Leftists and atheists and their bizarre fear of the Ten Commandments

OPINION:

A federal judge just ordered schools in Texas to stop posting copies of the Ten Commandments after hearing from parents of students who had complained the displays were offensive and infringed upon their First Amendment religious freedom rights. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which represented the plaintiffs, cheered the ruling, saying “the government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”

So, when will the figure of Moses holding the Ten Commandments be torn from the inside of the U.S. Supreme Court?

It’s long been held that the Ten Commandments aren’t simply religious in nature, but rather moral and historical, that is to say, foundational to America’s government and judicial system. In other words: They’re in our DNA. That makes them worthy of posting — of studying — of debating — in America’s public schools. If students aren’t taught the truthful history of America’s founding, including the incorporation of Judeo-Christian and biblical principles into the very documents that guide our nation today — then the compass of our nation is fated to be skewed. The state of our God-given liberties is certain to be shaken.

The power of our government is likely to grow.

And that right there is the fight; this is why Democrats and leftists and secularists and atheists hate the public posting of the Ten Commandments: They’re afraid the biblical truths will become embedded into the minds of the next generation of American leaders, and therefore prove an obstacle to the Democrat and leftist and secularist and atheist push for Marxism and collectivism and an anything-goes culture.

The left has a knee-jerk hatred of all-things-God and all-things-godly that hold potential to strip away leftist controls.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June signed a law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments in a “conspicuous location” in each and every classroom. Families of complaining students trotted to — surprise, surprise — the ACLU to sue. And voila. Like that, Judge Orlando Garcia of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled it “impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays” so long as the Texas law was upheld. So he ordered schools to remove the displays of the Ten Commandments.

The bigger question here is: Why so sensitive?

If students are truly offended by the post of the Ten Commandments, it seems sensible to tell them to look away, to refrain from gazing upon them, to set eyes on something else. Boo freaking hoo. Nobody was asking them to bow down to the Ten Commandments. 

But that’s not what this fight is about. It’s not about intruding on someone’s religious freedoms. It’s about stamping out God from the culture and public.

Historically speaking, the Ten Commandments served as a basis for much of what Founding Fathers debated, discussed and ultimately, created in terms of a moral governing structure — that is to say, the crimes of murder and theft and bearing false witness are all detailed in the Ten Commandments, and were part and parcel of the common laws of England that were adopted by America’s framers. The Constitution doesn’t mention the Ten Commandments, of course. But the theme of morality is foundational to America’s freedoms. A nation of people who aren’t capable of self-governance cannot live in liberty for long; moreover, self-governance requires a strict, strong moral code — and that basis for morality, as founders knew and appreciated, comes from Judeo-Christian and biblical principles.

Just because the Ten Commandments aren’t listed in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution doesn’t mean America’s founders didn’t acknowledge and rely on the moral code of the Ten Commandments as they created, signed and adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The Ten Commandments are the basic operating system for moral governance — for moral society.

And that’s why the left fights so hard to shut down their display. Immorality is good for Big Government.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.