Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Keep Your Religion Out of My Government!

High Court to Weigh 10 Commandments Displays (washingtonpost.com): “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ultimately ruled that the Texas legislature, when it put up the monument donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, had a secular rather than religious purpose in mind. The monument, the appeals court noted, was part of a long-standing larger display of monuments in the building. In that context, the ruling said, it did not constitute an endorsement of religion.”

Nonsense. Or, shall I say it?… Bullshit.

The mere presence of a display with religious origins is a de facto endorsement of that religion. I’d even go as far as to say that when religious displays (like the 10 Commandments) are combined with displays of governmental documents (like the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta) the intentional implication is that the government(s) producing the latter documents have the approval of the religion(s) producing the former documents—and vice versa.

If these schools and courthouses and other government buildings wanted to just post the last 7 of the 10 Commandments, I’d probably not bother to make a fuss about it. Those are the rules about not lying or stealing or killing people–along with everyone’s all-time favorite rule about not coveting your neighbor’s wife or his ass or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. All good advice, no doubt about it. It’s those first 3 Commandments that are problematic. There are some variations among the different religions, but basically they are:

1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.

Those are pretty specifically religious in nature and, as such, they have no place in a publicly funded facility like a school or a courtroom.

If you read this article you’ll see that the Supreme Court is going to revisit the issue of whether the Ten Commandments should appear in/on public buildings. In 1980 they ruled that the Commandments shouldn’t be posted in public school classrooms because “children in the classroom are a malleable as well as a captive audience susceptible to adult and peer pressure.” [from the Washington Post article]

Frankly, I think the malleability of children is pretty much irrelevant to the larger issue. That being the appearance of governmental endorsement by or of a particular religious tradition.