Blog Against Theocracy 2008: 10 Commandments Unconstitutional!
 | In observance of the "Blog Against Theocracy" 2008, I offer a few words regarding the Ten Commandments. It has been said that the United States is a Christian country, a country founded upon biblical principles. This may sound nice to the credulous and the uninformed, but is it true? To be sure, the founders of the nation were men of biblical knowledge. Indeed, biblical literacy was the norm among educated protestants of the 18th century. While it is not my purpose to discuss who was a Deist, who was an evangelical Christian and who a closet atheist or agnostic, it is certainly true that the men who founded the nation (and especially those who wrote the Constitution) knew their Bible.With that in mind, is it accurate to say that Christian principles were their guiding concept? Demonstrably not. Yet a great many people, including politicians and even some Federal judges, are under the impression that the Ten Commandments, if not the actual source of some of US laws, are at least not incompatible with them. But what if we could show that far from being compatible with US law, the Ten Commandments are in fact contrary to US Constitutional law. |
A little side-by-side comparison of the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights is in order here. The Bill of Rights, of course, consist of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Actually, we don't need all ten articles in the Bill of Rights for this exercise, just the first amendment, which states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Now look at the first four Commandments:
ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'
TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a graven image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
The first two commandments violate the Free Exercise clause of the first amendment. Any American may determine for him/herself which gods to worship, or whether to worship any god at all. And should he or she decide that theistic worship is appropriate, it is not the governement's business to dictate the form that worship should take. Certainly, if either commandment were enacted into law it would have to be struck down by this clause of the First Amendment.
THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'
FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
A clear encroachment on the Establishment Clause. It is not the business of the American government to dictate a holy day, a Lord's Day, a "day of rest," or any similar observance of a religious nature.
Now wasn't that easy? Since I started out assuming the founding fathers knew their Bible, I wonder what would be the correct assumption about modern-day theists who claim a Biblical basis for the United States: are they ignorant of the contents of their Bibles, or of the Constitution?
Chances are a little of both.
I really love the stamp you created for the Easter Blog! I also like the content. I've never really paid much attention to the 10 Commandments because I don't care about them, but going over them with you makes me wonder how in the hell some southern judge could try to put them outside his courthouse. Then again, I hear that there is a nice big copy of them already on the rear of the capitol building in Austin Texas...my, recently, new found home. Geez.
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Thanks for your kind words. To be honest, the stamp is not my creation. It is being used by bloggers all over for the event, myself included. But I'm glad you liked it.
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In fact, here is a nice little picture of the display in Autsin.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7053335/
This article claims that (as of 2005) 76% of Americans are morons.
usernameistaken
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Beautifully written write-up. Glad it's possible to find a site which includes information as well as a good writing style. You keep writing and i am going to keep looking through.
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