Ten Laws
June 04, 2011
Ten Laws
In an article that appeared on NewsWithViews.com Pastor Kelly Boggs suggested, tongue 'n cheek, that if the Ten Commandments displayed in the Alabama court house of Judge Roy Moore had been displayed with a 'nude Moses chiseled into its side' then it might have been permitted to stay.
I believe that a great many other people would have found this artistic expression more than a little objectionable, yet, his point is well taken. This is not a question of religious freedom, but rather a question of free expression of ideas or 'freedom of speech'. No one has a right to force their religious beliefs on anyone whether this was a Christian nation at one time or not.
The issue here is freedom of expression which falls under 'freedom of speech' not religion. The Ten Commandments is not the exclusive document or property of any particular religion. Moslem, Christians, including all of the many Protestant denominations, Eastern Orthodox, Catholics, Jews as well as dozens of other religious groups claim it.
It is also clearly a major part of the history of mankind and the history of law. People have referred to them as basic guidelines in good government for centuries. They have every much a right in any public building as a display or expression of ideas as does the Magna Charta, the Hammurabi Codes, or the Constitution of the United States.
The religionists out declaring their religious freedom and trying to prove that the United States is a Christian nation are following the strategy of a bull in a bull ring. While charging the red cape of the ADL and atheists they remain completely off the mark and going in circles. They do not understand the purpose of the Ten Commandments.
The fact is those Ten Commandments were the foundational Laws for a nation, not a religious doctrine. Three million people1 had just been liberated by this guy named Moses who had been a prince and military leader in Egypt. They had left the jurisdiction of the Egyptian government, its courts and its laws and struck out on their own to find a life of liberty under their god given conscience.