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November 14, 2004

They get letters

This letter to the editor appeared last Thursday in my local hometown paper (name withheld):

I have found it very disturbing that people are trying to rid this country of God and his principles. The most recent incident is the issue of the Ten Commandments being in the courthouses. Who do these people think they are that they can waltz in and try to hack away at the foundations of our country?

Our founding fathers built the constitution around these 10 rules that consist of mostly common sense.

In my opinion, there are six commandments that are completely common sense. As a matter of fact, three of thesee--you shall not murder, you shall not steal, and you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor--are actually laws today with two or more (you shall not commit adultery and you shall not covet your neighbor's belongings) being laws in previous civilizations that were neither Hebrew or Christian.

The last of these six is the commandment to honor your father nad mother. This is one of the most important commandments, and is the only one in the first five listed that has to do with someone other than God.

The other four out of those top five are, you shall have no other gods before me (God), you shall not make for yourself any idol, you shall not misuese the name of the Lord your God, and remeber the Sabbath by keeping it holy. These seem to be the focus of the argument of removing the Commandments from the courthouses. However, can you not look away or simply ignore them?

This country was build on these 10 simple rules so why should we take them out of courthouses? Just because they are there doesn't mean that you need to abide by any more than three of them.

The following is my letter that I submitted in rebuttal:

(below the fold)

In last weeks Beaverton Valley Times, XXXX XXXX from West Slope discussed his concern and discomfort with the 10 Commandments being disallowed in courthouses around America. XXXX went on to say that "our founding fathers built the constitution around these 10 rules that consist of mostly common sense."

I agree with XXXX that the 10 Commandments are a series of very common sense rules that are a good idea to live by. They are not, however, the foundations of US government nor the US Constitution.

James Madison (one of the main Constitutional framers) and Thomas Jefferson both argued for the Constitution as based in English common law. Jefferson himself argued that American laws derive from English common law and that common law in turn owed nothing to Christianity or to the Ten Commandments:

". . . we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper legislative authority from that time to the date of the Magna Charta [1215 CE], which terminates the period of the common law...and commences that of the statute law.... This settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century.  But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century.... Here, then, was a space of about two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it.... If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians, and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are able to find among them no such act of adoption, we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law....We might as well say that the Newtonian system of philosophy is a part of the common law, as that the Christian religion is....Finally, in answer to Fortescue Aland’s question why the ten commandments should not now be a part of the common law of England?  We may say they are not because they never were made so by legislative authority, the document which has imposed that doubt on him being a manifest forgery.” (Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814.  From Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed.,The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. XIV, Washington, DC: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903, pp. 85-97.)

The 10 Commandments, while being good rules to live by, are wholly religious. It's a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the doctrine of separation of church/state, also embraced by Jefferson. This has been consistently upheld by our US Supreme Court.

The argument that we should "look away" or "ignore" the posting of the 10 Commandments is unreasonable, from my point of view. Should we allow people to be naked in public and ask those who are offended to merely "look away" or "ignore" them?

It's our job as citizens to know and understand our rights, priviledges and limits as citizens. Sometimes it takes more than common sense. Sometimes it requires us to delve deeply into these issues and understand their complexities and realities. Our founders made these decisions for very important reasons. Reasons that today are more important than ever.

Carla XXXX
(location withheld)

Posted by Carla at November 14, 2004 06:36 PM