There is a lot of discussion, arguing, and fighting about whether or not the Ten Commandments should be placed in classrooms. But there’s not a lot of people out there articulating why they believe the Ten Commandments should be in classrooms. I’m going to do my best to put one on the internet for a few people to see.
As anyone reading this likely knows, Louisiana just passed a law that requires the Ten Commandments to be hung in every classroom. In Oklahoma, the State Superintendent has stated that every school must incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in the curriculum. And things like this are being discussed in other states as well.
What I haven’t heard is an argument as to why this should be done. This isn’t surprising. It is common to hear people sitting around and yapping about the horrible evils that can be found in America. What you don’t hear often is the solution.
We Want Virtue
Here is my argument for placing the Ten Commandments in classrooms and teaching the Bible in classrooms. If you want a virtuous society then you have to teach the people of that society to be virtuous. As Americans we desire to make a virtuous society and that doesn’t come naturally.
Babies are not delivered ready to live in society. If left to themselves they most often ruin rather than blossom. Not only does study after study prove this to be true, but so does that child you can’t stand who lives down the street from you. You know, the one who terrorizes the whole neighborhood.
And herein lies the problem. There is not a surplus of people seeking to teach children about discipline, courage, hard work, temperance, patience, charity, and other aspects of virtuous living. But people today live under the assumption that if you just love the child and accept all of their behaviors they won’t sour like a jug of milk left out on the counter. And if you turn your nose this way and that the smell that almost made you upchuck is the loss of virtue.
Education Is Not Neutral
People now understand that education is not neutral. It’s never been neutral, but modern Americans are waking up to this fact for the first time. For some reason, modern folks were too ignorant to understand what Western society has taught for thousands of years. Education is not, nor could ever be just teaching bare facts. Education will also teach virtue. Education is supposed to teach virtue.
In his work, “The Abolition of Man” C.S. Lewis notes that the Western World has always seen the role of education as inculcating morality. He moves quickly from Augustine, to Aristotle, to Plato to show that this is how we have always viewed education.
“St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate conditions of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it.” Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. When the age for reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been thus trained in ‘ordinate affections’ or ‘just sentiments’ will easily find the first principles in Ethics; but to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all and he can make no progress in that science. Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likable, disgusting and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured youth is one ‘who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receive it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her.” (C.S. Lewis “The Abolition of Man” from the chapter “Men Without Chests”)
It is only recently that we have viewed education otherwise. For some reason, Americans thought that virtue and morals could be left out of public education and society would be virtuous and moral. I should say, modern Americans, because in the year that the Department of Education was created the Ten Commandments were taken out of classrooms by the Supreme Court. That year was 1980.
Think about that for a moment. America is part of Western Civilization. Going back to Plato, which is in the 400’s – 300’s BC, it was thought that education should teach morals. And this continued with Aristotle in the 300’s BC. And Augustine in the 300’s AD. Did we change our minds on this in 1980? If so, you’d better have a good reason. That is over 2,000 years of Western thought that we were just supposed to dump.
I don’t think so.
And so, it is necessary for ethics and morality to be taught. And this is why the Ten Commandments and the Bible should be on the walls and in the curriculum of schools in America.
Answering An Objection
Some might say, “Fine! But why the Ten Commandments?” “Why not a different law code?”
As a Christian, I would say, because the Bible is correct. Christianity is true and other religions are not. I believe this to be provable and therefore a good answer to the question. The Bible and the Ten Commandments reveal the nature of God and the nature of morality. But I know that this answer is not good enough for some folks out there. Though I think it is right and proper to believe this and do it on these grounds, I do not believe it is an argument that will be effective with the general population. If I am formulating an argument to be used in the general public for something going on in America, as it stands right now I need a different argument. So I will venture to give another one.
In America, the morality taught has been overwhelmingly Christian, and there’s not a close second. The morality that American laws came from are also overwhelmingly Christian. And we see a summation of the Law of God in the Ten Commandments.
You see, America didn’t form a new country and then sit around and vote on what the laws would be. British Common Law formed the backbone of American law. In fact, the early Supreme Court cases used British Common Law as their reasoning for making their decisions. And it doesn’t take much digging to see the influence of Scripture and the Ten Commandments on British Common Law and thus on American Law. A quick way to see this is to skim through Blackstone’s Commentaries on British Common Law. You can look at it for free here. This is why the 10 Commandments stand so prominently within the Supreme Court’s chambers. A 40ft statue of Moses even stands over the Chief Justice’s head.
An 1892 court case here in America concerning immigration points this out rather plainly. The case is Church of the Holy Trinity vs United States, you can still look up the case. But in the results of this case the court stated that,
If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life, as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs, and its society, we find every where a clear recognition of the same truth. Among other matters, note the following: the form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, “In the name of God, amen;” the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing every where under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation. (Church of the Holy Trinity vs United States)
The people that founded America were overwhelmingly Christian and formed a Christian civilization. And this was so overwhelmingly true that the Supreme Court stated it plainly in the 1890’s, 116 years after the country was founded and 132 years before today. At a time almost halfway between the country’s founding and today, a court declared that “this is a Christian nation.”
Where then should the teaching of morality come from? It should obviously come from Christianity.
The morality that built America is thoroughly Christian. And so, to neglect the Ten Commandments and the Bible is to neglect the very foundation upon which the nation was built. You can’t fully understand the society we live in apart from these things. And you can’t be taught to be the virtuous person our society needs without them.
A Summary of the Argument
The argument for the Ten Commandments in classrooms is quite simple. Our society needs a virtuous citizenry. Education teaches morality. Education should teach the virtue that our society was built upon, which is Christian.
R. Dwain Minor
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