Christians Are Not Supposed To Believe in the Ten Commandments
The Louisiana legislature voted to require all schools receiving state funds to display a large poster showing the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Texas has considered a similar law. Earlier, Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore, later infamous for his sexual pursuit of teenagers, had installed a statue of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama judicial building, to “mark the restoration of the moral foundation of law to our people and the return to the knowledge of God in our land.”
Many Christian groups support this view. For instance, in 1997 the Southern Baptist Convention resolved to “declare that the public display, including display in government offices and courthouses, of the Ten Commandments should be permitted,” because “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
Funny thing is, most Christians do not believe in the Ten Commandments. At most they believe in nine.
I am not talking about the failure of people to follow laws that they say they believe. No, the official doctrine of major conservative Christian sects ignores or dismisses one commandment.
The Sabbath in Judaism and Christianity
The Ten Commandments appear (among other places) in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible) and hence of the Christian Old Testament. In them, God commands the Jews to keep the sabbath in commemoration of God resting after six days spent creating the universe:
“Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of your God: you shall not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days The Lord made heaven and earth and sea – and all that is in them – and then rested on the seventh day; therefore The Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” -Exodus 20
While there are some discrepancies in how different groups record the Ten Commandments, the language quoted above from a Jewish translation of the text is substantially the same in the translation found on the Vatican’s website and in the King James Bible. There are more than ten statements in Exodus’ Ten Commandments and different groups number them differently, so this commandment is listed as the Fourth (Judaism) and Third (Catholicism).
Why do Jews go to synagogue on Saturday and Christians (except for a few groups such as Seventh Day Adventists) go to Church on Sunday? For a long time I assumed that it was due to a disagreement on when the week started. Jews said that the end of the week was on Saturday, and – I thought – Christians said it was Sunday. I assumed that what Christians really wanted was to worship on a different day then Jews, and so they picked a fight about the calendar in order to do so.
I was wrong. Most calendars, including the default in Windows, run from Sunday to Saturday. Sunday is generally considered the first day of the week, not the last day. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
“Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath.”
Similarly, the Southern Baptist Convention, the same group that urges the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, does not mention the word “sabbath” in its Baptist Faith & Message 2000. However, one of its 18 articles of faith is VIII The Lord’s Day, about which it says:
“The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.”
I’ve asked a few devout Christians about this point. The conversation usually goes something like:
Me: Did you know that Christian doctrine does not accept the Ten Commandments?
Them: What are you talking about? Of course it does!
Me: What about the sabbath? The Ten Commandments commands observance on the 7th day of the week to commemorate God’s rest after the creation of the universe. You celebrate a different holiday on Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus.
Them: Well, of course, that’s just because [explains how the message of Jesus supercedes Jewish beliefs].
Me: Exactly.
Tablets With Which to Beat Heathens Over the Head
Christians are completely within their rights if they want to retire some laws from the Jewish Bible. But I find it noteworthy that most people seem to be unaware of this giant fact about their faith: most Christian sects do not believe in the entire Ten Commandments. They do not believe in following all the Commandments, but some powerful American Christians believe that the government should foster the worship of the Ten Commandments as symbols of divine authority.
It is obvious why such a display by government institutions is an egregious violation of the First Amendment. Conservative Christians would not be interested in displaying them if their presence did not conflate religion and government. Proponents of displays often say that the reason for displaying them is to merge their religious beliefs with government policy. Anyone observing the placement of such symbols would interpret it as an endorsement of them.
When proponents of the display of religious symbols arrive in court, they start talking about the Commandments as a neutral marker of historical significance to civilization, but when Louisiana or Texas sit down to legislate, it is the Ten Commandments that are to be placed in classrooms, not the Code of Hammurabi or the lex duodecim tabularum of the Romans.
The displays are unconstitutional whether Christians actually believe the Ten Commandments or not.
Judaism does endorse the entire Ten Commandments. Should Jews be happy about their laws hanging in every classroom in the state of Louisiana? No, because the Ten Commandments are being used to bolster Christian authority. That has not worked out well for Jews in the past. That is why Jews, like every other religious (and non-religious) group in America, benefit from the separation of church and state.
Unfortunately, it is not clear that the current Supreme Court would strike down laws mandating government displays of religious symbols as objects of veneration. Some on the Court seem to be primarily interested in religious liberty to the extent that it supports their religion.
The desire to use the Ten Commandments as a government-sanctioned idol is emblematic of an unfortunate streak in parts of American Christianity. It is not the only case of such people ignoring their own religion’s teaching in pursuit of a particular political vision in the name of religion. Whatever the actual religious content is, its use is a marker to say: Do as we say, because God is on our side.
Photo shows Moses and the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, in the way it is introduced to many Americans: in the Gospel According to Cecille B. DeMille.