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BY KIM SHINKOSKEY

Many people acknowledge that America has slipped more than a bit from its previous stature in the world. While everyone understands that economic power is an important measure of greatness, there are still plenty who believe that America is great because she is good.

How has America been doing as measured against the standard of morality that has guided Western civilization for over 3,000 years, the Ten Commandments?  

Let’s start with the 4th Commandment to keep the sabbath day holy. Today, there isn’t a lot of church going, some of it for good reasons. However, the nation has gone well overboard in the other direction by fully committing itself to Sunday sports gambling as an alternative to Sunday education and service to family. That is far from good. 

The 8th Commandment says thou shalt not steal. We have pretty much given up on prosecuting low-dollar single-item theft today. Instead, we are confronted with large scale smash-and-grabs and opportunistic looting in the cities. When we add in unregulated white-collar theft, we see even more decline. The 2008 subprime mortgage predators are still running around naked and undeterred in the public square today.

The 6th Commandment says thou shalt not kill. We certainly haven’t discouraged cold blooded murder all that much in America, not like when there were hangings in the public square that families were invited to attend. In fact, we now revel in nightly news of AR-15 related mass murders. America’s overseas warmaking where we don’t always know which side is currently in the right, like in Gaza, is another indicator of decline.

The 5th Commandment, honor thy father and thy mother, deals with establishing and maintaining the sanctity of the American two-parent home and parental authority to guide children into adulthood. Today, kids are lucky if they have one useful parent in the home, and many other legal authorities have taken over the raising of children because of the dearth of good parenting.

The 7th Commandment against adultery has taken a beating as well. Today we have legalized “open” and “flexible” marriages, swinging, polyamory, and consensual non-monogamy. We haven’t really enforced adultery statues in over a hundred years, and we don’t even factor adultery into divorce proceedings.

The 2nd Commandment against making images of ourselves and living the “golden calf” lifestyle has been thrashed almost more than the others. Americans are so given over to facial make-up and weight workouts, so seemingly empowered by meticulous posing and enhanced photography, so devoted to luxury lifestyles, and so worshipful of celebrities and politicians that we can’t think of any reason to spend time or money on anyone other than ourselves and our favorite idols.

The 3rd Commandment against taking the name of God in vain, or swearing, has pretty much been flip-flopped by our music and movie entertainment industries, and by children mimicking their parents. Today, if you don’t swear profusely, you just aren’t cool. Even if we consider the alternate interpretation that we should be oath-keepers, we are equally unconcerned about that as well. Take for example our 50% divorce rate after making the sacred commitment of “’til death do us part.”  

The 9th Commandment against false witness has been torpedoed by unrelenting attempts at witness tampering, plea bargaining, spreading of false news and false information, shirking of jury duty, bribery, and lying as an acceptable mode of social discourse.

The 10th Commandment requires paying respect to the neighbor by not destroying their marriages and by keeping hands off their property, but also by positively supporting them in time of need. That is pretty much ancient history in America as well. We talk about loving our neighbors, but in reality, we don’t even want to know their names.

The 1st Commandment against backsliding away from our entire system of law, morals, and ethics has been blown away by the long-term hyper-libertarian movement in America. That movement says individuals must live like an island, saying and doing whatever we please and leaving others to fend for themselves. Community and shared values are a big drag on our personal aspirations.

It seems clear that “America is Great because America is Good” is no longer a thing. Our new motto is “flip-off and freak-off” anything and everything that moves.

(Robert Kimball Shinkoskey is the author of the book Democracy and the Ten Commandments. (2016)