“Blatantly unconstitutional.” That’s how atheist and civil liberties organizations are describing a new Louisiana law mandating the presence of the Ten Commandments in all publicly funded classrooms.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group, and the American Civil Liberties Union are just two forces that have partnered to challenge the law in court, arguing that it must be dismantled.
These organizations assert that requiring that schools post the Old Testament law in classrooms is an overt violation of the separation of church and state, resulting in what the Freedom From Religion Foundation warns will be “unconstitutional religious coercion of students, who are legally required to attend school and are thus a captive audience.”
Constitutional considerations aside, organizations such as the foundation have a vested interest in speaking out against anything biblical, repeatedly targeting faith and prayer as needless, problematic or just plain unhelpful.
Consider one of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s brochures titled “What’s Wrong With The Ten Commandments?” “Do study the ten commandments!” a description of the “nontract” reads. “They epitomize the childishness, the vindictiveness, the sexism, the inflexibility and the inadequacies of the bible as a book of morals.”
This encapsulates the real, often shielded battle over the Ten Commandments and other religious sentiments — a sociopolitical brawl over theological elements that run much deeper than public policy. These skirmishes are apparently about a quest to keep biblical morality out of the public square, seeking to extinguish its presence wherever and whenever it emerges.
Of course, one of the most comical ironies surrounding secularist organizations suing over the Ten Commandments mandate is that, far from flattening the biblical law, the effort has catapulted it into almost every media headline, offering rare and intense attention across TV, digital media and other platforms.
Christian preacher Ray Comfort was so shocked by the influx of focus on the Ten Commandments that he sent a massive gift basket to the ACLU to thank the organization for its inadvertent efforts to advertise the Old Testament law.
“You can’t buy that sort of publicity,” Mr. Comfort told me after the fact.
In a letter to the ACLU accompanying the chocolate-filled care package, he wrote, “America needs to be reminded of God’s Law, and you’ve certainly done that. Very grateful.”
The entire ordeal gave me a bit of a chuckle. But regardless of where people stand on the constitutional merits of Louisiana’s law, Mr. Comfort is absolutely right: The Ten Commandments offer a blueprint for individual and corporate success. An abandonment of these ideals is the primary reason our culture has continued to plummet into the abyss, exchanging the eternal for the self and, in the process, dismantling everlasting truth.
We see the importance of the Ten Commandments on full display when a religious leader asks Jesus a powerful question in Matthew 22:34-40. The man says, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus then summarizes the entirety of the Ten Commandments in two snippets.
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment,’” verses 37-38 read, with verse 39 continuing, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This “love God and love others” paradigm in the New Testament is the Cliffs Notes version of the Ten Commandments, which can be found in its entirety in Exodus 20. The first four commandments deal with humanity’s love for God, solidifying his place as the centerpiece of worship and truth.
The rules read: “You shall have no other gods before me,” “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below,” “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” and “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Rather than following modern culture’s bent toward the self, these statutes elevate the Creator, herald his rules, offer him respect and encourage people to pause and honor him. These rules refocus our attention on what matters most and remind us we’re accountable to something higher than our own whims and wants.
The remaining commandments deal not with God but with other people, with each offering essential parameters that, when followed, serve, improve — and even save — families and relationships from the painful pitfalls our sin can cause.
These commandments implore us to honor our parents, not to kill, to refrain from committing adultery, not to steal, not to lie or “give false testimony” against our neighbors, and not to covet our neighbor’s wife or belongings.
Humans are prone to sin and this list of moral boundaries exposes our need for God and his grace. Furthermore, the latter six again force us to think beyond our selfish wants. These are ethical guidelines — bumpers, if you will — that maintain order rather than encourage the sowing of disorder.
They’re the very baseline of a healthy culture. Thus, reminding humans of these commandments’ importance has a profoundly beneficial impact.
Sadly, groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation have gone out of their way to diminish this moral guidance.
There are certainly constitutional issues to consider when it comes to the Louisiana case, and there’s no telling where it will all land. But we’re kidding ourselves and setting up our society for failure if we continue to conceal and ignore God’s laws. Our penchant for doing so has only bred chaos as we encourage people to continue navigating life intoxicated on the ever-diabolical elixir of the self.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books.
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