Many people today believe that the Ten Commandments are in and of themselves a proper moral code, but this position is quite dubious. Although it does contain some basic moral prescriptions that one can find in other religions, it doesn’t even begin to address some of the most important moral problems that face people today. In addition, the Ten Commandments can and have been read as supporting positions which people now regard as immoral, like the ownership of slaves and the second-class status of women.
There appears to be a fundamental disconnect between what people believe about the Ten Commandments and the reality of the Ten Commandments. Most act as though the Decalogue were nothing more than a set of moral rules, not realizing that they contain several fundamentally religious commands that apply — at most — to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam but not other religions. Thus, supporters who believe that they are simply endorsing a basic moral code are in fact also endorsing a set of religious doctrines.
There is also a great deal of controversy over what, if any, legal status the Ten Commandments might have. Some try to argue that the Ten Commandments are the basis for American law, but coming to this conclusion requires egregiously tortured readings of both. There is also the fact that while prohibitions against lying and stealing may seem reasonable, prohibitions against idols or worshiping any gods except that of the ancient Hebrews are not — at least not in a pluralistic society comprised of many religions that are supposed to have the same legal status.
The Commandments that appear in the scriptures are not the nice, neat list of commands that people most commonly see on posters, monuments, and other displays today. The original scriptural listings are longer and more complex. Depending upon how verses are divided up, the scriptural passages may contain as many as 19 or 20 discrete instructions. This means that any listing of just ten commandments depends upon the editorial and interpretive choices of a human being, despite the fact that the “Ten Commandments” are attributed to God in a manner that gives the impression that whatever divisions are offered have the same divine status as the words themselves.
To make matters worse, there are not one or even two, but three different versions of the Ten Commandments to be found in the Bible: Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 34:12-26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The version in Exodus 20 is the most commonly used and the one in Exodus 34 doesn’t look anything remotely like the other two.
Which is the “real” listing of the Ten Commandments, and why? Different religious groups have picked different lists to use and these lists reflect the doctrines of those groups. Anyone who chooses to use one set over another necessarily chooses to privilege the beliefs, doctrines, and traditions of one religious group over the others — and untenable position for the government to adopt.
In the past when the government has promoted the Ten Commandments it has almost invariably chosen a Protestant version over Catholic and Jewish alternatives. Because America was a predominantly Protestant nation, few dared to speak out and challenge the practice. Today there is both greater diversity of religions and greater diversity of Christian groups; as a consequence, many more are willing to stand up and insist that their religious beliefs not be denigrated through the privileging of others’ religious tenets.
