News that the Ten Commandments will be posted in all schools and public places in Louisiana and Oklahoma took me back to Mark Twain’s encounter with a sanctimonious businessman notorious for his unscrupulous business practices.

“Before I die,” said the shyster, “I want to take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I’ll climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud from the top.”

“’I have a better idea,’” said Twain. “’You could stay home in Boston and keep them.'”

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What difference do the 10 Commandments make if one shouts them from the top of Mount Sinai . . . or insists they be posted in every school and public space . . . but ignores them and does not practice them?

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Not taking the Lord’s Name in vain is hard. It would be easy to keep If the commandment tells us, as children often are taught, not to say “G-d damn.” But, if it prohibits the wrongful use of the Divine Name, any person, official, or group (church, synagogue, political party) that uses the 10 Commandments for selfish ends and purposes makes a wrongful use of the Name of God.

You shall not commit adultery.

Anyone who sweeps aside a jury’s conviction on 34 counts for cooking the books to hide from his third wife and from the press his tryst with a porn star from his third wife and out of the news on the cusp of an election violates the commandment

You shall not steal.

You shall not steal an election which every court decides is legitimate. You shall not make a wrongful use of your constitutional oath of office by refusing to concede the victory of your opponent preventing the peaceful transfer, invite your followers to the Capitol to stop the steal of power, telling them to go to the Capitol to prevent Congress from its Constitutionally required certification of election results on January 6, and continue to promote the lie that the election you are seek to steal has been stolen. You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness

Tell the truth! Do not make up stories that will hurt someone else. Do not call them names that have no foundation in reality. Do not malign judges, Jurys, court personnel, and potential witnesses, a jury of your peers. Do not insult your adversaries. Do not shift the blame to those who testify against you. You shall not make a wrongful use of your First Amendment right of free speech, promoting what you know is false, and claiming that your country’s judicial system has been rigged by the person who wrongfully occupies the Oval Office.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s

Earth and the fulness thereof belong to the Lord, not to you! Be careful that your prayers do not become a form of preying. Stem the tide that confuses wants with needs. America has devolved from any sense of responsibility and moral character into the quicksand of late consumer capitalism. Citizens of Aboriginal communities likely experienced covetousness. A member of the tribe may have wanted to be the chief or fantasized about another’s attractive spouse, or being jealous of larger huts or more hides to warm themselves in the cold. Covetousness is human, and, as such, it needs to stay within the guard rails that limit its search for dominion.

Gordon C. Stewart, Brooklyn Park, MN, June 30, 2024.