When the religious right tries to bring the Ten Commandments into public schools, two vivid images appear in my mind: Charlton Heston and Sunday school.
The reason Heston continuously enters my thoughts is simple: He plays Moses in the classic movie “The Ten Commandments.” Interestingly, the reason I always recall my childhood Sunday school is mostly because almost any child reciting the Ten Commandments - no matter the age, the gender or the personality - always mentioned, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
That our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian values system cannot be argued. We see it everywhere, such as in our respect for workers’ rights, individual liberties and the poor. In the beginning, even public schools were founded largely to enable children to better read the Bible. Our classrooms have rules paralleling the Ten Commandments, including penalties for stealing answers, swearing and lying, and they even allow Saturday and Sunday as days of rest, as the Jewish and Christian faiths require. In fact, looking at the Ten Commandments, these also are the very themes that schools indirectly teach us to live by through literature and history.
This evidence alone displays that religious fanatics are too late. Judeo-Christian values, together with those obtained from the religions of newer immigrants, are already incorporated into the public school systems.
Thus, the driving force behind displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools is nothing more than insecurity. Maybe those supporting this measure have poorly taught these values to their own children and feel that only a persistent reminder will atone for neglected religious education at home. But if they are trying to instill these values in all children, then what difference does it make if these children are taught indirectly by the rules and traditions that have shaped our society or instead by a religious document such as the Ten Commandments?
Proponents of instating the Ten Commandments in public schools merely desire to force a specific religious document on the public as a whole, weakening the very important separation of church and state.
Many people of different faiths still hold some or all of the same morals that are taught by the Ten Commandments and yet still do not believe in them with a pious fervor. Therefore, no legitimate reason exists to initiate state-sponsored religion, something that historically has led only to despotism.
Furthermore, the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant faiths each revere three slightly differing versions of the Ten Commandments. Therefore any preference for a specific version denotes state sanction of a certain faith within the Judeo-Christian spectrum.
Also, small children will not be able to appreciate the Ten Commandments for their significance, especially if only displayed as a historical document. The Ten Commandments cannot further any intended purpose if young students only remember that the big sign out front says not to commit adultery.
Moreover, teachers will be on very dubious constitutional grounds if they take class time to remind children of the actual significance behind the Ten Commandments.
That type of learning, both constitutionally and educationally, is best left to religious education instructors, who can teach without the wall between church and state looming in the background.
In truth, I value the Ten Commandments and attempt to emulate them in my life. It is a shame, though, that a few religious zealots unnecessarily feel the need to shove them on everyone in the public schools.
After all, with the TV networks airing “The Ten Commandments” during Easter and Passover, Heston proclaims that ancient document with an authority that no public school can rival.
Andrew Goetz is a chemistry junior. Reach him at goetzand@msu.edu.
