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Displaying The Ten Commandments? Then Live By Them

Displaying The Ten Commandments? Then Live By Them

Last updated on: July 13, 2026 at 6:28 pm by Christy Thomas

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Displaying The Ten Commandments? Then Live By Them 2026-07-13T18:28:01-05:00 Christy Thomas

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So, to all you Republican lawmakers, tell us how you plan to live by those Ten Commandments you so want displayed? How will you love those who hate you? How will you love God with everything you’ve got?

The Ten Commandments on a classroom wall

Image generated by OpenAI ChatGPT, modified by Christy Thomaws

The Ten Commandments Requirement: SB10

Here’s the deal: apparently, every Republican legislator in the State of Texas voted to require a readable copy of the Ten Commandments in every Texas classroom by the beginning of the year. Every Democratic legislator voted against it.

We can draw one of two conclusions here:

One: Republican legislators are highly religious, righteous and should be admired as good moral role models.
Two: Democrats are not hypocrites.

I’m voting for choice number two.

And here’s why.

We find a cogent summary of the Ten Commandments (in whatever form you find them—they do differ) in the story of The Good Samaritan found in Luke 10.

In that passage, a religion expert asks Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life. Jesus, sticking with his habit of answering a question with a question, asks the scholar in return, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

The answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus gives him the first-century equivalent of an “attaboy,” but the religion scholar tries to wiggle out of the “love your neighbor” part. So Jesus tells a parable we all know of called “The Good Samaritan.”

However, reading the story in our Bibles, no matter what the translation, with our current cultural eyes does not reveal just how off-putting those words were to the first-century listeners.

So, here’s my version, and prepare to be shocked—because Jesus’s version would have shocked them to the core:

One day, a group gathered at a local home to strategize how to stop Trump from turning the US into his personal profit center while eliminating free speech and civil liberties, shredding the societal safety net, and selling the US soul to the highest bidder. They were drawing up action plans, drafting letters and assigning committee memberships.

Suddenly the door slammed open. A white man walked in carrying a sign that said. “I voted for him–get over it b*******.” His t-shirt proclaimed, “Deport them all!” on one side and displayed a Nazi symbol on the other side.

He sauntered up to a woman wearing a hijab, the traditional head-covering for many Muslim women, and yanked it off her head, screaming, “You got a bomb in there?”

Standing toe-to-toe with a Latino man and well-known attorney, he spewed spittle, “I’m going to toss you over that wall and keep you out.”

The hostess stood nearby holding a tray of canapés. He smashed the tray away, pushed her up against a wall and whispered. “Your p*** is now mine, and don’t you forget it.”*

Then he stomped out, flipping the bird at the horrified people, got into his Confederate flag-covered truck and peeled off.

Several gathered around the Muslim woman as tears of shame streamed down her face. One phoned the police to complain. Another ran out the door to grab a photo of the man’s license plate, planning to hunt him down for a bit of private revenge.

Suddenly, they heard the sickening sound of squealing tires. They spilled out onto the street. Half a block away, they could see smoke rising from the truck.

A quiet message of “He deserved it” was passed from eye to eye. A few smirked. One called 911 but was put on hold and couldn’t get through.

Suddenly, the Black housekeeper raced out and ran down the street. She yanked open the driver’s side door and pulled the by-then unconscious driver out. While others watched and yelled at her to get back, she dragged him to the side of the street. Moments later, the car burst into flames.

She pulled off her scarf and wrapped it around the bleeding man’s head, gently dabbing the blood away with a clean handkerchief from her uniform pocket. When the ambulance appeared and loaded him for transport to the local hospital, she ran to her car and followed.

The man didn’t have health insurance. His family had left him, and he had just been kicked out of his apartment for non-payment of rent. He had been laid off from his factory job five months previously and had been unable to find work again.

The ER personnel bandaged him and discharged him quickly, as is their wont with the no-ability-to-pay uninsured. The discharge orders indicated that he had suffered a major concussion along with several broken ribs and heavy bruising and needed much rest to recover.

The housekeeper took him to her house, which displayed a rainbow sign outside, and installed him on the living room couch.

She had to return to her job but called on some elderly widows from her church to keep watch over him and prepare nourishing food. She also arranged for her daughters to stay with relatives for a while.

The community nursed him tenderly until he was back on his feet. Someone found a beater car for him, and a local mechanic got it running. Ten days later, he snuck out in the night, smashed the rainbow sign and left without a “thank you” or “goodbye.”

Then Jesus turned to the questioner and said, “Have you got a better handle on what I mean by ‘loving your neighbor’ now?”

The person who asked the question said, “So I’m supposed to show mercy on someone who genuinely hates me?”

Jesus said, “Do you want mercy shown to you? If so, you’ve got to start the cycle instead of waiting for someone else to do it. Go, continue to stand up to oppression and live faithfully. Absolutely. But you still must offer mercy to those who differ from you. This is the only way to love God with everything you have.”

So, to all you Republican lawmakers, tell us how you plan to live by those commandments you so want displayed? How will you love those who hate you? How will you love God with everything you’ve got?

I encourage all to contact their local Republican state lawmaker (you can find the information here) and respectfully ask them their plans to model “Love God and love neighbor” for all Texans, and especially for all schoolchildren. Remind them that it means loving their enemies—and not telling lies about others, particularly Democrats.

Personally, I don’t have a real problem with the displays—after a few weeks, no one will even notice they are there.

But folks, if you’re gonna preach it, you’d better learn to live by it. I don’t see that happening. Again, at least the Democrats are not hypocrites.

General Christian

Politics and Religion

separation of church and state

About The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas

The Thoughtful Pastor is one woman’s way of making sense of the world, particularly the intersecting worlds of religion, business, and politics. I think, question, and connect odd dots. I find delight in ambiguity and mystery, and find little tolerance for those who call themselves people of God and then use that self-description as a way to abuse others. You can read more about the author here.

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