{"id":32844,"date":"2013-03-21T10:12:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T16:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/21\/oh-look-the-ten-commandments-thing-is-back-again.html"},"modified":"2013-03-21T10:12:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T16:12:56","slug":"oh-look-the-ten-commandments-thing-is-back-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/21\/oh-look-the-ten-commandments-thing-is-back-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Oh, look, the Ten Commandments thing is back again"},"content":{"rendered":"
Once more, with feeling …<\/p>\n

No, the Decalogue is not<\/i> the "foundation" of US law. \u00a0I mean, yes, most US cities and states have\u00a0prohibitions on killing and theft — but so do the laws of cities and states in China and India, which have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments. And such laws can be found in ancient civilizations long before Moses came down from the mountain (indeed, I seem to recall Moses got in trouble with Egyptian law over killing someone). \u00a0And most<\/i> of the Ten Commandments are either explicitly religious (monotheism, the Sabbath, blasphemy) or more broadly moral (parental honoring, adultery, covetousness), and are not reflected in the US Constitution or in the legal code.<\/p>\n

Painting these kind of end runs as "oh, it's just about historical documents" is not only dishonest, but bad history.<\/i> \u00a0If people want to have displays of the Ten Commandments in their homes or in their churches or even in their private businesses, that's pretty much up to them. Making them a reflection of the government's preferences by posting them in the public schools and government buildings is bad policy and, incidentally, unconstitutional.<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Ala. proposal to legalize Ten Commandments advances<\/a>
\n MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A House committee approved a constitutional amendment Wednesday that would authorize governments and schools to display the Ten Commandments, but an American Civil Liberties Union …\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once more, with feeling … No, the Decalogue is not the "foundation" of US law. \u00a0I mean, yes, most US cities and states have\u00a0prohibitions on killing and theft — but so do the laws of cities and states in China and India, which have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments. And such laws can … Continue reading “Oh, look, the Ten Commandments thing is back again”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49393,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/27\/ten-commandments-judge-cries-tyranny-over-gay-marriage-ruling.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":0},"title":""Ten Commandments" judge cries "Tyranny!" over gay marriage ruling","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-15 3:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Ah, Roy Moore -- did you never meet a federal court ruling you thought didn't apply to you?Quoth Moore: \"As you know, nothing in the United States Constitution grants the federal government the authority to redefine the institution of marriage.\"No, but the 14th Amendment does allow the federal government (in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/09\/take_ten.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":1},"title":"Take Ten","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Dec-04 2:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Swell. The Bush administration, saying that religion \"has played a defining role'' in the nation's history, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to permit Ten Commandments displays in courthouses. The Justice...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49381,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/27\/37-or-so-things-banned-in-exodus-and-their-penalties.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":2},"title":"37 (or so) Things Banned in Exodus (and their penalties)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-15 2:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A while back, I put together a post titled \"76 Things Banned in Leviticus (and their penalties)\" which has turned out to be the most popular thing I've ever posted. Go figure. While doing a Bible Study class, I became inspired to do something similar for Exodus. As with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/history"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moses - Ten Commandments","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Moses-Ten-Commandments-1-242x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1274,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/03\/dont_know_much.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":3},"title":"Don’t know much about history","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Feb-02 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another state bill going through another state legislature to hang the Ten Commandments in every classroom. This one, which has cleared a Senate committee in South Carolina, at least...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8811,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/11\/hang_ten_comman.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":4},"title":"Hang Ten (Commandments)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Apr-06 5:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Haven't we already gone through this again and again and again and again? Evidently we have to go through another \"again.\" At a ceremonial signing today of a bill that...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20376,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/03\/unblogged-bits-thu-3-mar-11-2231.html","url_meta":{"origin":32844,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Thu. 3-Mar-11 2231)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Mar-11 10:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Alabama Lawmaker Wants Ten Commandments Displays To Stop People \"From Going Berserk or Killing Folks\" - I'd argue that it's, itself, blasphemous to argue that the Ten Commandments are NOT \"distinctly religious\". I mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}