Unhitch From the Ten Commandments? No.

Current Events, Religious Freedom, ,

Last month we wrote about the unnecessary controversy surrounding Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments. You may recall a group parked a satanic statue in front of the Arkansas Capitol Building for a short time to protest the state’s monument of the Ten Commandments.

As a result, more than a few Christians questioned whether or not the state should remove the Ten Commandments monument from the capitol lawn. We have written about why that’s a bad idea.

Today our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have published a commentary explaining why the Ten Commandments are still important for us today.

John Stonestreet writes,

What’s the only passage in Scripture personally written down by God? If you answered “the Ten Commandments,” you’re right on the money. Exodus tells us that God audibly spoke these laws at Mount Sinai and inscribed them on tablets of stone with His own finger.

Of course, that’s not the only reason the Ten Commandments have a central place in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christians have long understood them to be the clearest expression of God’s eternal moral character. Not to mention, they played an instrumental role in shaping Western civilization, including forming the foundation of our legal system and our understanding of justice. It’s why Moses and those tablets can be found at the apex of the U.S. Supreme Court. . . .

The moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments didn’t come into existence at Sinai. They’re part of God’s eternal character which He built into the very fabric of reality itself. Even more, Jesus relied on the Old Testament throughout His ministry and in His teaching, especially when making the moral case for something. The reason, from a Christian worldview, is clear: Whether we’re talking about the moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments which Christ perfectly kept or the ceremonial regulations of Leviticus which foreshadowed our perfect High Priest, all of the Old Testament is relevant to Christianity.

We need to understand and appreciate the significance of the Ten Commandments — including their impact on our system government and their relevance to us still today.

You can read or listen to John Stonestreet’s entire commentary here.

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Seven Religious Liberties Every Student Needs to Know About

Religious Freedom, ,

This month Family Research Council published a list of seven religious liberties everyone needs to know that public school students have.

FRC writes,

Censoring of religious expression in schools often comes from teachers and school administrators being unaware of students’ freedoms. However, the U.S. Department of Education has already clarified that students are free to speak about their faith at school. . . .Since 1995, the U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines clarifying students’ freedom to express their faith. There are seven key liberties every student and educator needs to know.

Family Research Council says those seven rights are:

  1. The right to pray and read the Bible at school.
  2. The right to express faith in class work or homework.
  3. The right to organize prayer groups and religious clubs at school.
  4. The right to express religious belief at school events.
  5. The right to go off campus for religious studies in some states.
  6. The right to express faith at graduation ceremonies.
  7. The right of teachers to organize prayer groups with other teachers.

This is a welcome reminder once again that student’s and teachers do not shed their religious liberties at the schoolhouse doors.

One way we encourage students to exercise these religious liberties is to take part in the annual Bring Your Bible to School Day that Focus on the Family organizes each year. You can learn more about Bring Your Bible to School Day here.

You can download FRC’s printable flyer explaining these seven liberties here.

Photo Credit: Batotman [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

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