"Displaying the Ten Commandments – The Conflict over the Separation of Church and State"

Exodus 20:1-17

Third Sunday in Lent + March 11, 2012

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

How times have changed! Little more than fifty years ago, in his campaign for the Presidency, Senator John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic to be nominated by a major party since the crushing defeat of Governor Al Smith, addressed prominent Protestant clergy in Houston.  Among them were many conservative evangelical preachers. Choosing his words with great care Senator Kennedy sought to reassure voters worried about an Oval Office occupied by a supplicant to Rome. “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no catholic prelate would tell the president – should he be Catholic – how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.”

Come again?! In this presidential campaign one of the candidates has said that Kennedy’s speech made him want to “throw up.” He also said this speech caused harm in America and put American civilization at risk when Kennedy pushed for a “purely secular public square cleansed of all religious wisdom and the voice of religious people of all faiths.” Personally, I believe that is a serious misreading of what Mr. Kennedy intended when he spoke of an absolute separation of church and state. But even if he meant what he said, these past fifty years have shown an increasing willingness by priests, ministers and rabbis to tell their parishioners for whom to vote. Usually these pulpit exhortations are thinly veiled endorsements of the “true” Christian candidate or the candidate most sympathetic to Israel. Sometimes even that pretense is dropped as specific candidates are endorsed. Supposedly even-handed voters guides are passed out after worship clearly pointing out the right (usually the far right!) way to vote in the election.

We have seen an unrelenting attempt by conservative Christians to overturn the Supreme Court ruling against sectarian prayers and Bible readings in public schools. Conservative Christians have worked ceaselessly to have written into law their sectarian beliefs on such matters as the right of women to have proper access to birth control and the right to choose, in consultation with their doctor, whether to carry a pregnancy to birth. We have also heard a constant drumbeat of opposition by conservative Christians against granting full civil rights to homosexuals, particularly the civil right of marriage.

We liberal progressive Christians may find ourselves asking the same question as the Godfather: “How did things get this far?” But I don’t agree with the Godfather when he answers his own question: “I don’t know.” I do believe I know how we got to this point in American history where traditional understandings of the separation of church and state are under attack.

Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves what we mean by this doctrine. It all began in medieval and renaissance Europe with violent wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants over which group would have the “established” church in each country. It is hard for us now to appreciate the scale of the carnage in these major and minor wars. The most famous, the Thirty Years war killed thousands of the population in Europe.

Sickened by the violence and finding a new oppression from some of the “Established” Protestant Churches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, various “dissenting” Protestant groups grew up.  These were our spiritual and denominational ancestors, the Pilgrims and Puritans. They came to America – sometimes fleeing for their lives – in order to worship God as they pleased and to govern their churches as they wished. Yes, I know, some of those groups, having arrived America, sought to impose their faith and order on others who came into their colonies. It’s an old story: yesterday’s oppressed become today’s oppressors. Still, even in a dim way, most of them recognized that as the population grew, the rights of minority religious groups had to be respected.

In the eighteenth century, a new philosophical and religious movement called “Deism” emerged. I am greatly oversimplifying it, but basically it taught that God could never be completely known or expressed in any one religion. All religions to some extent were the search to know the unknowable God. Because of this, followers of Deism believed in toleration for all religious groups. Contrary to what you may hear from conservative Protestants these days, the Founding Fathers of the new American republic were mostly Deists, not Christians. They had enormous respect for Christianity and the Judeo-Christian tradition, but they were opposed to any form of religious sectarianism that would seek to impose its beliefs and practices on everyone else.

The phrase – “separation of church and state” – was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Baptists in Danbury, CT. He went on to say “I contemplate with sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, ‘thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Today, some opponents of the separation of church and state would turn the United States into a Protestant Christian or, at least, Christian theocracy if they could. They are right in saying this “Wall of Separation” is not mentioned in the Constitution or its First Amendment. And, frankly, as my admired friend and teacher, Dr. Martin Marty, likes to say, there has never been a wall of separation but rather a semi-permeable membrane! How could it be otherwise? We Americans are among the most religious people on earth. We have always brought our religious values into the public forum, sometimes helpfully, sometimes not so helpfully.

What has changed in my lifetime since President Kennedy’s Houston speech is that America is a far more diverse religious nation than it was fifty years ago. My small hometown of Otsego, Michigan was entirely Christian. That was true in most of the United States. No one gave a thought to Christian prayers or readings from the Bible in public schools, though that was never true in my experience. Of course, in the secular religious way so common to America, we did observe the Christian holidays in school. The graduating high school senior class all attended a baccalaureate service in caps and gowns held in the high school auditorium. It was a Christian service, led by Christian clergy, with Christian hymns and prayers. We were all there. Well, not all of us. The pastor of the fundamentalist Baptist Church in town forbade his young people from attending the service. It was not Christian enough to satisfy him. Besides, the local Roman Catholic priest was part of the service! How ironic. The last time I heard, this Baptist Church now wants to get an innocuous prayer back into the public schools. Hypocrisy is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Where would we all be without it?

But enough of history. Why shouldn’t the Ten Commandments, the foundation of all the laws and ethical rules of Western Civilization – why shouldn’t they be publically displayed in courts, public and private schools, in city halls? How could anyone possibly object to that? There are several valid reasons. First, as wonderful as they are, the Ten Commandments are clearly part of Jewish and Christian faith. While other religious groups in our country may honor some or all of the commandments, they do not hold them in the religious reverence we do. I also have to say that the conservative Christian religionists who want to defy the law are not so much interested in the Ten Commandments themselves as throwing them in the face of those who are of other religious faiths. This seems to me to be part of the “Take Back America” movement made up mostly of White older men who feel power slipping away from them.

Yes, I know, this “Take Back America” movement is also supported by some women, some Blacks, and some other minorities. It is unkind for me to say it, but I do believe the others supporting this are hoping to get some of the crumbs of privilege and power from the tables of those older White men. That is only my opinion and you should disagree with me if you believe I am wrong in this or anything else I say.

But I don’t want to end my message today with nasty comments but with a bit of seriousness and a bit of humor. First the serious part. The Ten Commandments have never been, and they should not be today, a piece of religious idolatry. They are not meant to be worshipped but followed. They are meant to be studied and practiced. The rabbis believe that all human law, all human ethics, all of the human impulse to do good and not evil, are to be found in understanding and living by the Ten Commandments. The Commandments also embody everything that Jesus taught about our relationship to God and our fellow human beings. The Ten Commandments are too precious to be used in sectarian or political ways.

Now for my attempt to close this rather serious message with a bit of humor! I would support the posting of the Ten Commandments if they were divided and put in the right public places.

The First Commandment – Having no other gods but God. Let’s put that one on the wall of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Second Commandment – No making or worship of idols. Let’s put that one on the walls of movie studios and television production sets. I would especially like to have the Second Commandment continually scrolled under the American Idol television show.

The Third Commandment – Taking the Lord’s Name in vain. That’s an easy one. We’ll post it on big signs around every golf course!

The Fourth Commandment – Keeping the Sabbath. That should be put up over the door of every mall and retail store. Aren’t six days a week enough to shop?

   The Fifth Commandment – Honoring your father and mother. I’d like people to sign off on that one before they commit Mom and Dad to the nursing home for their own convenience, and forget to see them much.

The Sixth Commandment – You shall not murder. Let’s have that one announced to the country before any more wars. Let’s also be sure it is read to legislators who seem so willing to condemn people – usually the poor, the friendless, and minorities – to death by capital punishment.

The Seventh Commandment – No adultery. Have you heard the old Jewish joke? Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai and tells the people, “I’ve got good news and bad news. I’ve got him down to ten but adultery is still in!” That’s another easy one. Let’s post it on the walls of Congress and the White House.

The Eighth Commandment – No stealing. It’s too late now, but I still want that one put over the doors of all banks, investments firms and corporations.

The Ninth Commandment – No lying about other people. I’d like this one read every day to all political candidates and all television and radio talk show hosts.

The Tenth Commandment – No coveting. That’s an old-fashioned way of saying we ought to be content with what we have and not envy other people. Believe me, this is not an endorsement of that “Class Warfare” talk we’ve heard about. It is a challenge for all of us to be grateful for what God has given us. And let’s turn this one on its head. Let’s do all we can to be sure that other people have enough of the good things of life so they are not envious of us.

Maybe you found my feeble attempt at humor in a “Top Ten” Letterman style funny; perhaps, not so, I think the best way to end my message is to recall the matchless words of the Prophet Jeremiah:

“The days are surely coming . . . says the Lord (when) I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33 Sel.)

May that day come soon! Amen.