Skulduggery in our schools, such as the Columbine or West Virginia shootings, result more from lack of moral commitment than availability of weapons. When I was in public schools the Biblical Ten Commandments was displayed on many classroom walls along with the Declaration of Independence and other significant documents and portraits of historical figures. As students we were aware of the presence of those documents and reminded to honor the principles they espoused. And many teachers took advantage of the presence of the Ten Commandments to lecture on moral principles.

Morality is religiously neutral. While many people of Christian heritage prefer the traditional presentation and our Supreme Court has over-reached in suggesting the First Amendment forbade localities spending their money as they wished, moral instruction of our youngsters is still needful. Realistically it may be many years before the illegal meddling by an activist court can be overturned; until then there is need for a document that can be used for moral instruction. The document suggested here is far better than nothing at all and hopefully will be adopted as an interim measure.

Admittedly the first four Commandments as presented in Exodus 20 -- the traditionally displayed version -- make of it a religious document. But, as you will see below, the moral principles are religiously neutral and their presentation is not a religious document.

The text of the paraphrased (secular) version is this:

"The Ten Commandments -- Paraphrased, copyright Ken Wear, 2000
The first four, due to reference to the Deity, are considered by some to be religious in nature and hence ill suited to public display. The remaining six (paraphrased) are:

• Honor your father and your mother as they honor their parents and as you wish to be honored
• Revere the lives of others as you revere your own
• Be true to your commitments to others as you want them to be true to their commitments to you
• Take not what belongs to another without his express permission
• Be truthful, for a web of lies will entangle you and corrupt you
• Spend your own effort to achieve the things you want, looking at what others enjoy as inspiration for what you can achieve"

You are welcome to use this text in any artistic rendition you wish. I request the copyright notice be incorporated, as inconspicuously as you wish, in order to dissuade corrupting of the text. I include here four versions, two traditional renditions (which are obviously religiously oriented) and two versions as suggested above (one with the word "Secular" in the title. You may click to examine the various versions and use your BACK button to return here. All are included as separate files so you may copy any one or all.
1) Plain text; click here
2) Plain text with 'Secular' in the title; click here
3) Full text of Exodus 10:1-17; click here
4) Summary from RSV; click here

I strongly agree that our public institutions should not in any sense favor one religion over another (including Atheism, which, although a negation, is itself a teaching of religion). But it is difficult for me to see how even the most ardent advocates of any religion taught among men can object to such a simple presentation of ethical principles or a statement explaining lack of reference to Deity.

I urge you to present this document, and the moral imperative of widespread acknowledgment of its truths, to rich and poor alike in the hope of fostering a more genteel society.

One hurdle to acceptance of any rendition of The Ten Commandments is the attitude of people committed to separation of church and state. Dr. Paul Kurtz, of the Center For Inquiry, is one of the world's foremost spokesman for secularism and its endorsement of separation of church and state; he has indicated his agreement with the content of this non-religious version although he would prefer calling them "wise guidelines" rather than "commandments." I have tried over the years to get atheists to announce clearly what it is they disapprove, without success, and I know of no spokesman for atheism to query about his endorsement of this version. I had hoped to find someone with adequate resources to guarantee educators payment of their legal fees should their display of this version be the subject of lawsuit; to date that quest has been unsuccessful. (This note added 5-16-06.)

I had an artistic rendition of the paraphrased version printed and circulated to the principals of several hundred public schools in this area. In following up I learned that fear of lawsuit discouraged circulation to teachers and staff for display or whatever other purpose it might serve. I feel very strongly that
(1) some version of the Ten Commandments would be a valuable instructional tool and should be available to teachers,
(2) that the version I have presented is religiously neutral to the extent that the most ardent advocate of separation of church and state should find these statements acceptable and appropriate for classroom use, and
(3) that the principle barrier to display is the lack of someone with deep pockets who will guarantee to teachers they will be protected from lawsuits arising from display of this document.

You may wish to join me in encouraging adoption of an Amendment to our Constitution to limit Federal jurisdiction over use of locally owned public property; to view that click here.

You are welcome to copy and use the above in any manner you can devise. I offer the first version (and a variation with added artwork) on 8-1/2x11 simulated parchment suitable for framing or mounting on a plaque at $1 each in groups of ten (plus postage if outside the USA). You may be in touch via e-mail by clicking here for the e-mail form. Please use as subject "I read your post about the Ten Commandments" to bypass my spam filter.

(I have become disheartened, after repeated efforts to present this version to commentators and potential users, and conclude that other issues so dominate public attention that the fine line between Federal and local ownership of public property goes unnoticed. Public sentiment seems to turn more on the impotence of local leaders to overturn a constitutional wrong than on providing a tool for classroom instruction in morality. Study of statistics on visitors to this web site tells me there is a continuing interest in the topic, and search strings leading to this page suggest confusion on the part of searchers as to exactly what they want. For my part I cease to devote time and attention to adoption and use of this presentation of a crucially important component of our heritage. July 2007)

My printer requires 3 pages or 2 sheets of paper plus whatever copies you want of linked documents.