The 60% Solution

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

The 60% Solution

By GREGG EASTERBROOK
February 4, 2005; Page W13

Soon the Supreme Court will take up the question of whether the Ten Commandments can be displayed on government property. At the heart of this culture-war blockbuster will be two familiar and rivalrous claims: first, that any government sanction of religious material violates the separation of church and state; second, that the Ten Commandments promote morality and so their display must not be prohibited. We will undoubtedly hear one side decrying Christian activism run amok and the other godless secularism run amok.

Yet there is an alternative to the Ten Commandments -- namely, the Six Commandments, enunciated by Jesus himself. And the Six Commandments could hang in any public facility without jeopardizing the separation of church and state.

In the Gospel of Matthew, a man asks Jesus what a person must do to enter heaven. He answers: "Keep the commandments." The man inquires: "Which ones?" Here is how the biblical account continues: "And Jesus said, 'You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. Also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

(snip)

Quickly now, which commandments did he leave out? "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves an idol. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy." These are the commandments having to do with formal religious observance -- from today's perspective, the ones that clash with the Establishment Clause. Jesus' Six Commandments make no mention of God or faith. They could be posted on public property without constitutional entanglements.

(snip)



Mr. Easterbrook, an editor of the New Republic, is the author of "Beside Still Waters" (Morrow, 1998), a book about Christian theology.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110748251982245834,00.html

[Warpy]

1. I've long said that the freaks pushing for government display

of the ten commandments need to read them, first.

It's obvious that they haven't read them since they were children, or they'd know what the first few were all about, and why they're wrong in any sort of pluralistic society.

Now we all know thay hate tolerance and can't possibly admit that other people and other religions may be just as good, but that's their problem.

The law's on our side.