What's wrong with the Ten Commandments, anyway? Name one Commandment that doesn't have a universal application. Name one Commandment--just one!--that doesn't communicate a valuabe principle that every healthy community should firmly believe in.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? How about this: Know what you believe, and be true to it. Christians, study your scriptures, practice what you preach, avoid hypocrisy. Likewise all you other people with core principles to believe in. Hindu? Be true to your Hindu gods. Buddhist? Don't water down your belief in the evils of Desire, but devote yourself sincerely to desiring nothing. Or don't. I'm not really clear on how Buddhism works. But you Buddhists know. Or should, anyway, if you were serious about your beliefs.
Sure, the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments put this injunction in Judeo-Christian terms, but that's because it's their version. Are you telling me that other belief systems don't have similar injunctions? Are you telling me that belief systems shouldn't have such injunctions?
And this applies to non-religious value systems, too. The Greens know this commandment. They obey it every day, when they steadfastly refuse any compromise or dilution of their highest principles.
Know what you believe, and be true to it. This is advice we could all benefit from hearing more often. And the halls of Justice aren't a bad place to hear it.
"Thou shalt not murder"? Please. Are there any beliefsystems that value wrongful killing? Okay, bad question. Are there any belief systems out there that value wrongful killing, that we actually want to be part of our community's overall system of values? Any healthy communities out there that promote murder as a core principle? Any reason at all why "don't fucking kill people" is a bad thing to have carved in stone in of our Courts of Law?
"Honor thy father and thy mother"? Riiight. Because children who are encouraged not to respect their elders generally contribute valuable things to a healthy community. Only... not so much. Again, how many religions are making valuable contributions to our community life by advocating a rejection of parents by their children?
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife"? Give me a break. Envy, covetousness, greed... these attitudes are sickening to the individual and to the community.. Don't get hung up on what you don't have. Don't resent your neighbors for their good fortune, or the fruits of their hard labor. Insanity aside, almost all crime arises from this unhealthy obsession with what we don't have, compared to those around us.
Know what your highest values are. Be true to those values. Don't kill people. Respect your elders. Don't base your happiness on things you don't have.
These are all good, healthy values for a community to develop and promote. They may not all be laws, but they all inform our laws, and make a good foundation for responsible and fulfilling interactions with our fellow humans. Far from banning them from the public places, we should be celebrating them in all their forms. Rather than tearing down the Judeo-Christian version, we should be enshrining the Hindu version, and the Confucian version, and Islamic version, right there alongside, in every courthouse in America.
If you're offended by the Ten Commandments, then I have to ask: what kind of monster are you?