The 10 Commandments are back in the news. A federal appeals court this week ruled that it’s fine for them to be printed on posters and tacked to the wall in Texas public school classrooms. The plaintiffs in the case are poised to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, so the fate of this law remains uncertain.
The majority opinion noted that “No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin,” so the law’s requirements are essentially passive and pretty benign. But liberals continue to regurgitate the same arguments they have since the 1962 Engel v. Vitale decision outlawing voluntary, nondenominational prayer in public schools. But there’s more to this issue than concerns over the First Amendment’s prohibition on the government establishing a religion.
Increasingly, the political agenda and behaviors of the progressive left are antithetical to the Commandments. It was on display this week when Marxist commentator Hasan Piker spoke at length about why he supports theft and why we should take other people’s property. Piker also tried to justify the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, accusing the dead executive of “engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder.”
It’s tempting to ignore Piker as just another left-wing nutcase, but people pay attention to him and what he says. His various platforms capture an estimated audience approaching three million people, many of whom it may be presumed are Democrat Party voters. Piker is also being joined by progressive Democrats, so his influence in party politics is not easily dismissed.
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Adultery and related activities are embedded among segments of similarly progressive ideology and behavior. Americans were horrified to learn of rape tents established at a variety of Occupy Wall Street disruptions, with assaults reported in New York City, Dallas, Cleveland and elsewhere.
In Minnesota, it’s perfectly legal for children to disregard their parents as long as the kids want to pursue some sort of medical treatment geared to surgically or chemically mimic certain characteristics of the opposite sex. In Vermont, 199 public schools actively seek to hide the transgender ideology of students from their parents. This is called a “best practice” by the left.
Lying has been part of politics from time immemorial, and politicians from all parties engage in it to varying degrees. But some lies are bigger than others. Take Democrat U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and her 2019 claim that the climate will “destroy the planet” in 12 years. She isn’t alone in telling such apocalyptic lies about how the weather will result in the destruction of Earth, but her prediction will ensure leftists maintain their perfect record of being wrong every single time when foretelling climate catastrophe, dating back to my boyhood.
Politics is also rife with envy, but among the major parties in America, one is largely occupied with coveting the money and property of others, while the other is largely occupied with letting people keep more of what they have. Financially successful people have a lot of money and possessions, so Democrats want more of it. But taxing annual income is no longer enough. Covetous progressives are now looking for ways to seize accumulated wealth in ways that are too numerous to include in a single column.
While all of the 10 Commandments are very good ideas and include wisdom reflected in major religions worldwide, 60 percent of them are secular in nature. They’re also the foundation for much of the common law across the civilized world. Placing this into a political context raises some fascinating questions that have relevance in today’s culture.
What might become of the leftist agenda if school children learned that stealing, killing, lying, coveting, sex outside of marriage and disobeying mom and dad are wrong? All of these behaviors are promoted or institutionalized by the left, so even passively informing kids that they’re wrong does not accrue to the benefit of those embracing this ideology.
It may be that some progressives are deeply and honestly concerned about government involvement with anything having to do with religion. But the 10 Commandments, in whole or in part, clearly undercut the Left. Were I a committed leftist politician, I would be very concerned about losing influence and power by exposing the next generation of voters to this handful of simple rules that expose the destructive nature of my agenda, and I’ll wager I wouldn’t be alone.
There are very few politicians who would publicly admit that the mere presence of the 10 Commandments in classrooms poses a risk to advancing the Marxist ideology spreading across America. But they all know it, and it’s a hill they’re willing to die on.
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