Last week I attended a presentation on Islam by Moustafa Al-Qazwini, the imam of the Islamic Education Center of Irvine. There are substantive things that took place during that presentation, but I want to mention a comical one for now. After the presentation, the folks in attendance wanted a group photo and out came every cell phone under the sun. We gathered at the decorative end of the room – the side facing Mecca – but I wanted to gather on a different side, under a sign that said, “No cell phones permitted” with a picture of a phone in a circle and slash. The irony of having our photo made, with phone after phone, under that sign would have been rich. But, alas, everyone was too busy gathering and squeezing in closer for the photo to pay attention to my nonsense. As I was pointing to the sign prohibiting cell phones, one member of the mosque said, “Oh, that’s an old sign. Nobody pays attention to it anymore,” which was obviously true. Even the imam pulled out his phone for someone to use when taking the group photo.
Also last week, the governor of Louisiana signed into law a requirement that the Ten Commandments should be posted in every classroom of public school buildings. For some people, this kind of action is well-intended. The Ten Commandments are an early expression of laws that ensure justice, preserve life, sanctify marriage and parental care, and so on. The biblical communities ground those laws in the words of God, which makes them more than just a social contract that can be ignored at a whim. There are plenty of sincere Christian people for whom the Ten Commandments are a bedrock of communal life and who believe they should be taught, if not enforced, by the state. I disagree, rather strongly in fact, but do not demean.
I find this kind of action is often more performative than well-intended, an attempt by Christian Nationalists to assert power more than a sincere desire to see our communal lives transformed into the vision of community that the Ten Commandments embrace. Ironically, the attempt to leverage power by using God’s name is exactly what the Commandments prohibit. The Supreme Court has already found one such state law to be unconstitutional, so the precedent would seem to suggest that this is a waste of the state’s time, but the governor of Louisiana has dared others to challenge the new law in court and some organizations have joyfully complied. To me, the point is not to ensure that the Ten Commandments are hanging on classroom walls next fall, and especially not to ensure that they are followed throughout the state, but to bring into the public square a controversy on which some politicians can pretend to be taking the high road.
I also wonder how sincerely those who want to post the command actually want to follow them. The law says, “Do not covet.” I wonder what would happen to the advertising industry if the act of enticing someone to desire something that is not theirs were prohibited. What would happen to Hollywood if the command prohibiting adultery – as Jesus said – also prohibits the generation of lust? And if Jesus interprets “Do not kill” to mean we should turn the other cheek when attacked, would the proponents of the Commandments be willing to slash the military budget in order to follow the command? I strongly doubt it.
Speaking of Jesus, there are references to the Commandments in dialogues that Jesus has with others, but never are they articulated in toto or as the supreme law of God. Jesus says all God’s laws are fulfilled when we love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves – words which are not in the Ten Commandments. Jesus even openly challenged the mere articulation of the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder” … But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.’ Simply put, the Ten Commandments are not, for the Christian faith, the timeless bedrock of building community. Perhaps that is why the Ten Commandments are never cited by prophets, the psalms, or the New Testament as the Ten Commandments and certainly are not lifted up as the heart and soul of communal life.
In the end, the state of Louisiana may prevail – at least for a while – in posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. I suspect they will end up serving like that sign on the wall of the Islamic Center prohibiting cell phones that everyone ignored when we took out our cell phones to capture the moment.
MD
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