This is an opinion article published by Adventist Review.
Consider the sexual and gender sickness promoted in public schools, things that a decade or two ago would have been not only unimaginable but probably illegal and would have gotten teachers and principals arrested (if not first lynched by outraged parents). No wonder some U.S. states want to post the Ten Commandments in public K-12 classrooms.
I mean, come on already!
As Seventh-day Adventists, long defenders of religious freedom, we need to think this through before getting caught up in this frenzied backlash against America’s cultural lunacy.
The first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Love, to be love, must be freely given, or it’s not love. You might be cured by a doctor you dislike or rescued by a lifeguard you distrust—but you are not going to be saved by a God you dislike, or by a faith you don’t trust.
Government, meanwhile, functions precisely through coercion, manifested in civil and criminal laws, regardless of whether or not you like or trust those laws. The threat of civil or criminal penalties might be fine for getting you to obey the speed limit or to pay taxes—but for the promotion of faith it is deadly, as centuries of European history have shown. And to spare this nation from that kind of violence, America’s Founders wisely sought to keep government, which works by force, as far apart from faith, which works by free will, as possible.
Which bring us to the Ten Commandments posted in public schools.
First, the Ten Commandments are part of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Decidedly so. And because children who can’t attend private schools, or be homeschooled, are required by law to attend public schools, the subtle (but real) power of the state is being used to push specific religious dogma on them, some of whom surely are raised in homes that don’t follow that dogma. It might not seem like a big deal, but the principle here is. Besides, suppose what was posted in the classroom came from Confucius, or Muhammad, or Siddhartha Gautama? People would have second thoughts then, right?
Also, whose version of the Ten Commandments, the Catholic or Protestant, is going up? How might Catholic students feel, having the command against idolatry shoved in their face in school, when their own church’s version excludes it? It’s one thing for Seventh-day Adventists to witness to the perpetuity of the law; but to use the power of state, through public schools, is another.
Finally, the hypocrisy of it all, when the overwhelming majority of those pushing for the Ten Commandments in public schools blatantly break one of them, every week—the fourth commandment. And does not the Bible say something like “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10)? And though some argue that the seventh-day Sabbath has been replaced by Sunday, the “soteriological-eschatological new covenant day of rest” or the like—fine. Then admit that what they want to post are “nine commandments along with the soteriological-eschatological new covenant day of rest,” instead of the outrageous hypocrisy of using government to promote a moral code that they themselves ignore.
Sure, the Ten Commandments in public schools is better than some book for fourth graders celebrating transgenderism. Neither, though, should be there.
To read the original article, please go here.
