Chip Taylor

One pastor's take on the Ten Commandments ruling

Mark Daniels, Lutheran minister, has his take on the recent Ten Commandments ruling. Here's the main thrust:

As a purely spiritual matter, I believe that the display of the Ten Commandments on public property may be:

(1) Contrary to God's will;

(2) Destructive of a positive witness for Christ.

The cause to which every Christian is called to be committed--sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection and their power to give new life to all who follow Him--is not something that we are to "farm out" to the government. Each follower of Christ is to embrace this as part of their personal mission.

For we Christians to insist that tax dollars be used in what often is an act of proselytization not only violates constitutional principles, but Biblical ones as well. It smacks of coercion, of using one's status in a community to force our views on others. Scour the Bible from cover to cover and you won't find God ever sanctioning the coercive imposition of our faith on others. In fact, we're called upon to share our faith with compassion, with humility, and with respect for those with whom we differ.

Read the whole thing, as they say.

When I lived in Missouri, Ten Commandments yard signs were a pretty common sight. I've been surprised to not see very many at all here in South Carolina. It always seemed to me that those signs made a stronger statement about personal faith than monuments or displays on public property.