You've probably read about the Alabama Judge who had the Ten Commandments embroidered on this robe. As you can imagine, he does have his supporters - so let's take a quick look at what one person says in defense of the judge's actions.

Deborah White writes:

Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan must be a clever fellow. Nothing publicly separates true, moral believers from the howling liberal heathens like forcing Democrats to be seen hiding biblical passages. Little raises the heat and energy of righteous conservative indignation more than motiviating the rank-and-file religious right to defend the sacred Word of God from evil non-believers.

Evidently, only evil, heathen, liberal, democratic non-believers can have a basis for objecting to a judge singling out a particular translation and version of the Ten Commandments to promote and endorse while fulfilling his duties as a supposedly impartial judge. And why is that? Well, Deborah doesn't say. She just assumes it and keeps moving.

Judge McKathan is begging authorities to make him a revered Christian martyr of the judicial circuit.

This may indeed be true. Of course, most people would probably wonder why a judge is trying to become a Christian martyr instead of doing his job.

Remember how appalled we all were that young French women were ordered to remove their Muslim head scarves? That they couldn't publicly exercise freedom of religious expression on their own persons?

I remember this. I remember it so well, in fact, that I am able to discern how very different that situation is from the present one. In France, the situation was all about private citizens wearing something mandated by their religion. In Alabama, the situation is about an officer of the state wanting to put religious scripture on his uniform because he wants to promote and endorse those scriptures. The differences here are glaring.

The judge is aching for the same confrontation. He and his cohorts would love nothing more for Christmas than for him to be challenged about his manner of dress. Imagine the indignant press conferences.....the photo-ops of Judge McKathan displaying the offending robes.....of protestors surrounding the courthouse, chanting to save the Bible.

I wouldn't be surprised if this were true — and that's part of the problem. Religious conservatives who are genuinely sincere in their religious beliefs shouldn't be all that supportive of someone who is after publicity and attention. Did Jesus call press conferences?

[T]his is not a constitutional issue with clear-cut, easy answers. Currently, four federal circuit courts and one state Supreme Court hold that displays of the Ten Commandments are constitutional, while three federal circuit courts have ruled them unconstitutional.

All of the cases cited here involve static displays in or around public buildings. None involve an officer of the state putting religious messages on his uniform. Police officers couldn't do it, soldiers couldn’t do it, and there is no reason to think that a judge can either. The issue is pretty clear-cut, as a matter of fact.

But it is really so terrible that the Ten Commandments hangs on a courtroom wall, or is emblazoned on clothing?

Yes. Displaying the Ten Commandments entails a state endorsement of a particular translation, a particular summary version, and a particular choice of which biblical version of the Ten Commandments. This means that the state is picking sides in theological disputes that have been going on for centuries. Guess what? The government doesn't have the authority to take sides like that.

And get real.....they're just words on a wall. Gold letters on clothing. They're not violence or poverty or hunger or homelessness. They're not 45 million American children and adults without health care coverage.They're not discrimination.

That's all true — except for the discrimination part (it's discrimination to single out one version and translation over others). The fact that it's all true actually hurts the conservatives' case. If Ten Commandments displays are so unimportant in comparison to issues like poverty and hunger, why are conservatives spending so much time on the former rather than the latter?

If we make a big fuss about Judge McKathan's robes, it will surely come back to bite us in collective, conservative moral outrage again. Just like the good judge wants.

That may be true — but if the judge is wrong, the fact that he'll get a lot of publicity is not a good reason to let him continue being wrong and continue abusing the power of his office. The people who have to stand in his court are the ones suing, not liberals in Los Angeles, and that's because they think they deserve better.

Maybe they are right?

 

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