If you really think our constitution and our laws were modeled after the ten commandments, it might be informative to take a look at the actual ten commandments. Since there are multiple ways to translate the commandments, I decided to use the version taken from a fierce opponent of the separation of church and state: Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. These are the ten commandments as they appear on the statue Roy Moore had in his courthouse. (I added the numbers and punctuation to make it easier to follow.)
- I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Honour thy father and thy mother.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness.
- Thou shalt not covet.
1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Okay, I know I’m not off to a great start here, but would you mind if we skipped over this one for now? We can come back to it later. I promise.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
This one is simple. There are no federal laws forbidding the visual representation of god. This is strictly a religious law… and, as long as we’re on the topic, that’s the way it should stay. Any such law would make every depiction of Jesus illegal. That would fly in the face of the first amendment.
Yeah, you can try to argue that this commandment and “graven images” means something different. If we’re just talking about you feeling comfortable with how you chose to observe your religion, then neither I nor anybody else should have any issue with any rationalizations that explain away this commandment. However, if you believe that your religion should limit the legal rights of others… then we have to look at thousands of years of precedent. Find the nearest synagogue and ask them where they keep their paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows depicting god. They’ll politely point you to the second commandment.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
There are two ways to look at this one. It depends on how you define taking the lord’s name in vain. Suppose for a moment that I accidentally stub my toe and that I proceed to let loose a string of expletives strung together with the name of your favorite deity. Would that be taking the lord’s name in vain? If you said “yes” then we don’t have any laws against blasphemy as you define it. In fact, we have our good friend the first amendment protecting my right to say those things. We have some regulations on speech—there are some things I can’t say on television, for example—but on the whole, we have to say this is a commandment only and not an American law.
I mentioned there is another way to look at this one. I’ve heard it suggested that this commandment has nothing to do with saying &*# #@%% and that it actually has to do with early contract law. The idea being that an oath to god was the only way to make a binding agreement: I swear an oath to god that if you help me weed my crops, I will give you five chickens at the end of the day. Breaking the contract would break the oath. This commandment essentially says “Honor thy contracts.” We certainly have contract laws in America, but since this isn’t the common interpretation of the commandment, I’m going to count this one as not being the inspiration for our constitution.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Can you work on Sunday? Yes. We still have some “blue laws” banning the sale of alcohol on the Sabbath, but that’s not a broad proclamation against working on the weekend (and it’s certainly not part of the constitution.) If you’re enjoying not working on Sunday, thank a union, not the ten commandments.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother.
Great advice! But not a law.
So far, we’ve gone through four commandments, none of which are the basis for our laws.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
Yes! This one is a clear victory. Murder is absolutely illegal. I’m giving you this one without any hesitation.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
This one falls under the category of “Words to Live By.” But it’s not a law. You can’t go to jail for committing First Degree Not Keeping It In Your Pants.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
This one is easy. Stealing is bad. The bible says so and our laws say so. I’m giving you this as a clear match. That brings our total to two out of seven commandments that have any connection to the laws of the United States.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
You’re on a roll! Perjury is absolutely illegal. That’s three out of eight matches.
10. Thou shalt not covet.
Nope. Stealing is illegal, but desiring things is not. If there were any laws against coveting, then all advertising would be illegal. That day dream you had the other day about taking a year off from work to travel the world in your own private jet would be a federal offense on par with murder. When cute kids tell Santa what they want for Christmas, they would be committing one of the top ten most egregious crimes in America.
Okay, let’s review. Only three of the ten commandments have any relation to our laws. Of the ones that remain, they either contradict our actual laws or they aren’t the sort of things we’d want to outlaw. (Observe? Perhaps. Outlaw? No.)
Oh yeah. The first commandment. I promised I’d hit that one… Would you be willing to concede the point that our laws are NOT based on the ten commandments? The batting average for any sort of overlap between the bible and criminal code are pretty slim. Can I just stop here? Please?
No? Alright. You asked for it. Here’s the first commandment:
1. I am the Lord thy God. Though shalt have no other gods before me.
This commandment is historically significant as a declaration of monotheism. Remember the context of the ten commandments. The ancient Egyptians had a God for everything. There was a god of the sun, a god of the moon, a god of the snakes…. If the ancient Egyptians had invented washing machines, there would have been different gods for detergent and fabric softener. The first commandment says “Pray to me. JUST to me. Don’t pray to a golden calf. There is only one god and I am it.”
This is not part of the constitution. You are free to pray to one god while your neighbor is free to pray to a different god. You can even choose to pray to multiple gods—the constitution protects your right to practice polytheism. As well it should.
Would you want our laws to outlaw polytheism? If so… you may want to reconsider. Not only is the first commandment at odds with U.S. laws, it’s at odds with Christianity. If you can pray to god, god’s son, the holy spirit, the mother of god’s son, and a whole host of saints, then it’s somewhat putting a strain on the concept of monotheism. Yes, it’s still a more integrated system than the ancient polytheistic religions. Everybody works in concert in Christianity (unlike the soap opera that was Greek mythology.) But the number of people you can pray to is still greater than one.
Yeah, I just pissed you off, didn’t I. Sorry about that. Look, there’s nothing WRONG with worshiping the father and the son. It’s so not wrong that it’s stupid to even point out that it’s not wrong. Freedom of religion is awesome. The church and state ARE separate and they should remain that way. If you want to impose biblical law on the land in some misguided attempt to protect your religion (which is already perfectly well protected by our secular laws) then be careful what you wish for. If the commandments were laws, you’d all be Jewish. A swell religion, no doubt about it, but no law should force a religion on anybody.
Speaking of Jews, here’s a special note for anybody who’s paranoid and racist: You’ll never have to worry about anybody trying to force you to be Jewish – Jews observe a commandment that says not to proselytize. Not only won’t they force you to convert, they won’t even advertise for volunteers.
