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U.S. answers to higher law
By the Rev. Rob Schenck
It could be argued that the Ten Commandments should be publicly displayed for no other reason than that these precepts informed our Founders. Our system of law is based on English Common Law, which had its moral foundation in the Ten Commandments. But there are other reasons for these timeless words to be publicly recognized by Americans.
The Commandments are a constant reminder of a higher moral authority than us. We are not the ultimate arbiters of right and wrong. The image of Moses in the Capitol is a statement that the laws of God are higher than the laws of man. Not all governments agree. In many countries, murder serves a state purpose. Not so here; we believe moral absolutes control governments as much as individuals. We can't change the Commandment against murder because we didn't make it in the first place. So it is with all the Commandments and the laws they effect.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says the Commandments can't be displayed publicly because they reference God. Yet the Declaration of Independence refers to "Nature's God." Our president swears in his oath of office "so help me God." Congress begins its day with a prayer to God. The Supreme Court itself announces every sitting with "God save the United States and this honorable court."
Contrary to what some critics claim, this public acknowledgement of God transcends religious sectarianism and unites us, rather than divides us. Our national motto, carried on our money, is "In God We Trust." We pledge allegiance to "one nation under God." The Ten Commandments simply explain what God requires of us. Jews, Christians and Muslims equally revere the Commandments and nearly every other religious and secular group considers them beneficial for society.
The Founders knew liberty could be afforded only to a people restrained internally by a moral governor. No matter how many laws we have against murder, how many police we have to catch the culprits, how many courts we have to prosecute and punish them and how many prisons we have to lock them up, only a conscience informed by a law greater than a human law can stop a murder before it happens. Displaying the Ten Commandments on public property is an admission by all of us of this truth.
The Rev. Rob Schenck is founder of the Ten Commandments Project in Washington, D.C.