The 10 Commandments Answer
by Brad Edmonds
We've all heard about the flap over the 10 Commandments monument Chief Justice Roy Moore installed in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court. The ACLU and SPLC and some others want the monument removed to preserve the separation of church and state. Supporters of Roy Moore are Christians, mostly from southeastern states. They want the monument to stay because of what it represents – a rock in the foundation of our American culture and history, and a symbolic return to earlier and more wholesome times. At the very least, the monument is intended to acknowledge God and what Roy Moore believes to be the foundation of American law.
Both sides should switch sides.
As Lew pointed out yesterday, allowing government units to adopt religious postures will strengthen many people's perception that the government is morally legitimate. People are less likely to oppose a government with which they think they agree on fundamental religious and philosophical issues. This is part of why Muslim fundamentalist governments are so hard to overthrow from within even when they are murderously abusive of their subjects. As Murray Rothbard pointed out, governments exist truly at the whim of the governed, even in despotic regimes. In every society, the governed outnumber the rulers by so much that if the governed were to organize, the rulers would be unable to resist them.
Hence, the federal courts should be pleased to have the 10 Commandments displayed in all courtrooms. It would help make the great masses more obedient, thereby enhancing government power and job security for judges. The same line of thinking goes for the SPLC, which though it claims to be in the business of thwarting "hate, intolerance and discrimination," is really about the business of using government courts to thwart property rights and freedom of association. The SPLC, then, also would benefit from having the 10 Commandments in every courthouse in the land. The ACLU, for its part, is sometimes for liberty (particularly when the issue is the liberty of adult men to molest young boys), and sometimes against it (as when a store owner might not wish to hire homosexual activists). But since the ACLU uses the courts to get its way, it, too, would benefit from a population awestruck by the court system.
The Christians, for their part, should want the Commandments removed from the courthouse, and all reference to any religion removed from every aspect of government. First, the government, if it must exist, should be about the accomplishment of purely secular, practical, and limited matters. It should leave the business of religion to the experts. That being said, I do believe that people who have government jobs, including everything from the writing of laws to the cleaning of government restrooms, should consult their consciences unceasingly. It would be my hope that their consciences would be guided by the same light as mine – that's the point of democratic governance – but if not, hey, whatever weakens American trust in government thus increases civilian suspicion and oversight of government. That would be a good thing, entirely consistent with the vision of the founders.
And that's the second point. The Christians opposing removal of the monument want America to return to its founding values and to acknowledge God in public places. The steep moral decline our society has perpetrated the last 40 years is, in my opinion, a direct result of increasing government intervention into our daily lives. The welfare state removed the shame that once accompanied living off the confiscated earnings of others, unwed pregnancy, and even drug addiction. The government war on drugs guaranteed that the drugs arriving on our shores would always be the most powerful and addictive ones, and that violence would accompany their distribution. Earlier than that, Social Security inured us to socialism and removed the shame associated with not planning for one's own future (at the same time that it helped create the very concept of retirement).
Our return to the higher moral standards of old might thus be hastened if we all develop less faith, not more, in government as a moral guide. This would make it easier to begin working to get government out of the moral spheres it has already invaded and worsened. As to acknowledging God in public places: Shop owners, corporations, and property owners already can post the 10 Commandments, other Bible passages, and other uplifting things in view of the public. Surely, at least a few of the Christians protesting removal of the monument are in a position to do just this sort of thing.
Thus, the real long-term goals of the Christians who are opposing the monument's removal might be better met if they let it be removed. Those who are suing for its removal might have their long-term goals better met if they let it stay. Who'da thunk it?
lewrockwell.com |
