There seems to be two primary arguments for allowing the Ten
Commandments to be displayed on government property.
First, that they are the basis of American law. And secondly,
that they represent the initial attempt at bringing morality to
civilization. Both of these assertions are false.
There is nothing in the Constitution, nor in any American legal
statute that mentions the Ten Commandments. How can they possibly be
considered the basis of our secular country's laws?
Many ancient civilizations had an established code of laws well
before Moses allegedly descended from Mt. Sinai. Babylonian,
Chinese, Egyptians and Indian cultures all pre-date any Jewish
codification of laws. Groups of humans have always had rules against
murder, stealing and lying. If not, how in the world would have
ancient peoples survived?
Let's look at the Commandments one by one:
One: You shall have no other gods before Me.
Two: You shall not make for yourself any graven image.
Three: You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.
Four: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The first four are obviously unconstitutional. How can any of
these be considered anything but religious commandments? A citizen
who is not a Christian would immediately be breaking the law.
Do we really want a country whose laws are based on which god we
keep before another, on what day we choose to worship (if we do at
all), and whether we say an alleged deity's name in vain or not? All
of these directly contradict the First Amendment.
And isn't the making of stone tablets with the text of the
commandments breaking the second commandment?
Five: Honor your father and mother.
That's a nice thought. But is it exclusively Christian? I'm an
atheist and I surely tried to honor my mother and father while they
were with me.
Six: You shall not kill
As previously noted, this was not original with Moses and all
successful societies have had this prohibition even before the Jews.
Seven: You shall not commit adultery
Again, a lovely thought. But do we want a law based on this? If
so, many Americans would be in trouble. We'd have to build even more
jails.
Eight: You shall not steal.
Agreed, but once again, all civilized people have had this law,
not just Jews and Christians.
Nine: You shall not lie (bear false witness).
Something all can agree to. Not exclusive to religious folks.
Ten: You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, servant,
et cetera.
If we truly acted upon this, capitalism would be dead.
Yet we have Justice Scalia stating from the bench that it's a
"fact that government comes -- derives its authority from -- God."
Where does he get that? Certainly not the Constitution. His
statement sounds like the theory of the "Divine Right" of European
kings that the colonists rebelled against in 1776.
I prefer to remember what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1814:
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law."
I would guess that the current cases being considered by the
court will result in a ruling that will not allow the Ten
Commandments to stand alone, but will allow them with other
"historical" documents. If that's true, I would hope that the Treaty
of Tripoli, in 1797, might be included.
It states in Article 11 of the treaty: "As the Government of the
United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the
Christian religion..."
Gary Kern lives in Lancaster. Contact him at gpk359@yahoo.com.
Originally published March 18, 2005
