The Ten Commandments in school classrooms – what could go wrong?

Some Christians want the government to force the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all school classrooms. What could go wrong? I must say, it’s probably easier to consider, what could go right!

The stone in the adjacent image doesn’t exactly quote the Ten Commandments.

But then, different denominations don’t even agree on what they are!

Plus, different Bible translations don’t use the same words either.

So that’s our first two things that could and will go wrong, and we really haven’t even gotten started yet. What could go wrong indeed!

The Ten Commandments – Exodus

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

^{Ex 20:3} You shall have no other gods before me.

That’s pretty general. Who’s going to decide which god this is about?

Before you say it’s obvious that it’s the Christian God of the Bible, hold on just a moment. This verse is from Exodus. The Old Testament. However, more properly, it’s Jewish Scripture. The Torah. Now, keep this in mind. to Jews, Jesus is not the Son of God. He’s not, as they say, Messiah. So, right off the bat, are we going to force Jewish teachers to talk about how their scripture points to Jesus, the Son of God, when they don’t believe it? Isn’t that problem with freedom of religion?

If we decide that is a problem, then let’s move on to Muslims. Muslims also read the first five books of the Christian Old Testament. AKA the Torah. And yet, they believe it’s about Allah. Allah doesn’t have a Son either. So now are we going to also force Muslims to answer questions from students with answers that reflect Christian beliefs?

And what about atheists? They don’t believe in God. How are they going to answer?

Is freedom of religion going to be repealed from the U.S. Constitution?

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Do you think displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms could never happen in America?

Think again. Check out the article at Texas lawmaker says the Supreme Court cleared the way to force schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

It may very well happen in Texas. And I have a feeling, when it happens in one state, others will rush to do the same.

Here’s the thinking behind it:

“[The bill] will remind students all across Texas of the importance of the fundamental foundation of America,” King said at an April committee hearing regarding his bill, Senate Bill 1515, The Texas Tribune reported.

One immediate problem with that kind of thinking is that it’s not necessarily true. Not everyone who came to the place we now call America was Christian. Those who were already here, before the first Europeans, were not Christian. And let’s face it, not all the founders of this country were Christian either.

However, it gets worse. Many of those who came here, who were Christian, came here to escape the King’s version of Christianity. So what are we doing now? Instituting yet another governmental version of Christianity!

What could go wrong? It didn’t work before. So why wouldn’t it work now? But wait, isn’t that the definition of insanity, so to speak? Doing the same thing, over and over, and somehow expecting a different result?

Conclusion – The Ten Commandments in school classrooms – what could go wrong?

Christians are called to be different. But different in a certain way. We’re supposed to be an example of following Jesus. And by doing that, we’re supposed to act in a way that others want to follow. Other than authoritarian Christians who follow their political leader’s version of Christianity, who wants to be like that?

In other words, what happened to love?

And what happened to salvation being a free gift from God? Not a legislated mandate from the government. But then, even if we do that, God doesn’t honor our false versions of salvation. What are we thinking?

Are we thinking?

Are we loving? That is, loving anyone but the God we made in our image when we do things like this?