Should the Ten Commandments be Displayed in Public Places?
Answer: Local communities should decide, but...
So long as it is not offensive to the local community, and does not lead to discrimination because of religious beliefs, why should it matter whether religious materials are displayed on public property? Nevertheless, instituting certain religious beliefs as the basis for government actions is likely the primary motivation.
According to the Book of Exodus, God proclaimed when he gave Moses the stone tablets containing the commandments: The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation.1 The Lord, in other words, wanted Moses to teach the people to set judgment aside in favor of mercy and forgiveness.
The Israelites executed judgment rather than be as merciful, gracious, and forgiving as God was to them. Their guilt, therefore, remained and God will judge them as they have judged others. The sort of merciless god they believed in was no different than other gods; therefore, they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. According to the prophets, God later said that he would invite in those whom the religious leaders had judged as sinners and write his laws upon their hearts.2 Jesus, therefore, said that God's kingdom would be filled with both the bad and the good, and he told the Pharisees that publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before they would.3
Why then do Christians choose the Ten Commandments as an emblem of their beliefs? Why not display the Royal Law, Love thy neighbor as thyself, which Jesus said fulfills all the law and the prophets? Their choice likely reflects the fact that much of Christianity is highly judgmental and Christian in name only. No where, for example, was hate in Christ's name more open than at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was brutally beaten to death in Wyoming. A local preacher and his supporters protested the funeral with signs reading: Matt Shepard rots in Hell and God Hates Fags. According to a support web site, the "Reverend" intends to build a monument bearing Matthew's picture and the words: MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22.4 By contrast, the church's sign where the funeral was held read: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus warned: Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged… He concluded: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils? and done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. Personally, I would far rather be standing beside Matthew Shepard come Judgment Day than with anyone following the religion of those who protested his funeral.
References
1 Ex 34:6-7
2 Jer 31:33
3 Mt 21:31; 22:9-10
4Matthew Shepard Foundation. www.matthewshepard.comMatthew Shepard: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard |
