The Ten Commandments are held up as sacred in a way that suggests that if they are engraved in stone on a building or to put on a poster in a classroom, they will magically make us a godly nation. It is astonishing when one looks closely at both the commandments and our allegiance to them in spite of our regular noncompliance. I seriously wonder of any of these legislators have even read them.

Thou shall not have any strange gods before me..,

We all know that not one of us has a clear definition of a “strange God”. Our best guess is that it means something other than what our parents taught us.

Who determines the strange among “gods” in 2026? By the looks of those proposing the laws it is white men.

Thou shall not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain…

In what world can anyone obey this command? What does it mean in a practical sense? Do we just not say, OMG anymore?

Remember to keep the Lord’s day holy…

I guess this would mean to shut the activity off, go to church and keep Sunday holy. If Sunday is the holy day for America what does that mean? No movement? No transportation? No flights? What exactly?

Honor Thy Father and Mother…

Honor seems to be to pay respect to. I think we would all like to be able to do this. And we all know someone with good reasons why this isn’t doable for them. Some parents are just not worthy of it and obeying an ancient command could lock some people into permanent psychosis. So there is that.

Thou shall not kill.

How many of us struggle with this one? Hopefully all of us. And yet what does it mean? Do not kill a mosquito, a cow, a plant or does it only mean a human? We do not know so we all wrestle will the reality that for some to live, other life forms die.

Thou shall not commit adultery…

This one strikes me the most when I take a look at the man fighting to have these commandments put in every school in Texas. A man who has very publicly committed adultery and who would have been impeached for his illegal theatrics done trying to hide it had not his Christian cronies in the TX Legislature been forced to ignore what they heard during the trial. They knew that to vote to impeach Paxton would mean that two Evangelical billionaires, Tim Dunn and Ferris Wilkes, would withdraw their campaign contributions from them.

Fidelity to these Commandments is joke among a good portion of these white Christian Nationalists in Texas and yet there they are insisting that everyone else be subject to them.

Thou shall not steal…

If just politicians embraced this one, the whole of the human race would be saved.

Thou shall not bear false witness against our neighbor…

My gosh this one. It is my opinion that our President exists because the continually bears false witness. Again, Texas AG Ken Paxton joins the party. They both claim to be forgiven by Jesus though so, ya, moving on.

Thou shall not covet Thy neighbor’s wife.

This one seems a bit redundant since they already said not to commit adultery. It is interesting where records indicate that we find the men doing both is where white Christians are. Two Apps that hook up prostitution, both heterosexual and gay, are said to crash during the CPAC and Turning Point gatherings with regularity. Drug use increases as well. Just makes one feel crazy when these same people are demanding that the Ten Commandments get put up everywhere, no?

Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods…

Capitalism thrives because we covet. America is known the world over as the nation that wants it all so, please spare us with this one.

I know this is the most cynical post you’ve probably ever read when it comes to thinking about The Ten Commandments. In a place where we have all grow up reverencing the words Moses carried down from Mt Sinai honestly processing them is indeed a hard face palm. I do it today because as legislators continue to push forward with legal requirements that they be displayed in classrooms, the reality that they do not actually practice the laws themselves is everyday more clear.

It seems that they want them posted to get us all into the delusional state of mind that if posted, these magic words that almost no one pays heed to, will create a Christian nation. They do not self reflect, they do not even analyze whether or not this kind of advertising is effective to change behavior. They simply do not care. It soothes their conscience somehow and communicates their belonging to a righteous country of the mind and that is all that matters.

Politicians of this persuasion do the same on the daily as they refuse to face is the genuine history of their country. They do not begin to acknowledge that it was founded by a whole lot of people (including Thomas Jefferson and others) who paid zero heed to these edicts from Mt. Sinai. They refuse to grasp that the USA is a country with a much more complex history than any interpretation or analysis David Barton, The Heritage Foundation or most Evangelical and Conservative Christians are able to acknowledge. It is about maintaining their own god of an exclusive Christian country as they determine Christian to be.

In conclusion, I will say that we live in a nation where the illusion that its foundation is pure and moral is shredding before our very eyes and that revelation is as difficult to bear as it is for a rabid alcoholic to admit that they are one. It is equally clear that until we collectively face that, we will never move into recovery.

It is much more accurate to conclude that for 250 years we have had human leadership that has had its strengths and weaknesses, its belief and unbelief. It is equally accurate to say, that a Christian Nationalist country has never been this one.

We can hang The Ten Commandments on every classroom wall in America, engrave the words into the wall of every building in town and never have a moral code that promises success and prosperity to the people because these laws actually failed the very people who tried to follow them in the first place. Jesus spent a lot of time his time saying so.

He said he came to fulfill the law while he lived here. He also advocated really radical things like when he told his followers that if they had lust in their heart for a woman, they actually committed adultery with her. He also told his followers to sell everything and give it to the poor if they wanted to be able to experience life in his Kingdom. You will never see Texas legislators advocating for hanging any of these words in classrooms!

All of these realities make it clear to me that the Christian faith is a complex and dynamic faith full of questions. Questions that are best wrestled with in America’s churches and faith communities and not on the House or Senate floors across the country.

To end this rant I will share with you how the TX law requiring The Ten Commandments be posted in every TX classroom, actually violates one of the very commandments on the poster. This laws bears false witness against its neighbors.

In order for these laws to be placed in a classroom, a donation to purchase them must come from someone in the district the school is in. It must be large enough for all classrooms in the district to get one. So… it is only mandated if a school receives a large donation for that specific purpose. In other words… the vast majority of Texas classrooms will NEVER have these posters displayed!! The law reflects Ken Paxton and the TX Legislature play acting at their finest!! An Oscar worthy performance to deceive America.