Situation
The Ten Commandments have been the foundation upon which much of America’s legal system has been built. To deny this fact, one would have to rewrite American history.
One cannot enter the National Archives and see the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution without first noticing the Ten Commandments posted at the entrance. Moses occupies a central position in the United States House Chamber and he faces forward—perched over the Chief Justice’s seat—at the United States Supreme Court.
Former President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings… If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”
ContextThat is why the Alliance Defense Fund is actively involved in funding and litigating cases in defense of the public display of the Ten Commandments – so that our nation’s system of laws and freedoms will be preserved for generations to come.
When our nation forsakes the moral basis provided by the Ten Commandments, all of our freedoms are in jeopardy. When the ACLU and its allies file their seemingly endless and costly lawsuits to remove the Ten Commandments – and other public vestiges of faith – they are systematically stripping our nation of its legal heritage and history. Once you remove the moral basis for our laws, the respect for all law weakens. This potentially results in social anarchy, and makes America a far more dangerous place to live. And once the moral basis for laws is removed, we increasingly move toward a society where “anything goes” at any time.
OppositionACLU – “The Ten Commandments advocate believing in God, observing the Sabbath and not worshipping idols. Those are religious beliefs, which citizens are free to hold or not. They are not the proper subject of governmental policy.” (
http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=14628&c=38)
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State – “Courts, city halls and other units of government should refrain from displaying religious symbols because such actions send the message that the state has a favored religion and that people who do not share that faith are second-class citizens.”(
http://www.au.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_publicproperty)
Allies
Wall Builders – “Historical evidence, drawn from civil law codes, judicial decisions, and declarations of great American lawgivers, affirms and reaffirms that the entire Decalogue has made a seminal contribution to the early common law and still continues today to make a significant contribution to the modern common law.” (
http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=41)
See more
ADF Allies.
Related information
Read "The Truth about the Ten Commandments in American Law; An Historical Perspective" (.pdf) (order this pamphlet)