Law without gospel

The Ten Commandments may soon, by decree, be posted on public school walls. Burnt into wood or graven as images in stone, or merely inked, they will contribute to American moral security. Soft-headed liberals react by pointing out how many Americans are left out by such government endorsements of a particular faith. Many schools have Muslim majorities. Their first "pillar"—"there is no God but Allah"—does not match the first "commandment"—Yahweh's "thou shalt have no other gods before me." And they will further point out that posting the Ten Commandments forces theism on Buddhists and monotheism on Hindus. Expect to hear from humanists and all those other people who don't really belong. Even most Jews will be nervous about this governmental sanction of their Law, ripped out of context. But they are only about 2 percent of us.

Those bleeding hearts waste little time noticing the diversity of interpretation among the Christian majority. Catholics and Lutherans will insist on their own numbering—we Lutherans chop the anticoveting commandments in two. Will schools use our numbering where we are in the majority?

Let's get to even nicer points of theology. Who worries about Lutheran consciences, or the distortion of Lutheran teaching that is implied by inscribing the image of the commandments on the classroom wall?