Which version of Ten Commandments get posted? | READER COMMENTARY

The state of Louisiana recently passed a law to go into effect in 2025 requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms (“New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments,” June 19).

This issue was supposedly settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in Stone v. Graham (1980). In a 5-4 decision, the court decided in favor of the plaintiffs that a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools was a violation of the First Amendment; its purpose was religious and not educational.

Some concerns about those Ten Commandments: There are actually three sets of them in the Bible, two in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy. One of these sets (Ritual Decalogue) is different and somewhat more militant than the others. Whereas the more traditional set states, “You shall not make yourself an idol,” the comparable Ritual version states, “You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars and cut down their sacred poles.”

As the late religious scholar and author Christopher Hitchens wrote, “When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courtrooms and schoolrooms, always be sure to ask which set. It works every time.”

— Otts Laupus, Elkridge

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