Adventists sometimes find themselves in odd alliances when it comes to religious liberty issues.
August 27, 2025 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Shawn Boonstra, Adventist Review
In recent months there has been a considerable push in some American states to require a display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. This past week, however, a judge in Texas temporarily stopped implementation in a number of school districts, ruling that it violates the principle of religious neutrality.
Critics of the law have insisted that the law is a violation of the establishment clause in the American Bill of Rights, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”[1]
It is, of course, an issue of interest to Seventh-day Adventists, who sometimes find themselves in odd alliances when it comes to religious liberty issues. On the one hand, Adventists are firm believers in the binding nature of the Ten Commandments; but on the other, they cannot agree with many other Christians who apparently wish to see Christianity woven into the fabric of government. From the perspective of Revelation 13 and other scriptural passages, Adventists remember that the blend of church and state that dominated medieval Europe led to gross violations of religious liberty and unthinkable crimes against so-called heretics, and their understanding of Bible prophecy underscores the importance of the American republic—at least at its inception—as a place designed to protect freedom of conscience.
It was once a lamb; but we can already hear the whispers of the dragon—who was the driving force between the abominable church-state alliance of the past.[2] Trust the devil to take something good (God’s moral law) and reframe it as something horrific (state-driven religion).
It’s a situation that pushes Adventists into the uncomfortable position of having to publicly resist something they privately love. To the outsider it can sometimes look as if we do not actually value the Ten Commandments, when in reality we value them deeply. We find ourselves agreeing with some decidedly irreligious interest groups (some openly hostile to faith) while contesting the political ambitions of some fellow Christians who seem determined to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can appear to be against something we prize—and eventually will even be considered antisocial for maintaining our position.
After preaching the importance of God’s moral law for generations, we find ourselves in the seemingly awkward position of telling other Christians, “No, not there.”
It is not hard to understand why other Christians would think of a Ten Commandments display in the classroom as a net positive for society. The second table, after all, offers a corrective for the libertine moral crisis in the West: it condemns theft, greed, murder, and adultery, while reinforcing the importance of family. The first table, however, proves to be far more contentious for non-Christians, and even for people who deny the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Even if it were true that the act of posting rules on the wall could change hearts, which version of those rules should a public school teacher choose? Should it be the rendition found in the King James Version? Is that acceptable to Orthodox Christians and Catholics? Would Jews or Muslims[3] sign off on that? And what about the numbering? Christians don’t agree on that, either—there is a decided split between Protestants and Catholics on that front. Which flavor of Christianity should be chosen?
The issue gets even stickier when you move beyond the borders of global Christianity into other major faith groups. How comfortable would Christian parents be with passages from non-Christian sacred texts being promoted in the classroom? And if we open the door to government-endorsed religious displays, would we be willing to include a statue of Baphomet—a distinctly (and dark!) occult symbol—as was proposed by the Satanic Temple as a countermeasure to a Ten Commandments display in Oklahoma?[4]
Of course, in time there will be those who insist that the Ten Commandments promote Sunday observance, and a groundswell cry against moral disorder will generate a desire for it. And here in America—the prophetic starting point for the issue—there may already be a quiet bomb waiting in the Constitution itself. Article I, section 7, explains that “if any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law.”
Sunday, in other words, is already deemed an exceptional nonbusiness day by the highest law of the land. In current practice Sunday is largely ignored by many Americans—but prophetically, we know it’ll be back. And there is constitutional evidence to suggest that the Founders would support it.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” the American philosopher George Santayana famously said. It is important to remember that coercive measures have never led to genuine evangelistic success in Christianity. They may have forced some to outwardly adopt the faith in order to save their jobs, their homes, or even their lives—but the Scriptures prescribe no such measures.
By contrast, the Bible reveals a much better place to display the Ten Commandments:
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds” (Heb. 10:16, ESV).[5]
Scripture appears to think that it’s better to live it than to legislate it.
Pullquote: It’s a situation that pushes Adventists into the uncomfortable position of having to publicly resist something they privately love.
[1] The United States Bill of Rights, Amendment I.
[2] See Revelation 13:2.
[3] While the Koran does not enumerate the Ten Commandments, it does refer to them (7:142-145).
[4] https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639726472/satanic-temple-protests-ten-commandments-monument-with-goat-headed-statue
[5] Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.