The Ten Commandments
To the editor:
Texas S.B. 10 (2025) mandates the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
In Exodus, Moses is given the Ten Commandments inscribed on stone tablets by the finger of God, which are the only words personally written by God in the entire Bible. For Jesus and first century Christians, the Bible was the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), the only document that Jesus approved. In Islam there are parallel teachings in the Quran and Sunnah.
Nonetheless, words mean little without actions. Students cannot be expected to follow the Ten Commandments unless they are supported by their parents, teachers and leaders.
We make serious errors in judgement when we nominate for public office people who mock the Ten Commandments by their personal and public actions. President George Washington is famous for not telling a lie. Today our top Republican, Little Donnie, is infamous for brazen lies (e.g., January 6). He violates the other biblical admonitions as well, being enthusiastic about adultery, killing (extrajudicial executions of foreign nationals) and coveting (Greenland and Canada).
Little Donnie says that his power is constrained only by “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” i.e., not constrained by Judeo-Christian moral imperatives.
Little Donnie does not like the constraints of our Constitution, Laws and Treaties either. Abraham Lincoln said: “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” but for Little Donnie it is government of Donnie, by Donnie and for Donnie. He releases his own mob from their punishments for their illegal activities via record presidential pardons, and weaponizes our government for retribution against perceived political opponents whose “crimes” consist of honesty and faithfully performing their duties. The recent spectacle of draft dodger Little Donnie threatening retired Navy Captain and sitting Arizona Senator Kelly for quoting the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) concerning unlawful orders is particularly crazy.
However, we need not go far afield to find repugnant Republicans with little regard for the Ten Commandments. In the last Republican primary election for Attorney General, Fayette County overwhelming voted for Ken Paxton, adulterer, provocateur and corrupt abuser of his public office. As Rush Limbaugh said, we are dealing with Low Information Voters. Before coming to the defense of our best-known abuser of public office and wastrel of public funds you had best review almost 4,000 pages of damning evidence: https://senate.texas.gov/ coi.php https://capitol.texas.gov/ tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/ HR02377I.pdf Paxton cost Texas taxpayers $6.6 million in fines for the whistle blower lawsuit paid out to four Republican state employees, plus the costs incurred by the Office of the Attorney General. His many frivolous lawsuits against other states and the federal government (all thrown out) to gain favor with Little Donnie further increased costs to taxpayers.
The House vote to impeach Paxton was overwhelming (121 to 23), with 72% of Republicans voting for impeachment.
In this upcoming primary, our own representative, Stan Kitzman, is challenged because he voted with his fellow Republicans to impeach a corrupt Attorney General. Stan Kitzman applied the Ten Commandments and found Paxton wanting, as did Paxton’s wife Angela, who left Paxton for his many sins, including adultery. Remember that.
Nihil est virtute pulchrius (There is nothing more beautiful than virtue.) • Cicero
Edward R. Dykes La Grange