"It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia

If Jefferson was correct, our government today, with its two trillion dollar budget, supports an unconscionable amount of error.

Perhaps Jefferson's thesis explains why Representative Brian Kerns (R-Ind.) wants to use government to promote his personal beliefs.  In his recent assault on the First Amendment, Kerns has introduced a resolution to deck the halls of Congress with the Ten Commandments, claiming they've made significant contributions to the "basic legal principles of Western civilization and our nation." [1]

Since the Decalogue is laid out in Exodus 20:1-17, does Kerns think his proposal violates church-state separation?  Heavens, no.  Our founders didn't want "to remove all religious references from the public square," he said, ignoring the voluminous writings of Jefferson and Madison who argued for complete separation.

What the founders wanted was a state that walled itself off from any religion.  Putting the Ten Commandments in the chambers of Congress hardly maintains that separation, no matter what legal or historical significance Kerns believes they have.  The way to protect all religions is to prohibit the expression of any one of them on public grounds.

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life," Jefferson wrote to the Virginia Baptists in 1808, "freedom of religion affects every individual . . . . Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society."  [2]  And in 1822, Madison wrote that "[religion and government] will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."  [3]  

Of course, the kind of government our founders wanted and what we have today are scarcely related.  They created a master-at-arms that's fast becoming our master.  What was once a republic is now a de facto democracy in which people batch themselves into groups and try to twist government in their favor.  Religious groups love this racket, too.  Thanks to a neutering of the Tenth Amendment, politicians have few legislative restrictions and can extend a hand to almost any collective that helps them stay in office.  The Bill of Rights--especially the first two amendments--has blocked the efforts of determined ideologues from eclipsing the last of our freedom.

Perhaps a compromise could be reached.  Instead of posting all ten of the commandments, Kerns could select a relevant few for display.  But danger lurks everywhere.  Though superficially safe, "You shall not make for yourself an idol" would be of interest to reparations advocates, since it establishes the precedent of punishing the descendants of wrongdoers into the third and fourth generation.  [4]  I doubt the Republican congressman would want the media batting that message around.

As for the other commandments, we can eliminate the one on covetousness--envy inspires too many laws.  Adultery?  If British general William Howe had found the wife of one of his officers less attractive, Washington might not have secured a desperately-needed victory in the winter of 1776.  It's hypocritical to recommend dalliance for our enemies only.  Bearing false witness is lying, and avoiding it would render most politicians mute.  Murder, an essential element of corrupt government, invokes memories of Clinton's laundry list of mysterious deaths.  And stealing is how Congress makes its living.

But if it's moral contributions to our legal system that Kerns wishes to recognize, there are nonreligious artifacts he could proudly display.

He could begin by posting a copy of the Sixteenth Amendment.  To ensure our lawmakers know they're on firm moral ground when they confiscate our income, he could adorn the amendment with its underlying premise: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."  No, it's not from the Bill of Rights, as some Americans think [5], it's from a speech given by anti-greed crusader Karl Marx, one of the more consistent advocates of altruism.  [6]  

Since Big Brother feeds off altruism, Kerns might wish to honor this fact with a bust of Immanuel Kant.  In mainstream usage, altruism is synonymous with morality, not merely a variant of it.  Selfishness, therefore, is identical to immorality.  Under altruism, what's done for others is right, what's done for the self is wrong--it is not what is done, but who it is done for that determines an act's moral worth.  Thus, bureaucrats claiming to be working on our behalf create immeasurable havoc, but are let off the hook morally because they were serving "the public."  By contrast, a businessman who creates jobs is unforgivable because he works for profit.  Kant was the philosopher most responsible for this inverted morality, saving altruism from the greedy talons of self-interest.  [7]

No moral tribute to Congress would be complete without the bible of all demagogues, The Prince, by Nicolo Machiavelli.  Surely, Kerns could shoulder that in somewhere.  Machiavelli held that men are stupid and incapable of controlling their private lives.  [8]  Can you think of government machinery that doesn't run on those rails, including Kerns' resolution?  Machiavelli also defined the good as that which man aims at, and virtue as the means for acquiring it.  Since his ideal prince seeks power, Machiavelli gives pols the opportunity to seize it while preaching the "common good" doctrine of altruism.

Kerns is co-sponsoring a bill that would prohibit courts from awarding monetary damages or attorney's fees for cases litigating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  [9]  How thoughtful.  This will remove the "chilling effect" of challenging the clause, he tells us, because challengers won't be liable for additional fees if they lose.  Machiavelli would surely admire Kerns' cunning.

If the forgoing suggestions are too intellectual, Kerns could dig up a poster of the W. C. Fields 1941 classic, "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break."  At least it carries a biblical message--as fools who get cheated, we reap what we sow.

If the situation becomes truly desperate, Kerns could always display a copy of the Bill of Rights.  Who knows, he or one of his colleagues might decide to read it.

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1.  Congressman wants Ten Commandments posted in House and Senate Chambers, http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\\Culture\\archive\\200202\\CUL20020225b.html

2.  Thomas Jefferson Quotations, http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/jefferson.htm

3.  Quotations that Support the Separation of State and Church, http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ed_buckner/quotations.html

4.  Ten Commandments, http://www.tencommandments.org/

5.  America's Amnesia, Walter Williams, http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2001/may/ww_amnesia.htm

6.  Critique of the Gotha Programme I , Karl Marx, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1870/gotha/ch01.htm

7.  A Discourse Concerning the True Moral Status of Altruism, Brad Mason, http://www.openthought.org/summa/moralstatus.html

8.  Jones, W. T. "A History of Western Philosophy," Vol. II, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1952, p. 555.

9.  Public Expression of Religion Act of 2001, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:H.R.1273: