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American
Public Religion
and the Ten Commandments
Prayers in Public Schools read >>
Explanation about Mitzvah read >>
American Public Religion and the Ten Commandments read Article >>
Ask yourself these Questions read >>
Different Versions of the 10 Commandments read >>
America has had its
share of crises lately. And in times of crisis, people typically look to
religion for answers. In the wake of the
tragedies at Columbine High
School and other schools across America where students and teachers were
gunned down by troubled youth, for example, an outcry arose across the
country calling for a return to religious values. Many commentators
suggest that those murders took place because our schools no longer teach
basic religious values: belief in God, regular prayer, and knowledge of
Scripture. They argue that if public schools taught these basic religious
truths, horrific acts such as the Columbine murders would never have
taken place.
More recently, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, have led many to call for a "return to God" for answers not only about why the tragedy occurred, but also to give us the solace we need in a time of national crisis. Television preachers such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson even suggested that the tragedy was God’s doing, divine judgment, the result of America’s "turning away" from God, and that radical steps, including legislation encouraging public religious activity, are necessary to return the nation to its religious roots, lest we suffer additional acts of God’s judgment.
I
Many of those promoting government advocacy of religious values have focused their efforts on state-sponsored posting of the Ten Commandments in public places, even though such action would be constitutionally suspect. A 1980 U. S. Supreme Court case, Stone v. Graham, held that posting of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky public school classrooms was a violation of the Establishment Clause since the purpose of the posting was devotional, that is, to cause students to meditate upon the religious meaning of the commandments. Undeterred, however, at least fifteen states have recently either introduced or passed legislation that would allow---or even require---the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools, courts, government buildings and other public places. Media observers now wittily refer to these and similar initiatives as the "Hang Ten" movement. Even the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill, "The Ten Commandments Defense Act," that would allow display of the document in schools, courts and government offices.
Besides creating unnecessary and expensive legal disputes, proposals to post the Ten Commandments are of questionable value. For example, such proposals, due to their controversial nature, often create wide divisions in communities. Opponents of these initiatives---many of whom are deeply religious themselves---are often portrayed as atheists, humanists, and liberal buffoons who care nothing about the moral fiber of the nation. Such accusations only exacerbate intra-community tensions, and damage Christian witness. City council meetings, school board meetings and local elections have become battlegrounds over religion rather than over more basic issues.
Alabama and Illinois are two such battlegrounds. Judge Roy Moore of Alabama posted the Ten Commandments in his state courtroom and refused to remove them even when ordered to do so. In defiance of Federal authorities, then-Governor Fob James threatened to use military force to prevent their removal. The popularity of Moore’s stand enabled him to win an election as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, but opponents, claiming that non-Christians are discriminated against in his courtroom, are now actively seeking to unseat him. When an Illinois school board recently voted unanimously to post the Ten Commandments in public schools, the resulting controversy dominated local politics for months. After several months of acrimonious debate, the school board rescinded the decision in order to avoid a costly lawsuit.
Even if posting the Ten Commandments in public schools and other public facilities were constitutional, it still would likely breed religious intolerance. Advocates of such proposals assert that the commandments express values universally accepted by virtually all Americans. They fail, however, to take into account that many Americans subscribe to religions that do not follow the Bible. Christians and Jews might consider the Ten Commandments as part of their faith, but millions of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists and others adhere to religious, ethical and moral traditions that draw from a variety of texts other than the Bible. Attempts to post the Ten Commandments on government property fail adequately to consider the feelings of persons whose religious beliefs would cause them to be offended by displays of the commandments. Moreover, we should be mindful that when we are contemplating the display of the commandments on government property, those who object are as much the citizen–owners of that property as those who seek to post the commandments. Government property is shared property, and its uses should reflect shared secular, not unshared religious, aims.
II
If we post the Ten Commandments, whose version do we post? Even those religions that do adhere to the Ten Commandments follow very different Biblical versions. The ancient Hebrew text followed by Jews is very different from the language found in the King James Bible version accepted by most Protestants. Catholics follow yet another text altogether.
That there are different versions of the Ten Commandments is not a well-known fact. Many people who should know, of course, do not. During his presidential campaign, President George W. Bush marched into a hornets' nest by proposing that a "standard version" of the Ten Commandments be posted in schools and public places. "I have no problem with the Ten Commandments posted on the wall of every public place," Bush told reporters. Asked if he preferred the Protestant, Catholic or Jewish version of the Commandments, Bush replied: "The standard version. Surely we can agree as a society on a version that everybody can agree to." What Bush and so many others fail to realize is that there is no such "standard version" of the Ten Commandments. And it is unlikely that Biblical adherents could ever agree on a compromised version, since Catholics, Protestants and Jews are all committed, to one degree or another, to biblical inerrancy, and altering the text for them would be a desecration of God’s inspired word.
The Ten Commandments appear in two places in the Bible: in Exodus, chapter 20; and in Deuteronomy, chapter 5. Neither version conveniently lists the commandments from one to ten, which is presumably how they would appear when posted. In the most commonly referenced passage, Exodus 20, the commandments cover 17 verses and encompass at least 14 imperatives. Protestants tend to use the Exodus passage, but Catholics use the Deuteronomy passage. Moreover, the order of commandments is different in the Protestant, Jewish and Catholic versions. Although they are similar, there are some notable differences. For example, for Catholics, the imperative against adultery is the sixth commandment; for Jews and most Protestants it is the seventh. Another important difference is in the commandment regarding the sabbath. In the Exodus version, people are told to keep the sabbath holy because God worked for six days and rested on the seventh. But in the Deuteronomy version used by Catholics, the sabbath is commanded because "you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." Another interesting difference occurs in how Catholics translate the Deuteronomy verses into actual commandments. In the Butler Catechism, verses eight through ten are simply left out. The Catholic version thus omits the prohibition against graven images. To make up for this, Catholics divide verse 21 into two commandments, thus separating the coveting of another’s wife from the coveting of another’s farm animals. The Protestant versions of the commandments retain the prohibition against graven images.
As Austin Cline points out, it shouldn't be ignored that the Ten Commandments were originally part of a Jewish document, and they too have their own way of structuring it. Jews begin the commandments with the statement, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Christians, however, regard this as a preamble rather than an actual commandment and begin their lists with the statement, "You shall have no other gods before Me."
All of this suggests that it is genuinely difficult to identify the "real" Ten Commandments. Members of certain religious traditions will be offended if someone else's version of the Ten Commandments is displayed in public buildings -- and for our governments to do that would be an infringement of religious liberty.
III
The Ten Commandments Defense Act, an amendment to the Juvenile Justice Bill, remains in a House-Senate conference committee while a national campaign has begun to have the Ten Commandments posted in public places. Representative Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who introduced the legislation, said that the measure "in no way forces any state to post the Ten Commandments or even says that a state has to address the issue. However, we believe that posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings is a decision that should be made close to the people without the federal government's intervention." He added that he believes posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings is "a positive step forward toward promoting morality and promoting moral principles in our society. Certainly, the Ten Commandments represent the moral and religious standards that are a very important part of our nation from the very beginning."
While the House is considering the act, the Family Research Council (FRC) has kicked off a national campaign to have the Ten Commandments posted in public places. It has received some support from many members of Congress who have agreed to post a copy of the commandments in their Capitol Hill offices.
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) said the commandments are being posted in congressional offices "in order to acknowledge their importance and continued relevance for those seeking to live a moral life. I'm amazed that some view these commandments as irrelevant or worse yet, controversial, because they simply represent God's law. It's simply makes them that much more important and deserving of our reflection." Johnson went on to say, "If we do get back to the values that we hold dear and that this country was founded on, we're going to be a greater nation in the future."
Matt Salmon, a Republican congressman from Arizona, remarked that it is tragic in a society that was built and founded upon Judeo-Christian values, the nation would allow the posting of offensive art pictures in public places while being against posting the Ten Commandments. "If you put a little horse manure on it, they would be fighting to post it. Don't you find that ironic, that if you denigrate something that's holy, you put a flag in the toilet, you put the Ten Commandments in horse manure, then they're going to be fighting to be able to post it on the wall and call it art."
What will become of the proposed Ten Commandments Defense Act is anyone’s guess. As long as the measure is popular with the masses, opportunistic politicians will laud the proposal, in spite the Supreme Court’s holding that posting the Ten Commandments on government property to advance religion is a violation of the Establishment Clause.
IV
It is ironic that the "Hang Ten" movement is perhaps now liveliest in Kentucky, the very state whose efforts to post the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms more than two decades ago were rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court. With the Stone v. Graham case as its primary ammunition, the ACLU recently forced three Kentucky counties to take down copies of the Ten Commandments that had been posted in schools, post offices and other public places.
But many Kentucky officials refuse to give up the fight. In Harlan
County, officials quickly got to work to find a way around the
injunction. They simply bundled the commandments with other classic
texts, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, and
reposted them as "historical documents." Some call this the "crèche
strategy," since theoretically it finds support in the U.S. Supreme Court
case of Lynch v. Donnelly (1984), which allowed nativity scene
displays if they are packaged with Santa Claus, reindeer, candy canes,
and other nonreligious images. But David Friedman, general counsel for
the ACLU of Kentucky, thinks the strategy will fail. "This is a pretty
bald-faced attempt to have religious texts on the walls of county
government and diluting it as much as they think is necessary for a court
to say, 'OK, we'll tolerate it.'"
The Harlan County effort is just one of several recent actions in Kentucky to reintroduce religious elements into public spaces, often testing the legal limits of rulings designed to keep church and state separate. Cumberland High School in Cumberland, Kentucky opened a "chapel" this spring, complete with pews, angelic figures, and an altar-like podium. The room, the school maintains, is a nonreligious "quiet room." The ACLU is considering a court challenge.
Such attempts to side step the First Amendment stem in part from a growing conviction among many parents and administrators that school violence can be traced to emotional isolation and moral abdication at home. These critics contend that schools need to try to fill that vacuum -- not to save the souls of lost students, but to ensure the safety of their classmates.
Many supporters of Ten Commandments postings complain that the Decalogue is represented in an image of Moses etched in the wall behind where the chief justice sits in the U.S. Supreme Court chambers. They wonder why this display is permitted but similar displays are disallowed in other public settings. Perhaps there is some duplicity here, but the usual answer is that, as pertains to the public schools, the Supreme Court is not a place where impressionable young children are likely to be indoctrinated in religious themes. Moreover, the display at the Supreme Court was not installed originally with the express aim to promote religion, unlike current efforts to post the commandments in many courthouses and city halls around the country. Rather, it was installed as a part of a larger display of persons and events that contributed to the Western legal tradition. Purpose and intent count for much in these battles.
"It's a very hot issue around the country," says Erik Stanley, a litigator at Liberty Counsel, a legal-defense organization. "It has a lot to do with the decline in character and morality that people have seen within the public schools." In addition to Kentucky, South Dakota, Indiana, and Ohio have also passed laws or resolutions that allow, or even call for, posting the Ten Commandments in public spaces.
V
There is actually a very simple solution to the Ten Commandments controversy. For those for who think the Ten Commandments are important, they should memorize them—and have their children memorize them. In this way, they carry the truths of the Ten Commandments in their hearts, and have no need to resort to public displays. Moreover, refusing to post the Ten Commandments on government property respects the religious values of members of religious traditions who are offended by the displays. In the end, opposition to state-sponsored posting of the Ten Commandments does not arise out of hostility to the values set forth in the commandments. Rather, it arises out of deep respect for the diversity of religions that enjoy the freedom to practice their faith on American soil---those that embrace the Ten Commandments and those that do not. By adhering to the principle of separation of church and state we best fulfill the Constitution's mandate of religious liberty for all Americans and the Bible’s mandate to exhibit love and respect to all of humanity.
Prayers in Public Schools read >>
Explanation about Mitzvah read >>
American Public Religion and the Ten Commandments read Article >>
Ask yourself these Questions read >>
Different Versions of the 10 Commandments read >>
Dr. Derek H. Davis is director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University and editor of Journal of Church and State.
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