Saturday, March 15, 1997

Debate over Ten Commandments in courtroom misses the point

By JOY THOMPSON

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Not waiting for the Alabama Supreme Court to act, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution March 5 supporting a judge who is being challenged for posting the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. The resolution does not have the force of law, but it encourages such postings in government offices and courthouses. Some Long Beach, Calif., residents were not happy their congressman, Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., was among those who spoke against the resolution. While I don't fully agree with Horn's position, I strongly believe it really doesn't matter whether the Commandments are posted publicly or not. What really matters is whether they are written on people's hearts and applied to their lives.

The House resolution is the latest episode in the on-going church vs. state debate. Only a few decades ago, the Ten Commandments, a set of rules for behavior given to Moses by God and recorded in the biblical book of Exodus, were posted in classrooms, courtrooms and other public places. Most of these displays disappeared with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning school prayers and other expressions of religious faith in public places. However, Judge Roy S. Moore sought to keep the tradition alive. He posted the Ten Commandments in his Alabama courtroom and balked at an appeals court order to take them down. A ruling on the issue by the Alabama Supreme Court is pending.

To many Americans, the Ten Commandments, with their directives not to lie, steal and murder among other things, are a symbol of this country's Judeo-Christian heritage and the foundation of this country's laws. To others, the public posting of these rules represents an illegal breaching of the divide between church and state. In his speech before the House of Representatives, Horn, a Republican, took the latter view. First, he objected to the manner in which this resolution was brought to the House floor. Cropping up out of nowhere, the resolution forced the legislative branch to improperly intervene in a state court case, Horn argued. He went on to object to the resolution on principle:

"If you are in Detroit, where there are many Arabic citizens, or in Long Beach where there are many Cambodian citizens, ... and you walk into the courtroom, where you are involved in a case, and you see ... the Jewish and Christian code on the wall, you might ask, "Where is the Islamic, or the Confucian, or the Buddhist code of morality?

"It is wrong to single out two religions and carve what they believe on the walls of public buildings," Horn said. That comment, picked up in a front-page story in the Long Beach Press-Telegram Thursday, upset Jim Fountain of Downey, Calif. After reading it, he left a message on my answering machine.

An active church member and registered Republican, Fountain believes Horn took a too "narrow view" of the Commandments and as a GOP congressman, Horn should have taken a stand in their defense. "Everyone's talking about family values," Fountain said. "But if you take away the Ten Commandments, what kind of values are you left with?"

It is interesting that Horn mentioned other religions in his speech because most of the world's major religions have their own form of the Ten Commandments. The "Five Precepts" of Buddhism, for example, forbids lying, stealing, killing, drunkenness and sexual misconduct. In cultures and societies all over the world, things such as lying, stealing and killing are condemned as morally wrong. So it can be argued that the Ten Commandments merely reinforce principles ingrained on the human conscience.

So what's so wrong about posting the Ten Commandments in public? Well, it's not so much what these commandments say but what they represent. And for some, they represent the unlawful elevation of one belief system over others. I can see how a person of another faith - or no faith - could feel intimidated or unwelcome by the Commandments' shrine-like placement in a courtroom. It would not be unreasonable for that person to assume the jurist on the bench would weigh a case based on his belief system as opposed to the laws of the land.

Some people - members of the American Civil Liberties Union in particular - do tend to overreact when they see anything in public that reminds them that this country was first settled by a group of Protestants seeking religious freedom. And other people - conservative Christians in particular - tend to overreact at any perceived threat to religious freedom.

The truth is hanging the Ten Commandments on a wall, chiseling them on the side of a building, or writing them in the sky will not change people's behavior. The Commandments are only as effective to the degree they are followed. And if people are truly concerned about the Commandments' presence in U.S. society, they would do best to follow the instructions in Deuteronomy 4:9 to "teach them to your children and to their children after them," and Proverbs 7:3 to "write them on the tablet of your heart." Not even the ACLU or U.S. Supreme court can take that away.

(Joy Thompson is an editorial writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. You can write to her at 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90844.)