Posting the Ten Commandments on Public Property
...rly 2,000 different religions, traditions, denominations, and sects in the U.S. Most of these groups don't worship the Old Testament's God and many worship no god. They also disapprove of some of the other religious teachings in the Ten Commandments. People also believe that the ten commandment are the foundation of American law and the moral foundation as well. The problem with the foundation argument is that in the constitution there is no article or clause that addresses anything in the ten commandments. Argument: Because of the religious views in the ten commandments, displaying them on public properties would send a message of disapproval to religions that reject those views. Government would be labeling minority religions as having unpatriotic religious beliefs. Besides being highly offensive to all other religious communities, this is a treatment for second class citizens. Even among religious organizations that accept the ten commandments, there's no standard version which they all can agree on. Different religions and denominations disagree on the order in which the Commandments should be listed. They also use different commandments, wording, and translations. For example, people who are nondenominational believe in the ten commandments but view holidays, and sabbath differently. Holidays such as Christmas, and easter aren't actual holidays they celebrate, their Christmas is called feast which is in the beginning of October and is a celebration of god. They also believe the sabbath should be kept on Saturday instead of Sunday. This "holy day" is an on going controversy among religious groups whether Friday, Saturday, or Sunday is the Sabbath. In addition to disagreeing on the Sabbath, religions such as Judaism, protestants and catholics all have a different view of the first commandment. The first commandment listed by the Jews is normally, " I am the Lord of your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." But Protestants and Catholics regarded that as a statement instead of a separate commandment. Protestants say it bans graven images, but Catholics leave out the ban altogether. In place of a commandment banning graven images, Catholics claim that the Protestants' Tenth Commandment , which prohibits "coveting" certain things, should be divided into two separate commandments. Moreover, Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz points out, " Even today, almost nobody proposes that the full ' Ten Commandments' actually be posted in schools or courthouses. What they want posted are the ' Ten bumper stickers' or ' Cliff Notes' - abbreviated renditions of the actual commandments, since the full text contains reference to slavery, intergenerational punishment, and conflicting reasons for observing a day of rest on Saturday, not Sunday." By declaring a particular version of the Ten Commandments government would insult minority religions and Christians who don't' accept the governme...