Many Christians are quite passionate about maintaining our "right" to display portions of scripture and religious symbols in public places.
The central symbol of Christianity has been a public symbol for two millennia. Our Lord was crucified in plain view, and the early martyrs gladly owned the cross as they went to their deaths, some of them, like Peter and Andrew, even dying on crosses like their Lord. The word of God, as well, ought not to be a private matter. The book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament tells the story of how the early church spread the Good News from Jerusalem to the far reaches of the known world. I don't see that the concern of those disciples was to get the Romans to let them hang copies of scripture in the Coloseums where they gave their lives. Rather they made the Word known by lives that clearly demonstrated the power of God's word to change the world one life at a time.
There are good reasons why it makes sense to have a copy of the Ten Commandments displayed in a High School. The sweeping secularization of our public spaces ought to be appropriately resisted, but far more important than a plaque on a wall, is the Word of God shining out from a life. Perhaps the courts in our land will prevent the display of Ten Commandments in our schools and other government buildings. No power on earth can prevent us from living out the truth of those ten guidelines for Godly, sensible living.
The third of the Ten Commandments says that we are not to "take the name of the LORD [our] God in vain." When I consider this with other passages of scripture that speak about my speech, like Ephesians 4:29 and 5:4, I see that what I say ought to display the fact that God is in control in my life.
When I open my mouth, what comes out?
Stay tuned.
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