Where do the Ten Commandments belong?
By J. Brent Walker

In the emotionally volatile debate over whether “Roy’s Rock” should stay in the Alabama State Judicial Building, one supporter of the display vowed, “they’ll never be able to remove it from our hearts.”

That is precisely the point.

The debate that led to the Ten Commandments being moved is not about whether the Commandments teach sound theology or wholesome ethics. That is a given, particularly for Jews and Christians. The question is not whether the Commandments embody the right teachings; they certainly do. Rather, the question is who is the right teacher — the government or the families, churches and synagogues? I can think of few things more desirable than for people to read and obey the Ten Commandments. I can think of little worse than for government officials to tell citizens to do so.

Indeed, writing the Ten Commandments “on our hearts” is the way to ensure that they will never be loaded onto a proverbial hydraulic lift and moved to a less visible place.

The Ten Commandments display in Alabama clearly violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. But important theological and practical reasons should convince people of faith to object to government getting involved in displaying, and thereby endorsing, holy writ.

First, it puts government officials in the role of secular high priests deciding which rendition of Ten Commandments will be enshrined as orthodox. Which one, Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5? Which version, Jewish, Catholic or Protestant? Which translation, King James, New International, or New Revised Standard? Families, churches, and synagogues, not Caesar, should make these fundamentally religious decisions.

Second, making such decisions will engender rivalry among religious denominations, sects and traditions. As has been recently demonstrated, governmental displays of the Ten Commandments is a quick way to generate a religious struggle that would make losers of us all. In our religiously pluralistic nation, the worst thing government can do is to take sides in matters of religion. One of the reasons we have had precious little religious strife — despite our dizzying diversity — is that government has remained neutral in such matters. This neutrality ensures a future where Christians and Jews will not have to abide the display of other faiths’ religious documents in government settings.

Third, one cannot properly interpret a text, including the Ten Commandments, without considering the context. The First Commandment states that, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:2-3). Thus, the Commandments are part of a specific covenant between God and the Israelite people. The text is betrayed when we try to replace Moses and the Israelites with Chief Justice Roy Moore and the citizens of Alabama. The Commandments have fared quite well for several millennia without the help of American politicians.

Fourth, supporters seek to justify the displaying of the Ten Commandments by exhibiting them along with other secular documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. While this in some cases may shore up constitutionality, it’s terrible theology. Jews understand the Ten Commandments as a central tenet of their faith and their relationship to God. Christians highly respect the place of the Commandments in the Exodus story and the life of the church. To place the Commandments along side of and on equal footing with these secular documents depreciates the high regard placed in them by those in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Finally, it is quite proper for Americans – even American politicians – to “acknowledge God.” As Justice William O. Douglas wrote, Americans “are a religious people.” Our civil discourse is replete with religious talk. But, it is entirely something else for a government official (who must render justice to all citizens) to endorse a specific passage of Holy Scripture as orthodox and normative for all.

For those who take the Ten Commandments seriously, let us write them on our hearts, as the prophet Jeremiah instructed, instead of displaying them in government courthouses. Then we’ll be able to incarnate the love of God perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, and make a real difference in our world.

J. Brent Walker, an ordained Baptist minister and an attorney, is executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C.

October 2003