A courtroom in Kentucky just put up a new Ten Commandments display. Link

And there’s the strong possibility of Huckabee putting the Ten Commandments up in the Oval Office, if he were elected. Link

I don’t see why we should have the Ten Commandments in courtrooms, but this is a topic of religion and state which has only been debated like once, or a million times, so I’ll save that torture for another post. Let’s think this through, I mean, how many people actually know what the Ten Commandments say? And maybe I’m just out in left field, crazy land, but follow me here.

Exodus 20:4 — You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
This is the graven image verse. Ancient religions would use objects or images to symbolize their gods. Something Jews were forbidden from doing since nothing could truly represent the God. What could we conclude from a movie like The Passion, or a painting of Jesus? Jews don’t even write the name of G-d for this reason. Are we guilty of making graven images?

Exodus 20:8 — Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Saturday was, and is, the Sabbath in this text. Do we keep this day holy?

Exodus 20:17 — Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
This one is a doozy. Why is the wife included in a verse with ox, donkey, or field? This was a command about coveting your neighbor’s property, which included women. Is your wife a piece of property not to be coveted by another?

I could be way off, but sometimes in issues like these, the substance of something to do with Jesus or the Bible becomes secondary to an agenda. Prayer in school – The statistics on the morality of “born-again” Christians, and those not attending a church, aren’t drastically different, so I don’t know, do parents really pray with their kids each morning before school? Creationism – If parents read the Genesis account of creation, this would be good, but it’s certainly not the refutation needed against the scientific evidence for evolution?

Cheers.