There are many axioms that people adopt as desirable guidelines to live by, such as the Golden Rule or Kant’s Categorical Imperative, all designed to help us treat people well There is also the one that I prefer which is less elegant, which is ‘Don’t Be A Jerk‘. The guidelines that I consider the most useless are the biblical Ten Commandments. But in the US, the Ten Commandments have been used to make extraordinary claims, such that if it were only posted in public spaces such as school rooms and city halls and grounds, then many of society’s problem would disappear. They claim that it is the removal of the Bible and religious teaching in schools that is the source of all the problems in US society and that posting the Ten Commandments in every schoolroom would make our children become upstanding moral adults.
The commandments take different forms depending on the source religious text but usually the first four consist of telling people how to grovel before God, which is not particularly useful when it comes to dealing with other people. One of the next six tells us to honor our parents, which is fine but pretty limited and vague (what form does this honor take?). Another four tell us not to murder, lie, steal, or engage in adultery which are clear and specific but do we really need to be reminded of them? And the last one is the one I get the biggest laugh out of which is ““Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s”, weirdly including the neighbor’s wives in the list of possessions. And forbidding coveting the neighbor’s ass is something that will bring a smile to any school children in the US today. Also, what exactly is the problem with coveting things if one does not resort to murder, lying, or stealing in order to obtain them?
In my 2009 book God vs. Darwin: The War Between Evolution and Creationism in the Classroom I looked at the history of efforts to insert religion into public schools and their curricular and how courts have responded to such efforts. In short, they have not looked kindly, generally striking down such moves as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitutionsuch a law was unconstitutional.
The ruling Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the separation of church and state, and that the poster-sized displays would isolate students — especially those who are not Christian.
The mandate has been touted by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, and marks one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. Backers of the law argue the Ten Commandments belong in classrooms because they are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.
…The ruling also backs an order issued last fall by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, who declared the mandate unconstitutional and ordered state education officials not to enforce it and to notify all local school boards in the state of his decision.
…“All school districts in the state are bound to comply with the U.S. Constitution,” said Liz Hayes, a spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs.
The appeals court’s rulings “interpret the law for all of Louisiana,” Hayes added. “Thus, all school districts must abide by this decision and should not post the Ten Commandments in their classrooms.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she disagreed and believed the ruling only applied to school districts in the five parishes that were party to the lawsuit. Murrill added that she would appeal the ruling, including taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
…Law experts have long said they expect the Louisiana case to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the court on the issue of religion and government.
Meanwhile Texas has just signed into law another proposal requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in all school rooms.
Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate.
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.
…Texas’ law requires public schools to post in classrooms a 16 x 20in (41 x 51cm) poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the commandments, even though translations and interpretations vary across denominations, faiths and languages and may differ in homes and houses of worship.
It is amusing that Trump supports these laws though I doubt if he could name even half of the commandments, despite the fact that he routinely violates nearly all of them. The only one he may not be guilty of violating is murder.
“The only one he may not be guilty of violating is murder.”
Murder is work, so I’m sure he’s innocent of it.
on the other hand, he did party with pedo pimp epstein, so why stop at child rape when it comes to doing horrible things for sexual gratification? i wouldn’t be surprised if he’s tried killing somebody for thrills at least once, on some “hostel” shit. this is how i see rich people, which might be a lil ungenerous, but i’m far from the first to hold these conjectures. see bluebeard.
If only America had places parents could take their children dedicated to teaching the ten commandments and other related things from the bible, so they didn’t have to rely on public schools. if there are already such places, clearly they are failing in their mission if people have to use public schools to get their message across.
Mano: The only one he may not be guilty of violating is murder.
The closure of USAID should be regarded as mass murder. Ditto Trump’s response to COVID-19 when he stalled aid to blue states or purposefully hindered the CDC’s response to the pandemic.
“what exactly is the problem with coveting things if one does not resort to murder, lying, or stealing in order to obtain them?”
Are you kidding? A major portion of our economy is built around coveting.
A couple of other observations:
1. The first commandment violates the US Constitution regarding religious freedom: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”.
2. Which version of the Bible and the 10C are the ones to be used? I’m pretty sure the evangelicals aren’t going to allow the Catholic versions.
3. More importantly, if the 10C is such a great guide, where are there no prohibitions against rape, genocide, or slavery? …oh wait, never mind.
I bet you 20 bucks it’s the Cecil B. DeMille version.
None of these people believe this will have any effect whatsoever on morality. And in this case I don’t just mean the cynical politicians. If you think this, you are a dishonest liar and a hypocrite, full stop. How do I know this and how can it be trivially proven beyond any reasonable doubt?
Simple. If they seriously thought that posting any version of this helped with morality they’d be furiously printing out copies and nailing them to the walls all over churches and religious communes. And no, I don’t mean out where all the lay people gather. They’d be putting them in back where the priests will see them. Where they could be reminded that abusing children and other vulnerable people is a terrible, immoral thing to do.
Do any of them do this? No, of course not. Because it doesn’t have the effect they claim. Because it’s nothing but another disgusting fraud. Just another lie told to make the rest of us deal with their kinks, their delusions, and their desire to force us to submit to them. It’s the hypocrisy of morally bankrupt people claiming moral superiority. And until there are meaningful consequences for acting this way they’ll just keep doing it.
Ahem. Sweden used to have a State Church until the end of the millennium, and when I was in first and second grade (1968-1970) we even had “cristianity” as a subject. We sang psalms in school during middle school. It did not have any imprint on us for better or worse. Ritual and rote learning is pretty meaningless.
Being a good person is something you learn from example, and from practising it, and you have to work on it all your life.
Gandhi may have been a member of a nominally non-violent religion, but it was not until he met the suffragettes in London that he realised ahimsa might be more than a religious term. He also realised he had been oppressing his wife.
The cultists in Congress are big on rituals and nothing else. In a counterfactual branch of history they would cheerfully be sacrificing people to the Aztec gods.
@1 mikey
“The only one he may not be guilty of violating is murder.”
He subcontracts.
See, for example, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general (IRGC) and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandisf the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces
It’s totally fine to covet your neighbor’s husband, though.
@Dunc: I wouldn’t take that bet.
From Slacktivist, a year ago, Louisiana will post the Twelve Commandments in schools
The entire point was to concoct a non-denominational version of the Commandments so nobody could feel like they were favoured, and it was started by a judge who liked imposing sentences of religious indoctrination.
@11: Yeah, exactly.
If somebody wanted to sow some discord, there might be some mileage in seeding social media with a bunch of conspiracy theories about why the government is promoting a NON-BIBLICAL!!!111! version of the 10 commandments in schools… And then trying to get the righteous fighting about which version is the right one.