how democracy dies.  And if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night….I am not a pessimist, but I am not an optimist about the future of American democracy.”

David Souter, retired Supreme Court Justice, September 17, 2012

-------------

Quintus Cicero Quotes:

http://www.bartleby.com/73/1543.html

http://www.quotatio.com/c/cicero-quintus-tullius-quotes2.html

Federal Budget data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget

http://budget.house.gov/budgetprocess/budgetfunctions.htm

http://budget.house.gov/budgetprocess/budgetfunctions.htm#function600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

Marcus and Quintus Cicero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Cicero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Tullius_Cicero

Pamphlet on Electioneering, 
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_running_for_the_Consulship
also, How to Win an Election, (trans. P Freeman, Amazon.com)

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Election-Ancient-Politicians/dp/0691154082/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347681795&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+win+an+election+Cicero

Mitt Romney, Republican Platform

http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/

http://aboutmittromney.com/military.htm

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/17/where-obama-romney-stand-on-foreign-policy-challenges/

David Souter, interview

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/09/conversation-justice-david-souter.html