Public Displays of the Ten Commandments and Martin Luther King

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

I was surprised to see yet another case of a secular group advocating to remove a display of the Ten Commandments in a US courthouse.

As you all know, I have an abiding interest in religious freedom and secularism, in both Australia and the USA. So I read up on this area when I can and dip my toe into those waters every so often.

I confess that I’ve always been a little baffled by the whole case for and against public displays of the Ten Commandments in Court Houses and Public Schools.

I don’t think displaying or erecting the Ten Commandments is going to compel wayward youth or malicious criminals to suddenly become law-abiding citizens.

Be that as it may, at the end of the day, statues are about values, whether that’s a statue of General Lee or Harriet Tubman. Statues are public declarations of things we cherish and value, either due to history, or because of what the statue symbolizes.

I think public displays of the Ten Commandments are reasonable because:

The Ten Commandments have shaped the moral imagination and common law of western civilization. Their religious texture in Jewish and Christian religions does not matter if their display is about historical influence and common consent. Displaying the Ten Commandments in front of a courthouse is no more affronting than displaying the Hammurabi Law Code or a quote from the Justinian Law Code, both of which had religious textures of their own.

But “What about the separation of church and state?” someone will protest, not without genuine concern. Given America’s and Australia’s non-establishment clauses in their constitutions, can government set up public monuments featuring the Ten Commandments?

To which I say, two things.

First, the “wall” separating church and state is always going to have a gate because of the religious proclivities of a nation’s citizenry. Unless you are going to ban people of faith from running for public office, engaging in public service, forming political parties, voting, or offering political commentary, there is ALWAYS going to be an interface between religion and the state.

Second, consider the case of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. There are statues and memorials of him all over America - and rightly so! But he was a Pastor, a preacher, his speeches were sermons, they are suffused and saturated with biblical quotations and imagery. Dr. King was not a secular activist, he was a minister of religion, a Baptist Pastor, who used religion as his vehicle of social justice advocacy. He is also considered a martyr of the Christian religion!

Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

The same arguments about removing the Ten Commandments could also apply to removing statues of Dr. King or plaques quoting him on the grounds that neither religious texts nor religious figures should be erected by the government in public or civic spaces. Does anyone feel like pulling down statues of Dr. King in the name of the separation of church and state and upholding the non-establishment clause of the US Constitution? I doubt it!

So what’s the solution?

Let me reiterate what I said. Statues are about values and some public values are, whether you like it or not, shaped by religion. I’m not rabidly in favour of displaying the Ten Commandments in the USA or Australia, but I don’t really see a downside to it.

In any case, it is academic, as SCOTUS decided in a 5-4 decision in 2005 that public displays of the Ten Commandments were permitted although each exhibit requires scrutiny to determine whether it amounts to a governmental promotion of religion.

What do you think? Yay or Nay to the Ten Commandments in public.