The Problems with the Ten Commandments (© Frank L. Ludwig)

The Problems with the Ten Commandments

Many have justified or at least trivialised Louisiana's violation of the First Amendment by obligating all schools to display the Ten Commandments, claiming that these shouldn't be controversial since they are merely the core values of 'Western civilisation' ('Western' meaning 'white Christian supremacist' and 'civilisation' meaning 'status quo').

Let's have a look at these commandments:

1. 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'
Here the author asserts the existence of a god who tolerates no other gods to be worshipped over him. This means the children are pressured to believe in the existence of a god without any proof; teaching them to believe without proof is crucial in eliminating their ability to think critically.

2 'Thou shalt make no idols.'
This should go without saying. Yet, those who preach this commandment worship crosses or even images of a crucified man.

3. 'Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain.'
Here the alleged god asserts absolute authority by banning any criticism of him. This sentiment is meant to be applied to any person or organisation in authority and paves the way for authoritarianism.

4. 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
Here the children are encouraged to spend one of their two free days in a week worshipping an imaginary being.

5. 'Honour thy father and thy mother.'
Children are taught to unquestioningly obey and respect their parents, regardless of whether they are respected by their parents. This is another commandment to cement the child's acceptance of authoritarian structures.

6. 'Thou shalt not kill.'
This, again, should go without saying. Yet, according to the book, its hero is a homicidal maniac who ordered murders and genocides galore, and, following the examples, Christianity has become the most genocidal of all religions (with an estimated 100 million natives slaughtered by white Christians in the Americas alone).

7. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'
This commandment (with a few exceptions) does not apply to children.

8. 'Thou shalt not steal.'
Yet another one that should go without saying. However, white Christians have been the biggest thieves in history; the robbing of land and resources from native populations is just one example.

9. 'Thou shalt not bear false witness.'
Goes without saying.

10. 'Thou shalt not covet.'
Goes without saying.

In conclusion, the only commandments that children would benefit from are not to worship idols, not to kill, not to steal, not to bear false witness and not to covet. And I am certain there are better ways to convey these messages to them than interspersing them with commandments intended to make them susceptible to autocracy and theocracy - maybe in a children's story without supernatural characters.