The Nashville Feed

At Least the Scientologists Have Better Things To Do.

The numbers show that the Ten Commandments displayed in Kentucky courthouses have no identifiable impact on murder or theft in the county of their display. Since the other eight commandments really have nothing to do with law, it is impossible to accurately track their impact on the relevant behaviors of the county’s citizens. If these displays aren’t really doing the county any good, why do people persist in putting them up in the courthouses?

David Friedman, the ACLU attorney who successfully argued McCreary vs. ACLU before the Supreme Court and continues to pursue Ten Commandments cases in Kentucky, isn’t certain that “there is one monolithic reason.”

He believes that the reason behind some displays is a religious motivation. “Groups want to trumpet their religious views through the government. This is as close as they can come,” Friedman said.

He also recognizes a more secular agenda rooted in politics. Those in elected office score big points with a primarily Christian constituency when they wrap themselves around the stone tablets. This was arguably former Governor Fletcher’s motivation for pushing the church/state bounds with a new display at the state capital during his failed re-election bid.

Friedman identifies his own motivation for making the displays a legal issue as the need to protect the minority point of view. For him it is a crusade to insure that the government does not place its support solely behind the popular religion in a country where individuals are free to pursue a variety of religions—or none at all.

Frank Manion, an attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice, has argued the opposite side of the issue. He successfully defended Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky counties and is currently litigating a third.

Despite Manion’s position at the other table, he seems to share Friedman’s skepticism of the true motivations people hold for displaying the commandments.

“You hope that their purpose is to express their connection to American law and government,” Manion said.

That may be an idealistic belief, but it is also the argument that stands the best chance of fending off the ACLU’s challenges. Both Rowan and Mercer Counties won their cases with that contention and something called the Foundations for American Law and Government exhibit.

This handy little kit comes pre-packaged with all of the necessary items, like a computer desk from Ikea. Contained within the box are ten items, each framed at a similar size to avoid stressing the importance of any one over another. It has met with mixed results in litigation, but it seems to be the best hope for those promoting the commandments. Surrounding the Bible’s words with documents such as the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, and a photo of Lady Justice supposedly diminishes the religious context and replaces it with a legal environment. The intent is to make the commandments a non-Christian artifact.

To strengthen the heritage and education standing, many counties have added explanations to tie the Ten Commandments in with the others.

Manion pointed to some original colonies’ recognized history of adopting certain Ten Commandments as laws prior to the Constitution. This is a documented fact, and it would seem worth mentioning in any text seeking to establish a legitimate legal history for the Decalogue. But there is no allusion made to this past in the Foundations for American Law and Government exhibit. Instead, most follow the example set by Mercer County, which has thus far successfully defended their display in District Court. Mercer included the following statement in their display:

“The Ten Commandments have profoundly influenced the formation of Western legal thought and the formation of our country.  That influence is clearly seen in the Declaration of Independence, which declared that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."  The Ten Commandments provide the moral background of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of our legal tradition.”

A reference to a Creator may link directly back to the Ten Commandments for some, but not everyone sees Christ in their fish stick. “Their Creator” could be a reference to Zeus, Allah, Satan, or those aliens that the Raelians place their beliefs behind. Scientologists might interpret it as Thetans animating energy and matter. This single ambiguous religious reference does not establish that the founding fathers found inspiration in Moses’ tablets.

If the exhibit’s passage is intended as a history lesson, it asks the viewer to presume a lot.

The colonies’ pre-constitution laws against adultery, graven images, blaspheming on the Sabbath and other commandments did not survive into our modern legal code.  Carroll Rousey, the Mercer County citizen who donated the Foundations for American Law and Government display to the courthouse doesn’t see the demise of these laws as such a bad thing.

“Do I want to see them all made as laws?” Rousey asked himself, then quickly answered: “No.”

If the Ten Commandments displays in courthouses are not making the citizens safer, and if the exhibits’ historical education is presumptive at best, and if there is no desire to return the commandments to law, and if the religious denotation is necessarily removed to gain entrance into the courthouse, why all the controversy?

Are the people of Kentucky, and across the nation, putting all of this time and effort into debating a symbol, even when that symbol has most of its meaning stripped from it? Could that time and effort be better used to find an effective approach to reducing theft and murder?

Previous Posts:

• Kentucky has the Commandments
• The actual numbers, after 10
• And the other 8