Lately, I’ve been pondering a question about something that seems to be in the news a good bit. A number of states have passed or are considering passing laws that would require the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, courthouses, and other public buildings. I’ve written elsewhere [Pastor Note #130: The Government of Oklahoma Attempts to Usurp the Church] about my concerns as a pastor (now retired) about this sort of thing. But here I don’t want to get tangled up over the question of whether having the government post the Ten Commandments is a good thing or a bad thing. Instead, I have an honest question: Why the Ten Commandments?
It is, I think, fair to say that this is a project entirely driven by Christians. It is, I suppose, possible that there are some Jewish folks somewhere in America who also want to see the Ten Commandments posted by the government in government buildings. There may be nonbelievers who, for reasons of nostalgia maybe, would like to have the Ten Commandments posted in public school classrooms. But more than anything, this project is, as I say, driven by Christians.
The Ten Commandments is a text that both Jews and Christians share. So, in theory, the project of getting the government to post them in public buildings could be seen as much one that advanced the notion that America is a Jewish nation as that it is a Christian nation. But those who assert that America is a “Christian nation” are certainly the most passionate promoters of the project. I must say that I still can’t really understand what such folks mean by “Christian nation” in this context or how they imagine it might work. But I’ve written about my confusion on that point somewhere else [Pastor Note #129: How Would Christian Nationalist Government Work?], and I don’t want to get sidetracked by it here.
Here, I really want to ask this question: if the aim is to show the Christian-ness of America, then why wouldn’t we want to have an unambiguously Christian text posted, specifically something from Jesus? I’m not the first person to raise this question. I’m not that clever, and others are not so obtuse as to overlook what really is an obvious question. There have been a couple of popular memes making the rounds of social media that quote the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut who raised the question of why Christians so often clamor publicly for the posting of the Ten Commandments rather than the Beatitudes. Vonnegut was an atheist, but it seems to me he raises a good point.
If Christians want our government buildings to show the Christian-ness of America, wouldn’t the powerful introduction to perhaps the most important Christian sermon ever preached be an ideal section of the Bible to post on the walls of government buildings and public school classrooms? I can’t say if anyone has made a serious attempt to get any government entity to post the Beatitudes or any other distinctly Christian text in public buildings, but I can say that I’ve never come across it in the news. But, as I’ve said, I am aware of efforts by Christian groups in several states to have their state government require the posting of the Ten Commandments. So, again, I can’t help but wonder why there is a clear preference for the Old Testament legal text over this sermon of Jesus.
I’ll confess that I’ve never had the opportunity to personally ask an advocate of posting the Ten Commandments if they might not be persuaded to post the Beatitudes instead, and, if not, then why not. So, I can for now only speculate. If anyone reading this is an avid advocate of the posting of the Ten Commandments, use the comment section below, and let me know why you prefer to have them posted rather than the Beatitudes.
In the meantime, I’ll pose some of my own speculations in question form. If you prefer the idea of requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments rather than the Beatitudes, is that because the tone and feel of the Ten Commandments seems tough and forceful and the tone and feel of the Beatitudes is kind and merciful and, well, softer? I guess I can’t shake the feeling that many Christians who align themselves with right-wing politics have become very uncomfortable with the Jesus of the gospels and especially with the Sermon on the Mount. [I deal with that point in more depth in the last section of Pastor Note #129: How Would Christian Nationalist Government Work?]
And so, I can’t help wondering if the preference for an Old Testament legal text over a New Testament discipleship text isn’t part of that aversion to the self-sacrificing, Servant Lordship of Jesus. There is just something about the Ten Commandments that seems to work better with hardnosed, bare-knuckled politics than the Beatitudes. And it seems that approach to political engagement is the preferred one of many Christians today. Again, I may be wrong about that. There may be some entirely different reason for this preference for the Ten Commandments over the Beatitudes, but I guess I’m not sure what it is.
Photos by GAC; from stained glass at North Presbyterian Church, Elmira, NY.
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