The Six Commandments

During the month of May, 2012, US District Court Judge Michael Urbanski (Roanoke, Virginia) has been attempting to settle a lawsuit brought forth by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (and unspecified students) against the Giles County (Virginia) School District for "violating" the establishment clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution by displaying the Ten Commandments in Narrows High School.  A "compromise" has been proposed whereby the first four of the Ten Commandments are removed from the display.

First things first, the text of the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Further commentary (from Wikipedia) on the Establishment Clause:

Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government. A number of the states effectively had established churches when the First Amendment was ratified, with some remaining into the early nineteenth century.

Subsequently, Everson v. Board of Education (1947) incorporated the Establishment Clause (i.e., made it apply against the states). However, it was not until the middle to late twentieth century that the Supreme Court began to interpret the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in such a manner as to restrict the promotion of religion by the states. In the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687 (1994), Justice David Souter, writing for the majority, concluded that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion."

Thank you David Souter, et al, for leading the way in restricting the free expression of the religion upon which this nation was founded (Christianity).  As you recall, the Declaration of Independence, which is the philosophic basis for our constitutional form of government, states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  If the Christian God should be removed, the entire foundation of our nation falls apart and the Government must then fill in the gap that is left, giving them free rein to take away our God-given rights.

So if the school district should follow the judge's advice, let's take a look at what the modified Ten Commandments from Exodus 20:1-17 would be:

And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

1. You shall have no other gods before me. 
    
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
    
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
    
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
    
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
    
6. You shall not murder.
    
7. You shall not commit adultery.
    
8. You shall not steal.
    
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Since we are now left with six commandments and no God, then whose "commandments" are they?  By default, it would be the Government.  This implies that the Government has power over God, is smarter than God, and chooses which Commandments are best for us despite what God says.  This is completely antithetical to the formation of our nation.

Our Founding Fathers were Christians and based our form of government on the fact that God exists, and that we must also be protected from a Government that attempts to assume god-like powers as stated in the Declaration: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."  Perhaps what we are witnessing is a increasingly carnal and pagan America that believes its Safety and Happiness no longer reside with God, but in a life running away from Him.  If this is true, then there is nothing short of a full-blown Christian Revival that can reverse the perverse road that the people of this nation are currently taking.

Should the school district accept the shaving of the Ten Commandments down to six, this would be just one of a thousand cuts that the pagans have been using to destroy God's influence in America. The primary tactic used by the pagans/progressives/communists/socialists is compromise--to force us to slowly compromise away our values, our heritage, our life, and our God until they cease to exist.  They are patient, make every cut they can get away with, and absolutely demonize those who refuse to compromise, with the thought that they will ultimately prevail.  

Our Founders acknowledged that our nation was in the world, but was to be set apart from the rest of it by our faith and form of government.  Today many of our leaders believe the exact opposite, that we should be representative of the world, combining and accommodating all worldly cultures within our borders.  This is a clear practice of syncretism, or "the combining of different (often contradictory) beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism may involve the merger and analogising of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths." (from Wikipedia) This will most certainly lead to our nation's destruction.

If we remove the Christian God from America as so many demand, they will not achieve their desire to be free from God.  On the contrary, they will quickly see that they have received a new god, the Government, and I can assure you that this new god will not be as Just as our Creator.

Reference articles from WSJ and TribLIVE.

Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.