Texas Bill Revives Debate Over 10 Commandments Displays

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

State Rep. Dan Flynn hopes to ensure that any Texas teacher who wants to can display the Ten Commandments in a classroom.

Read the whole story: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Comments

[SensibleJoe]

10:58 PM on 11/30/2010

Given how much Texas loves to execute criminals in volume, why bother committing hypocrisy by posting the Ten Commandments at its courthouses, when that moral code explicitly says "Thou shalt not kill"?

[SchmataHari]

10:57 PM on 11/30/2010

I say that Christians should be able to force the commandments down everyone's throat as soon as they start abiding by them. Start with "Thou shalt not kill".

[SaneThoughts]

03:06 PM on 11/30/2010

Under normal circumstances the display of the religious 10 commandants would be acceptable but the religious are on a rampage to destroy the secular world and therefore must be contained. If a person doesn't choose religious faith if their own free will then forcing religious beliefs on a person is immoral.

[Mark Twaine]

07:57 AM on 11/30/2010

Texas State Rep. Dan Flynn might accomplish his mission more fulling should he propose cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, and condoms be labelled with the 10 Commandments.

[SolarArray]

01:55 AM on 11/30/2010

Quick, back to the 1300s!

[Athena123]

01:21 AM on 11/30/2010

Oh, Texas. You're at it again. It's unfortunate that you no longer teach actual history to your students - they might really enjoy hearing about the dark ages. For the edification of Texans not exposed to education, that was the good ol' days when women knew their place and you could torture, imprison or kill people who disagreed with your religious beliefs. *sigh*.

It's always astounded me that the 10 commandments are considered a moral authority. If we were to really make a list of the ten most important things in society, would that really be what we would choose? The first three are the rantings of an insecure, jealous god ("love ME, love ME, love ME), and about not making statues. Wow - that's really, really important, isnt' it? Not one word about respect and equality for all people; that it's wrong to oppress women or abuse children; nothing about the immorality of slavery. The only commandments worth preserving are basic rules for any society, like stealing and murdering. These concepts predate christianity and are common sense. People who support the 10 commandments must be people unable to think critically, or think at all.

[rtb61]

07:43 AM on 11/28/2010

If they don't put the ten commandments on display at government buildings how else will republicans be able to keep score of how many they can break in a single day, they certainly seem to lack the wit to be able to remember them.

[hkc]

02:34 AM on 11/28/2010

For the folks who consider the 10 commandments to be somehow the genesis of American Law consider that no more than 3 of them are actually illegal in the US today.

[Franklin1776]

09:53 PM on 11/25/2010

You simply cannot have "freedom for all" if "god" is only for some.  Period.

[c-tom]

01:18 AM on 11/24/2010

A very old Beetle Baily strip - Church where the message board says 'this weeks sermon -the 10 commandments', Sarge says - "Well at least I haven't worshiped any graven images."

[dubbleplusgood]

08:02 PM on 11/23/2010

The 10 commandments are ancient set of rules that didn't even fully apply to all the mangy people of a little patch of desert halfway around the world over 2000 years ago. The 10 commandments omit many crimes most people today find abhorrent which makes the list inadequate as a proper guide to living well. It's also nothing new. Religions that pre-date Christianity and Judaism included similar edicts.

We know from experience just listing bumper sticker slogans about what is right or wrong is a lazy and highly inefficient method for instruction of anything to anyone. There are much better books available and experiences possible that can help us all get along and function in society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzEs2nj7iZM (George Carlin breaks it down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nKTxpetdaU (Christopher Hitchens, the new 10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkTPAWhNIxU (Sam Harris, improving the 10)

[Athena123]

01:22 AM on 11/30/2010

Fanned, and thanks for the links!

[jweider]

10:43 PM on 11/22/2010

It's interesting that a state that is so fond of capital punishment would want to post "Thou Shall Not Kill" on public buildings.

[terry63]

11:56 PM on 11/22/2010

It reads in Hebrew, thou shall do no murder. Moses killed murderers because he didnt want to take a chance on them murdering someone else. However there were safe cities where one would go if a death was accidental so that the victims family wouldnt exact revenge. Moses Killed Murderers in public so that every person would see and know the price of murder and so that this would deter the crime of murder.

[NVEd]

11:06 AM on 11/23/2010

Capital punishment is indefensible since innocent people have been executed. But then I am never surprised with the nonsense which comes out of Texas.

[c-tom]

01:22 AM on 11/24/2010

If someone injured your kin and didn't get to an asylum city you were supposed to kill them.

[bbriani3842]

10:41 PM on 11/22/2010

Coveting drives our economy, right?

[terry63]

11:58 PM on 11/22/2010

Yes , we covet every day dont we, is it healthy? is it healthy to sleep with a freinds wife because you covet her, or steal youre freinds car because you covet it? No its not you should make youre own path.

[dubbleplusgood]

04:36 AM on 11/30/2010

very lame straw man argument. try again.

[rgilley]

09:34 AM on 11/26/2010

Coveting drives our economy, right?

It maintains the status quo of inequality and the religions make that inequality "righteous."

"Imagine No Religion"

[Athena123]

01:25 AM on 11/30/2010

Great post - fanned. This is why I am on Huffpo - a community of intelligent, thoughtful people who do not just accept what they are told but have learned to think critically.

[4 All Americans]

09:28 PM on 11/22/2010

America was founded on Christian principles. It has always been a Christian nation regardless of how those who hate the Christian faith try to downplay this fact.

- Jamestown in Virginia was the first successful colony in America. It's charter cited "propagating of Christian Religion" as one of its goals.

- Plymouth in Mass. was the second successful colony in America. It's compact, the Mayflower Compact, states their purpose as promoting "the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith".

- The first book published in the New World was the "Bay Psalm Book", a book of Christian psalms.

- The first University in the New World was Harvard. Their admission requirements, speaking of the incoming student, stated that "the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ:

- The importance of the Christian faith can be found in the individual founding documents of each of the original 13 colonies.

We are a Christian nation. As a Christian nation, with a Constitution protecting freedom of religion, we respect the rights of all Americans to believe as they chose (and as Christians we are called to love thy neighbors as thyself) but, that does not change the fact that we were founded on Christian principles and that the majority of people (over 76% of all Americans) identify themselves as Christians.

http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

[bbriani3842]

10:34 PM on 11/22/2010

We ARE NOT a Christian nation.

Where in the sam-heII do you find any concepts depicted in the Bill of Rights that line up with anything in the New Testament?

Have you actually read the bible? The women-folk don't come out too well in those stories. And yet we have our 19th Amendment.

We are a Constitutional nation (well, we're supposed to be) where the rule of law is more divine than anyone or anything else (well, it's supposed to be).

[4 All Americans]

11:53 PM on 11/22/2010

Christians represent the majority of people in America.

http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

Majorities determine who is elected into office within the Executive and Legislative branches and those elected into the office within the Executive and Legislative branches determine who is appointed wihin the Judicial branch.

Even if there was not a compelling reason to believe that America was founded on Christian principles (based on just a sampling of reasons listed above), the fact that majorities determine the direction of the Country and that a vast majority of Americans (over 76%) are Christian makes it clear that we are a Christian nation - one that respects the religious freedom of others but one that, nevertheless, is clearly a Christian nation.

[dubbleplusgood]

07:46 PM on 11/23/2010

At least be honest and change your username. "4 All Americans" doesn't jive well with the way you ignore the 1st amendment and the real history of America.

[Paul]

08:23 PM on 11/22/2010

The irony is that no one can meet all of the 10 commandments - judges, juries, lawyers or the accused.

Just go down the list - you may not have killed anyone, or even committed adultry. But everyone has taken something that was not theirs - stealing. Or coveted something. Or put something - their possessions usually - ahead of God.

Nope - no one can meet the requirements of the 10 commandments - we all stand convicted of our sins.

Maybe reminding everyone in our judicial system that they are no better than the worst of the accused - is a good thing.

[brooklyncitizen]

10:11 PM on 11/25/2010

lol