Republicans, The Ten Commandments, & TDI

Republicans have pushing for states to display the Ten Commandments in the classroom. One state where the legislature is controlled by Republicans has complied and others like North Dakota where I lived for many years are considering it.

Clearly this is a violation of the First Amendment, separation of church and state but be that as it may be, if Republicans are advocating this, they should be living by it. Let’s see how they are doing but looking at the uncontested leader of the Republican party, President Trump.

I – “I am the lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” I am pretty sure the only God Trump worships is himself.
II – “You shall not make any graven image…” I think Trump’s graven images are money and power.
III – You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Most of do this at one time or another when we say “God dam it”. However, out of respect for number I, I am changing this to Trump damn it or TDI for short. I started saying TDI on the pickle ball court when I make an unforced error. I recommend it to all, it works.
IV – “Remember the sabbath to keep in holy.” Well technically the sabbath is Saturday so that ship left the theoretical harbor a long time ago.
V – “Honor your father and your mother…” I would hope Trump honors his father and mother because that is where he got all his money. Trump is a original trust fund baby.
VI – “You shall not kill.” I have no knowledge of Trump killing anyone or have someone killed at his request. On the other hand, USAID has saved millions of lives over the years, especially in Africa. Will Trump’s cutting of funding to USAID lead to loss of lives and if so, how is that different?
VII – “You shall not commit adultery.” It is a proven fact that Trump has broken this commandment as have millions of Americans over the years including a whole lot of Republicans. Republicans have consistently looked the other way on this Commandment for Trump. When Clinton was President they thought he should be impeached in part for adultery. This is one reason why Republicans have zero morale authority or credibility.
VIII – “You shall not steal.” Trump was guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. That’s stealing. There are numerous stories of Trump no paying his bills and using bankruptcy laws to not pay debts. For me, that is also a form of stealing.
IX – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Trump bearing false witness regular if not daily. One example is immigrants eating dogs and cats in a town in Ohio. Town leaders confirmed there is no evidence of this happening and it is a lie. There is no evidence supporting Trump’s claim illigal immigrants kill 4,000 Americans annually. There is a study that fund that the murder rate in Texas is twice as high for Americans killing other Americans compared to illigal immigrants killing Americans. Of course the biggest lie is he won the 2020 Presidential election. It is important to note that every Republican who accepts Trump’s lies is also bearing false witness.
X – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s…” The OT lists are a number of things not to covet and it is pretty clear Trump to Trump has coveted them all as have many Republicans. One example of coveting is the increase of wealth of the top 1% in the US. In 1989 the top 1% owned 23.8% of the US total wealth. In 2024, driven by tax laws by Republican Presidents and Republican led Congress, the wealth of the top 1% increased to 30.8%. In short, the top 1% coveted more wealth and Republicans helped them get there.

It’s a sad American irony that the political party pushing for the Ten Commandments in the school system has a history, short and long, of ignoring the Commandments and a leader who it seems to me has no knowledge or regard for the Commandments.

I am not saying that Republicans break the Commandments and Democrats or Independents do not. Everyone breaks the Commandments at some time or another. But that is where first honest self-reflection and then forgiveness come to play. There is a tremendous hypocrisy in telling others to obey the Commandments when you have no intention of so doing yourself.

If Republicans want to advocate for religious statement in schools they should advocate for Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31 which all say the same thing, “you should love your neighbor as yourself”. Of course Republicans could never do this because “your neighbor” is everyone including the poor and sick, members of the LGBTQ community, people who are of different races and women who are often treated as second class citizens.

Not sure how it all works, but would be interesting and funny to watch Republicans applying for entry at the pearly gates saying, “we tried to get the Ten Commandments in schools, we don’t follow them and our leader has never heard of them, but whatever. Also, the whole love your neighbor as yourself never made much sense to us.”

Like I said, that would be pretty funny to watch.