A 42-year-old Ten Commandments sculpture is on display in front of city hall June 27, 2001 in Grand Junction, Colorado. The sculpture became a target of controversy betweem the ACLU and the Christian Coalition”s American Center for Law and Justice when the ACLU began a legal offensive aimed at removing displays of the Ten Commandments from city halls and other civic buildings throughout the United States. (Photo by Michael Smith | Getty Images)
If you want an example of how challenging, even tricky, the Bible can be, take a familiar story near the beginning of the collection of books that make up Christianity’s holy scriptures where Satan tempts Eve with an apple.
Except the snake is not Satan. And the apple doesn’t exist.
That’s because the snake in that story has always been retold as Satan, but that’s a matter of interpretation, not the text itself. And apples are not a fruit native to the Middle East. And let’s not even begin to discuss what happens when the “mother of humanity” was tempted by a literal garden-variety reptile, instead of a supernatural entity.
So imagine my hesitation when it comes to plastering public schools with the Ten Commandments.
I don’t find anything necessarily objectionable about the Ten Commandments, but implying that they’re somehow the basis of our law, government or culture is historically, legally and theologically inaccurate.
That’s to suggest that without Moses trudging down the mountainside, we would have never made murder illegal. And even though adultery is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, our own president has proven that’s hardly disqualifying. Coveting your neighbor’s stuff has become a sort of American tradition expressed in the cliche: Keeping up with the Joneses. And taking the Lord’s name in vain would run afoul of the First Amendment, so god–n that one, too.
Still, the Montana Legislative Republicans don’t want to be outdone in their conservative bonafides, so we appear to be jumping on the religious bandwagon, requiring the display of the Commandments in every classroom.
I would suggest, as a person who spent years in theological training, learning the Bible in its original languages, that the real problem with the Ten Commandments or the Bible in public schools is not their mere presence, but it’s that they’re being placed without context and the proper training. And, if we really want to ignite a religious war, start talking about which denominations are qualified to “teach” the Bible.
But as a historian also, it’s not really debatable that religion, and more specifically, Christianity, has played a large part in the shaping of this country, but it’s a matter of degree as to how omnipresent it is.
Every classroom?
So the Ten Commandments belong in a physical education class or a business class? Or a chemistry lab? Sorry, I don’t see much of a connection.
We should teach about religion’s role in shaping the country from the horrific mass deaths dating back to Salem to the cold, calculated belief that God somehow wanted Europeans to conquer the “heathens.” If we’re going to teach history, then by all means, teach it correctly. And, we can teach as well that the Civil Rights movement was inspired by the Gospel and committed churches in the South who were using the liberating promise of Christ to cast off the shackles of human bondage that continued via the Jim Crow laws.
The same people who are pushing the Ten Commandments are the same ones demanding more parental rights, and if that’s the case, then I object not only as a historian and theology student, but as a parent. I can say this for certain: Public school teachers are not properly trained and equipped, nor should they be instructing my children spiritually. That falls to me, and I feel adequately prepared.
Former Montana state Sen. Keith Regier made an impassioned plea to his former colleagues when speaking in support of the Ten Commandments bill, saying that by not featuring some kind of religious text the schools were tacitly endorsing atheism.
Keeping in mind of course that the constitutionally guaranteed right to choose atheism is as legitimate as embracing any religion, the choice is not binary. There is an entire universe of theological traditions and beliefs. The point our Founders guaranteed is that the choice is beyond the government, rests with the individual, and it is not something that schools or the government need to worry about.
And if Regier can worry that kids in public schools will grow up spiritually driftless, without any religious compass, then let me testify that I am equally worried about requiring a document that begins: “You shall have no other Gods before me.”
That’s not really freedom of religion or choice.
If Regier and those in his camp are frightened by atheists, then consider me terrified that we are making the God of the Bible compulsory.
I would also suggest to those who are worried about the eternal souls of our children that just plastering the walls with Commandments is a cheap and lazy way to sell Christianity. Using that same logic, everyone who attended public elementary schools should have perfect cursive because that, too, was featured in every elementary classroom.
If you want to teach kids about the power of religion, maybe start with something more simple – like acting more Christlike.