www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer Ten Commandments

High court hears Ten Commandments cases
Justices today consider whether Decalogue violates 1st Amendment

The Supreme Court's decision will affect every Ten Commandments display in the country and may well set the future course for other governmental acknowledgments of religion.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43100

An Associated Press poll conducted in late February found 76% of Americans say such displays ought to be allowed.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-01-scotus-commandments_x.htm

Jesus forgive us our sins that bring us to thsi day in history. Lord in the abundance of your tender mercies wipe away this nonsence from our Land. Let us be the nation you desire us to be Jesus and this can only be done through your grace poured out upon us that we may repent and rejoice in you alone. amen.

O God our Creator and Lord, Blessed and Wonderful Savior, Ever-present Holy Spirit, We humbly beseech You, for the people of the these United States and especially for our President, the Congress, and the Supreme Court, that when they meet and assemble to make their decisions, You would grant them the wisdom and knowledge necessary to make laws and statutes that will recognize You as Lord and Master of this land and people! In all their decisions, may they provide of the welfare of Your people, especially the weak and the poor and those who have little or no power in our society. May all things be so ordered and settled by their endeavors, that the individuality and uniqueness of each person is recognized and appreciated and furthered by an understanding of the preciousness of all human life! May we all advance to acknowledge Your glory Lord, and may we as a people seek to respect one another and try to always move toward truth and justice for all the peoples of our world. We humbly beg for this in the name of Jesus the Christ, through the intercessions of His Most Holy Mother, the patroness of our country, Amen

In His Most Holy Name,
+Fr. Gregory

Dear Lord,

In Your love and concern for us, you gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments as rules of morality and ethics, and in Your Great and Holy Wisdom, they became the sole basis for all secular law of governance for all nations through the ages. There are no laws but YOUR laws.

You have given us commandments and not suggestions.

We honor YOU, Lord, and pray fervently that those who do not honor YOU in this country, and who wish to remove these basics of civilization from public display will be cast down by YOU, and that their apostasized motives will not be victorious. For all victory belongs to YOU and YOUR Holiness!

We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Dear God, I join my prayers with the others here in one heart and mind.

Protect us, O Lord, from those who would strip away your commandments, not only the Ten Commandments, but your commandments of love. Thank you for your natural moral law which is written on our hearts.

Help us to love one another as you have loved us.

Most of all, O Lord, have mercy on those would take away, deny, or ridicule your commandments.

And have mercy on us,

In Christ and the Theotokos,

Porter

Dear Friends,

If Moses had seen the U.S. Supreme Court, there probably would have been another commandment . . .

May the foundation of our laws and way of life continue to be honoured publicly and may our judges affirm this truth - for this we pray to the Lord!

Lord have mercy!

Alex

Dear friends, Let us spread the commandments far and wide covering all of church property if desired, but I for one don't want some judge building monuments to his particular version of God and the 10 commandments on government property.

Dear Vito,

You raise a good point, but it leads to a deeper issue. Namely, "What will be the moral basis of our nation's law?"

Every nation has to answer that question. But America has to answer it in light of our national decision to have a separation of religion and the state.

Personally, I don't think it violates that separation if the state acknowledges God and the basics of God's law.

Years ago, before the Supreme Court banned the display of the 10 Commandments on government property, the 10 Commandments were widely displayed in public in America. They were also widely taught in public schools. And, there was still freedom of religion. People were still free to belong to whatever religion they wanted, or to belong to no religion.

There is, after all, the capacity for judgement, discernment and wisdom. It enables people to balance the needs for freedom and the needs for moral standards. It also calls for basing morality on an Authority that is greater than the latest public whim. And freedom wasn't impaired by that; it was protected by that.

So, I don't think America would become a theocracy if the country again decides to display the 10 Commandments. We were (and remain) a mostly Christian and Jewish nation; so, let's return to the Christian - Jewish basis of our law: the 10 Commandments. If we did that, I think America would again have a common moral basis for itself and its laws -- instead of the current mess of moral relativism.

--John

I remember as a youngster in grade school reciting the Our Father as led by our teacher and then being questioned in catechism class by our pastor as to why we said it that way. Of course, we were using the teacher's "Protestant" version. It was confusing to a young child, and I also remember wondering about the different version of the Ten Commandments posted.

Dear John,

Great post!

If you think about it in everyday vernacular:

Don't kill, don't steal, don't cheat on your spouse, don't be so jealous of another that you try to sneakily take what is his/hers, etc.

...if those tenets ever become relative to one group or another, may God help us, because there will be no basis for a civilized nation.

My humble opinion,
Alice

The article on Spirit Daily is interesting. It starts off about the Ten commandments and ends up with Terri. It kind of puts it all in a nutshell, or at least I think it does. I was wondering how it fit in totally with 'Teri's case' until I read Alice's post.. If you think about it in everyday vernacular: Don't kill, don't steal, don't cheat on your spouse, don't be so jealous of another that you try to sneakily take what is his/hers, etc. ...
http://www.spiritdaily.com/removejudge.htm

PRAISE GOD! THANK YOU SWEETEST JESUS!

I received this email from FaithinAction today...

This week's arguments in the Supreme Court over the public display of the Ten Commandments were very encouraging! I'm not a pie-in-the-sky
optimist--I know how serious this battle for America's soul is--but I am hopeful after what I saw and heard in the High Court on Wednesday.

+ + Justices show support for Ten Commandments!

First, the Justices shocked me with how they wanted to handle these cases. Until now, we have heard over and over again how that the only
way the Ten Commandments can be "legally" displayed is if they are "drowned out" by other "historical documents" and have "no religious
intent."

Well, Justice Scalia severely challenged that by saying plainly, "Government derives its authority from God. What's wrong with that?" A number of the other justices, most notably Anthony Kennedy, then
expressed deep concern over the growing "hostility" to religion.

This is a huge change!

As I saw it (and I'm not a prophet!), as many as six of the Justices saw no problem with government "acknowledging" and "accommodating" religious speech and symbols.

After coming out of the courtroom, I told the crowd outside that what I saw in the, at times, dramatic change in some of the Justices'
questioning from pervious cases like this, was nothing short of a miracle. I'm convinced that God is hearing and answering prayer!

Given what I heard, I believe that we stand the possibility for a 6-3 decision in our favor in at least one of the cases. Hallelujah!