Why the Left Hates The Ten Commandments By Doug Patton August 25, 2003

Do not expect Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to surrender in his fight to keep the Ten Commandments on display in the rotunda of the state’s Supreme Court building. Moore, a principled man whose judicial temperament is guided and molded by his belief that there is a God and He is watching, is not motivated by what may happen to his career as a judge. He is not moved by the whims of other judges whose rulings are based not in law, but rather in the blowing, drifting opinions of contemporary societal mores.

Most Americans have no idea of the gravity of the drama unfolding at the Supreme Court building in Montgomery. Jaded and numbed by fifty years of abuse by an out-of-control judiciary that usurps the will of the people and their elected representatives by making law from the bench, it seems we no longer have any collective memory of what our precious founding documents say, let alone what they mean.

Just what is it that engenders such hatred by liberals toward The Ten Commandments? Which of these laws of nature and of nature’s God strikes such fear and loathing in the hearts of the Left?

Is it Commandment number six (“Thou shalt not kill” – or, more accurately translated, “Thou shalt not commit murder”)?

Perhaps it is number eight (“Thou shalt not steal”).

Or maybe they just can’t stand number nine, (“Thou shalt not bear false witness).

Is there any thinking person who could look at those three rules and say that society would be better off if they were disregarded?

How about number ten (“Thou shalt not covet”)?

The truth is that it is the first few commandments that cause apoplectic fits on the Left. Number one especially drives them crazy: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This is followed by, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” and the ever-popular “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.”

Add to those the admonition to “Honor thy father and mother” and to hear the Left talk you would think that Ayatollah Roy had set up shop in the Alabama Supreme Court building.

John Adams once said that the American Constitution was written for a moral and a religious people, and that it is wholly inadequate for the governing of any other.

Today’s liberals would scoff at such a sentiment. They would claim that Adams wanted to limit American citizenship exclusively to Christians. Quite the contrary. Adams understood that free people cannot be coerced into believing anything against their will. But he also understood that a free people can recognize the truth when they see it, and that it was only the self-governing man or woman who can truly be free.

Adams and the other Founders possessed a wisdom that comes only to people who know that their rights are granted by their Creator, not by other men, and that government is instituted among men to acknowledge and defend those rights.

The Founders recognized that lawlessness breeds anarchy, which brings the terrible power of tyranny down upon the people. They knew that those who fled to these shores seeking religious and economic freedom did so not for the right simply to do what they wanted to do, but rather for the right to do what they ought to do.

In a perfect America, where the Constitution was revered and God was exalted, we would all know such freedom. Instead, we have traded our birthright for a society filled with self-indulgence and a debate over whether it is appropriate to acknowledge God in public.

May God give us a million more Roy Moores.

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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor to candidates, elected officials and organizations at the federal, state and local levels. His weekly columns can be read in newspapers across the country, and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com, where he serves as the Nebraska Editor. He also writes for Talon News Service (www.TalonNews.com). Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.

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