Of course, both sides would be furious at my Solomonic suggestion. But that fury would be instructive. Yes, the folks praying outside the Alabama courthouse would fairly complain that God's Word cannot be abridged like a Reader's Digest story. But they'd really be angry because their favorite parts had been cut out.
Meanwhile, the hired-gun atheists and hypersecularist lawyers who've descended on Alabama would be irate because God would still be the Man behind the curtain. They'd still be His Commandments, just a politically correct condensed version. And any public hint that our laws are derived from God drives such people bonkers.
Justice Moore recently argued in The Wall Street Journal that all sides of this debate agree that the central question here is whether the state can acknowledge God. And Justice Moore wins this narrow argument hands down. Our money, our official oaths, our state seals, our Pledge of Allegiance, most of our constitutions - state and federal - make direct or indirect reference to the God in whom we trust and swear by.
The Alabama Constitution itself appeals to the "favor and guidance of Almighty God." Our presidents start their terms by swearing, with one hand on a Bible, "So help me God," and end their farewell speeches saying, "God bless America."
But, the role of God is not the only issue here. Justice Moore is wrong is when he decided that being right empowered him to break the law by defying federal courts. I think the Feds should have stayed out of all this. But they didn't. And Justice Moore was obliged to obey a judicial order.
Still, I like my Five Commandments idea. It would teach an important lesson that gets lost in the pro- and anti-God talk. Whether you like it or not, the Ten Commandments, in whatever form, are not only the backbone of Judaism and Christianity they are the seed stock of our legal system. Wishing that our laws were conceived by Fabian Socialists will not make it so.
As a constitutional matter, Justice Moore might have gotten away with his monument if he'd placed it alongside a nice plaque or bauble paying homage to the Code of Hammurrabi and, say, the Magna Carta. Why? Because that would make the monument "educational" instead of "religious." And, I have to assume it's still constitutional to teach the truth - even if God accidentally shows up somewhere in the lesson plan.