Whose Ten?

With greater and greater frequency, we are hearing about court cases dealing with the display of the Ten Commandments on public property. The most notable case was in regards to Roy Moore in Alabama. Nearly every day I hear people on the news or in talk programs discussing “putting the 10 Commandments back into society.” In fact, one Sunday in May has now been designated at the First Annual 10 Commandments Day. I constantly hear that we need to post them in public schools, government buildings and even prisons, in order to help our society return to greater civility.

While I am keenly aware of the denigration and degradation of all of the societies in the world and can definitely see a steady downward slide, and while I would that everyone should become more moral and not less and the great moral law of the 10 Commandments sets a very high goal, I have to ask – “Whose 10 Commandments should we post?”

While you may think that this question is a bit rhetorical, it is a legitimate query. If we are going to allow civil government to use our tax dollars (or even private funds) to post the 10 Commandments on public property or buildings, we need to know whose version they are using. And in choosing a certain version, who is being alienated? What I have heard and seen used is often a generic, simplified version with only the basic principles outlined. To me this poses a difficulty.

The Catholic version, from their Bible, drops the commandment regarding making images and bowing down to them, since that practice is integral to their religious life, and takes another one and splits it in two. The first in the Jewish Commandments begins a verse or two before the traditional Christian version. As a Seventh-day Adventist who believes that you need to list the entire fourth commandment in order to show who it is who has the authority to command in the first place, I do not think any should be displayed that truncate that commandment. I could go on, but I think the point is made – “Whose 10 Commandments should we post?”

The dilemma is made even more troublesome when you add other religions into the mix or those non-religious. What about atheists, agnostics, pagans, Satanists, etc.? Why, when they go to a public, government building, possibly built and definitely maintained by their tax dollars, should they have to pass by a monument or display that they don’t care for at the least and despise at the most? Even if the majority supports them, was not this republic founded on principles diametrically opposed to such conflicts?

In order for everyone to agree to such displays as good, decent principles, would the commandments not have to be so watered down and PC’d as to nearly make them of no effect? If that were the case, then what is the purpose of having them posted anyway? Would it be to just make us feel better? That by having them posted in the courthouse and in the schools, we are somehow a more “religious” a more “moral” nation?

It seems that, instead, the direction that it takes us is to that of a pure democracy. It may surprise many, but our nation is a representative republic, not a democracy. A democracy is a majority rule state, where the will of the majority is imposed upon the minority. This mentality is especially repugnant in areas of conscience. Combined, the Judeo-Christian population is the majority in America. If posting of the 10 Commandments becomes as widespread as many desire and are working toward, it will be that group attempting to impose it’s will on the minority. That is one of the main reasons why, in a letter he wrote in reference to the First Amendment, Thomas Jefferson wrote that it was to establish a “wall of separation” between the church and the state. Due to mostly well meaning Christians, that wall is being slowly chipped away and I fear that someday in the near future may crumble completely. When that takes place, God help those who disagree and dissent.

So, you tell me – “Whose Ten?” if any.