Ten Commandments Conundrum
Posted July 24, 2006
What’s the difference between an unconstitutional Kentucky Ten Commandments display and a constitutional Texas Ten Commandments display?
I traveled to the state Capitol in Austin to find out. Well for one thing, this is Texas so the display is 10 times bigger. And it’s not placed in a dainty frame, which can easily be removed to satisfy a judge. They carve them in granite here and place them in the shadow of the legislative building. It’s not the only reference to God in Austin. To remove his name entirely would be practically a full-time job. God is mentioned at the LBJ presidential library, on the World War I monument and in letters 5-feet tall near the front of the new Texas History Museum. I’m at the airport. When I get back to Lexington, I plan to reread the U.S. Supreme Court decision explaining exactly why Kentucky’s display was unacceptable. But for now, I’m baffled.
Archived Comments
Perhaps there would be less confusion if one would remember that the 10 commandments are specific to two religions. A reference to God is not neccessarily a reference to Jeus. That is the problem with Christians. They equate the two but they are not the same to everyone. With your educational credentials you should understand the issues. The Austin displays are wrong and merely and example of how the courts can play legal sematics to placate Christians.
When you get it figured out, let me know. The Justices sit in a building with Christian words and symbols carved into the walls. It seems so simple from the historical context of the time. It seems more whimsical than anything.
I've always thought it was interesting that so many evangelicals want to post the ten commandments, which as another poster to this space noted, are part of the Jewish tradition and do not appear in the New Testament at all.
No one ever seems to want to display, oh, the Sermon on the Mount, with its beatitudes, or, if you absolutely have to have a list of ten things, and you're really serious about picking a list of ten things that actually had something to do with our legal history (as the evangelicals always claim; they are VERY CLEAR that they mean no religious reference by posting the Ten Commandments), how about the Bill of Rights?