Do We Still Need the Ten Commandments?

As the nation continues to debate the ground zero “mosque,” residents in Marion, Illinois are embroiled in their own religious argument, one that’s far more familiar: whether or not to erect the Ten Commandments in a public park. It begs the question: Do the Ten Commandments still matter?

The story seems as old as time itself: religious groups or persons rally to display the Ten Commandments, and opponents launch their own counter-movement, citing a number of rules and regulations, most notably the separation of church and state or the first amendment, which clearly states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Proponents insist that the commandments, originally and allegedly given to Moses at Mount Sinai, aren’t religious at all: they’re simply common ideals. In fact, Marion mayor Bob Butler used that same reasoning at a city council meeting last week, telling critics: “We consider the Ten Commandments monument, if it were there, as a recognition of the fundamental premise for the law of the land.” That’s a clever argument, sure, but one that’s riddled with holes.

The Ten Commandments aren’t as black and white as people imagine. Though originally a covenant between the Jews and their angry God, the various Christian sects ultimately adopted them, and so too has Islam, despite what some people may claim. While the ideas remain relatively the same from religion to religion, interpretation and reading varies across the holy spectrum.

For example, “observe the sabbath day” makes one wonder which day, Saturday or Sunday? Meanwhile, though Catholics implore followers, “You shall not kill,” Lutherans insist, “You shall not murder.” Which one is it? Whose Commandments should be displayed? And, more pressing, why do we need them anyway?

Yes, the commandments include some common sense suggestions, like thou shalt not steal and thou shall not commit adultery, but others are a bit more arcane, such as “you shall not make yourself an idol.”

We may no longer worship golden calves, but our celebrity-obsessed culture has spawned a whole host of idols, American and otherwise. How many teenage girls currently bow before Justin Bieber? And what about the Beatles? They caused hysteria of Biblical proportions when they came down from the heavens to the United States in 1964. Clearly we’ve long been worshipping people and things, like an iPad, just as much, if not more, than the man upstairs.

Perhaps the most persuasive argument against displaying the commandments, however, comes from the Constitution itself. Ever since those upstart colonialists waged war against Britain, constitutions have become the staple of liberal democracies: They set the moral law of the land, trumping anything Moses may have heard in Mount Sinai.

If Butler and his peers are to be believed, then the Biblical laws should be worshipped more than the rules laid forth by our founding fathers; our democracy, then, becomes a theocracy, something no red-blooded American should support.

Besides, if people need to be reminded, “thou shalt not murder,” they shouldn’t be walking the streets in the first place.