Having gone through the entirety of Oklahoma’s new Decalogue, with an eye for modern society and law, I’ve concluded that the first one runs directly against freedom of religion and association, the second and third militate against freedom of expression, and the fourth flies in the face of all of these values, in addition to free enterprise. The fifth and seventh are decent ethical rules of thumb, but ought not be enforced as law, while the sixth, eighth and ninth are perfectly good ideas if we can just decouple them from their associated Biblical punishments, which are also thought to be God-inspired by the folks who erected this monument. The final one, of course, is blatantly anti-capitalist and should be papered over with colorful Xmas wrap during the holiday shopping season, as a blasphemous affront to Santa Claus and all he represents.
Applying just a bit of skeptical thinking to this faith-based monolith has the usual effect; we find there is nothing particularly profound here, and rather little worth keeping. There is so much more that could be said about these (such as the fact that there are several lists and only one of them must be the true “Ten Commandments”) but I’m going to move on to the next sacred cow for now. It’s just about time to declare War on Christmas.
