Keep church, state separate

by HOWARD M. BERLIN

06/09/2002

Despite constitutional concerns, there have been repeated attempts to introduce representations of the biblical Ten Commandments in public schools and courtrooms.

In 1997 an Alabama judge, Roy Moore, posted a hand-carved plaque of the Decalogue on the courtroom wall behind his chair. Moore became a cause célèbre in November, 2000 when he was elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. In the late evening of July 31, 2001, Moore and a few helpers clandestinely installed his own Ten Commandments, a two-ton monument placed in the rotunda of the state supreme court house. This action has since prompted a federal lawsuit.

In February of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an appellate ruling of a suit, brought by a group of clerics against Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon, baring him from erecting a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state capitol. In March, a U.S. District Court judge ordered officials in nearby Chester County, Pa. to remove an 82-year-old bronze plaque from the county courthouse on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. Similar rulings have been handed down in Nebraska, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Suits to remove similar biblical displays are now pending in Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, Montana, and Illinois.

Displaying the Ten Commandments in tax-supported public venues poses problems apart from its unconstitutionality. During a 1999 debate in Congress that approved an amendment to a juvenile crime bill to allow states to decide whether to permit the display of the Ten Commandments in schools and other government buildings, one congressman noted that there are three versions on how the individual commandments are numbered.

From the Judaic tradition of the Torah or Pentateuch, the Decalogue of Exodus and Deuteronomy has one version of numbering. Catholics and Lutherans derive another numbering system, while Episcopalians, Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant denominations have a third arrangement.

If the biblical text is allowed to be shown in public venues, and because perception matters, the concern is who decides which version is the "correct" one? Both the Chester County plaque and Judge Moore's tablets were inscribed with the King James Version used by Protestants, giving the perception the government endorsed one particular religion over others. However, it could have easily been another religion's version.

Will the version of the Ten Commandments that a judge like Roy Moore posts in a courtroom have tacit recognition? Would I be held in contempt of court if I claim to the judge that his particular version of the Ten Commandments does not coincide with my own religious beliefs?

Besides the numbering differences among the various faiths, there are differences in translations of the same verse, for example the sixth commandment, "Thou shall not murder," which many sources erroneously quote as "Thou shall not kill." The original Hebrew reads lo tiersakh, literally, "do not murder." In contrast, the Hebrew word ratsoach means "kill," an act different from murder. If a supreme being had required us not to kill, the killing animals for food, killing of a dangerous animal such as a rabid dog, and killing of a person in self-defense who is attacking you or during war would all be forbidden.

Theologians indicate the first four commandments are those between mankind and a supreme being; the remaining six deal with one's fellow man: respect for one's parents and the prohibitions against murder, adultery, stealing, perjury, and coveting. Regardless of one's personal religious beliefs, individuals generally strive to conduct themselves in the moral fashion valued in civilized societies.

There is always time for the free, public exercise of religion, but the proper place should be in houses of worship—not public schools and courthouses.

Howard M. Berlin, of Wilmington, is a college educator and a member of The News Journal Community Advisory Board.