The Nashville Feed

And the Other Eight.

The numbers don’t seem to support the misconception that a courthouse Ten Commandments display has any noticeable effect on theft or murder, in spite of two commandments specifically directed at these crimes.

Curiously, rapes and assaults also seem to be unaffected by the exhibits.

The Ten Commandments, despite a great deal of regard as a moral beacon, overlooked these offenses in favor of rules about the Sabbath day and cursing. Fortunately, someone in our shared history went beyond the Bible’s recommendations and established laws against rape and assault. There is nothing posted in any of the Kentucky county courthouses regarding these offenses. Predictably, there is no notable difference in the rate of reported incidents of rape and assault where the Ten Commandments are displayed as opposed to those areas without a courthouse display. Assaults and rapes also do not show a significant change when the display is added or taken away from the courthouse.

Although the commandments permit assaults and rapes, they do set out eight rules in addition to disallowing theft and murder.

I called Corey Bellamy at the Kentucky attorney general’s office to get the numbers on violations of these other commandments. When asked about the state’s coveting arrest rate, Bellamy only responded with dead air. He gave me more stunned silence when asked about those charged with neglecting to keep holy the Sabbath day or making unto thee graven images. He then politely ended the conversation with a vague and noncommittal promise to look into those numbers and get back to me. Several months later, I am still awaiting his call.

If Kentucky is not using the commandments as laws, it should call into question the “basis for the foundation of American law” argument.

But the ninth commandment does discourage bearing false witness. This could be interpreted as perjury, a criminal offense. There are also some links to current slander and libel laws, both usually pursued in the civil arena.

But our laws also provide for a great deal of perfectly legal lying. The state couldn’t possibly arrest everyone who has spread a rumor, gossiped, or just outright lied.

Bearing false witness is nearly impossible to track, given its frequency and the lack of defining guidelines provided by King James.

Only the sixth and eight commandments relate to specific current offenses. But neither killing nor stealing has been impacted by the courthouse reminder.

If there is no impact on criminal activity, why are courthouses posting these texts? Beyond that, why are they subjecting themselves to extended legal battles for something that doesn’t seem to be doing anyone a great deal of good?

In the fourth and final installment in this series, we’ll get the input of the attorneys who argue these cases and a guy who took it upon himself to post the commandments in his county’s courthouse. Hopefully they can help us make sense out of something that, thus far, seems quite pointless.

Previous posts:

• Kentucky has the Commandments Part 1
• The Actual Numbers, After 10