Our Latest Stories:

When Republican Mike Huckabee told a gathering of reporters that he intends to hand the Christian Ten Commandments in the Oval Office of the White House if he gets elected President, he said he didn’t see why there was such a big fuss about having the government promote them. He said, “The Ten Commandments form the basis of most of our laws and therefore, you know if you look through them does anybody find anything there that would be all that objectionable? I don’t think most people would if they actually read them.”

I have actually read the Ten Commandments that Christians like Mike Huckabee cherry pick out of the Bible, and I’ll tell you exactly what I find offensive about them: They are against the freedoms of the Bill of Rights.

The first of the Ten Commandments that Mike Huckabee loves so much declares, in the name of the Christian God: “You shall have no other Gods before me.” That’s a declaration that no one will worship anyone other than the God of the Bible. It’s absurd that Mike Huckabee believes that concept to be the basis of law in the USA. It isn’t. To the contrary, the first sentence of the first amendment to the Constitution establishes the principle that no one will be forced to take part in any religious worship. The main body of the Constitution does the same, with its ban on any religious test for public office.

The second of the Ten Commandments declares, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

What’s to like about that? Now Mike Huckabee wants to deny us our free speech rights? No thank you. I will draw whatever I draw, and if I want to make an idol and bow to it, that’s my business, not the business of the government.

The third of the Christian Ten Commandments demands, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” but God damn it, I will if I want to. I have freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, so I can take any deity’s name in vain if I want to. Besides that, what kind of democracy would base its laws on the idea of meek submission to a lord? That’s what the founders of the United States rebelled against. Apparently Mike Huckabee has never heard about what happened in 1776.

The fourth of the Ten Commandments issues the command, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Once again, this is in violation of Americans’ freedom of religion. Mike Huckabee is wrong if he really thinks that no one would find it objectionable if he, as President of the United States, demanded that all Americans spend one day a week in religious worship.

Besides that, doesn’t anyone else think it’s objectionable to have the President of the United States claiming that the basis of the law in the United States is the voice of God? Such an attitude would make the President God’s representative, not the representative of the people of the United States. For someone like Mike Huckabee, who believes that God is on his side, and believes that his personal values are also the values of God, that’s a downright dangerous position for the people of the United States.

Has Mike Huckabee actually read the Ten Commandments? Has he read the Ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights? If he had read both, he would know that they are incompatible, if both given the force of law. It’s the Ten Amendments, and the rest of the Constitution, not the Ten Commandments of Christianity, that are the basis of American law.

If Mike Huckabee is unwilling to respect that, his Oath of Office would be a lie, and he has no business serving as President of the United States.

(Source: MSNBC, December 21, 2007)