Do all religious groups support government monuments endorsing and promoting the Ten Commandments? Absolutely not. A Hindu group submitted a brief to the Supreme Court supporting the removal of the Ten Commandments monument in Texas.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

In its brief, the Hindu American Foundation stressed that the religious makeup of the country has changed since 1980 - something it doesn't feel Hudspeth understood when he ruled against Van Orden in 2002. ... "The District Court failed to recognize that the world is smaller now," wrote the Hindu organization in a brief it recently filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, "and there are many people in the Western District of Texas - and millions in the United States - for whom 'there a'n't no Ten Commandments.'"

"Law, under this view, is not the result of rational deliberation by human beings in furtherance of the public good, but rather the product of direct, divine command," reads the brief. "The substance of the Ten Commandments, far from being universal, is expressly predicated on the existence of one very specific god, the Judeo-Christian God, and no other." ... "Hindus cannot reconcile their ... teachings with the very First Commandment, which mandates the exclusion of all divine manifestations other than the Judeo-Christian God," according to the brief.

The influx of new religions into the United States over the last 50 years has made it increasingly difficult for traditionalists to call the country Judeo-Christian, and critics of Ten Commandments displays on state property say the state governments that sanction such displays are playing religious favorites with an increasingly diverse and pluralistic citizenship.

Joshi said that when the Ten Commandments are displayed and maintained at the behest of the state, the state necessarily excludes a rapidly growing population of non-Judeo-Christian citizens. "We all have the right to the free exercise of religion and in doing so the government can't take any action that endorses one religion over another," said Joshi. "That was built into the Constitution because so many people who had come here felt persecuted where they were from. It's the very same concept applied today, and some people are forgetting that."

The force of these observations and arguments is undeniable: non-Christian and non-Jewish Americans are made to feel excluded from the community and from the body politic when the government endorses the religious doctrines of certain Jewish and Christian groups. That's probably why supporters of the monuments argue, however weakly, that the purpose of the displays is to recognize America's religious heritage.

Why, then, do we not see specialists in American history coming out to support them? Why are the large rallies of supporters filled with people praying and carrying Bibles instead of American history texts?

Because these supporters defend the monuments for religious reasons. They see the monuments as validations of their religious beliefs. There is simply no denying this — it's as obvious as any fact can be that defense of the Ten Commandments monuments is fueled by religious faith, not abstract interest in American history.

Read More:

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