Many Christians claim that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of American law and/or government. If that's true, then where can the Fourth Commandment to be found in American law — and especially in the Constitution which is the foundation for American law and government? Is there any basis for saying that any aspect of American law owes anything to the Fourth Commandment?
If the Fourth Commandment has any connection to American law or government then Christians making this argument will have to be able to explain what exactly it means.
That's a real problem, though, because Jews, Catholics, Protestants haven't even all agreed amongst themselves, much less with each other, on what it means and what it requires.
The simplest and shortest version of the Fourth Commandment is just "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," though sometimes it's shortened even further to just "Remember the Sabbath." Left that simply, there's a tremendous amount of room for interpretation. What do you have to do to just "remember" the sabbath and keep it "holy"? There could presumably be an almost infinite number of ways to do this.
The full commandment, though, is a bit less vague:
This seems pretty straightforward: no work is permitted by anyone, not even your servants. Nothing is as simple as it seems, though, because Orthodox Jews (the only people who seem to try to uphold this commandments in a strict an literal manner) have had all sorts of debates over what qualifies as "work." Is it work to light a fire? To flip a light switch? To save a life?
So if the Fourth Commandment is supposed to be part of the foundation of American law, which form (simple or complex) and whose interpretation? Are we really supposed to believe that it's part of the foundation of American law and government that people aren't supposed to do any work whatsoever on the "sabbath"? What would American society look like if everyone, even police, fire, and medical services, shut down completely on the sabbath?
And which or whose "sabbath," anyway?
If you take a look at the Constitution, you won't find anything remotely like the command "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." The closest is the "Sundays Excepted Clause" in Article I, section 7:
It's not the same, though, because it doesn't actually reference a "sabbath." Conservative Christians who assume that Sunday must be the sabbath will equate the two, but the fact is they aren't equivalent. Moreover, there's nothing in the Constitution about exempting Sundays for any other situations which we should expect if the point is to reserve Sunday as a day of rest.
The truth is, this clause was added to prevent the Congress from using religion in an underhanded way by making it harder for the President to veto a bill.
There have of course been many attempts to enforce the Third Commandment with the law — or to be more specific, to enforce mainstream Christianity's ideas about the Third Commandment. These are known as "sabbath" laws or "blue" laws and forced a variety of businesses to be closed on Sundays. At times they were strict and forced all businesses to be closed; currently any such laws are loose and only require certain businesses (like those that sell alcohol) to be closed on Sundays.
It's important to keep in mind, though, that even when these blue laws were at their strictest, they didn't forbid absolutely all work. At no point did any level of government in America make it a crime to cook or light fires, activities which are defined as "work" and thus forbidden to Jews on their sabbath. Instead, "work" was defined in a much more limited manner.
Speaking of the Jewish sabbath, that occurs on Saturday and America's blue laws never required any businesses to close on that day. This has created real hardships for Jews in America because they had to close on Sundays for the Christian sabbath but also on Saturdays so they could observe their own sabbath, putting them at a disadvantage relative to Christian businesses.
The Supreme Court has even found that these sabbath laws are constitutional, arguing that it's legitimate for the government to enforce a mandatory day of "rest" even if it coincidentally falls on the Christian sabbath and creates hardships for others. The key to the successful defenses of these laws has, though, been removing the rationale which exists in the text of the Fourth Commandment: honoring God.
Nevertheless, these laws have mostly disappeared because most people just don't like them — they aren't popular and aren't welcome anymore. So while legislating the Fourth Commandment has existed over a long period of time and has been successful from a constitutional perspective, it has become unpopular with the general public and can't easily be labeled a "foundation" for American law or government.
What Does the Fourth Commandment Mean?
If the Fourth Commandment has any connection to American law or government then Christians making this argument will have to be able to explain what exactly it means.
That's a real problem, though, because Jews, Catholics, Protestants haven't even all agreed amongst themselves, much less with each other, on what it means and what it requires.
The simplest and shortest version of the Fourth Commandment is just "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," though sometimes it's shortened even further to just "Remember the Sabbath." Left that simply, there's a tremendous amount of room for interpretation. What do you have to do to just "remember" the sabbath and keep it "holy"? There could presumably be an almost infinite number of ways to do this.
The full commandment, though, is a bit less vague:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20: 8-11)
This seems pretty straightforward: no work is permitted by anyone, not even your servants. Nothing is as simple as it seems, though, because Orthodox Jews (the only people who seem to try to uphold this commandments in a strict an literal manner) have had all sorts of debates over what qualifies as "work." Is it work to light a fire? To flip a light switch? To save a life?
The Fourth Commandment and the Constitution
So if the Fourth Commandment is supposed to be part of the foundation of American law, which form (simple or complex) and whose interpretation? Are we really supposed to believe that it's part of the foundation of American law and government that people aren't supposed to do any work whatsoever on the "sabbath"? What would American society look like if everyone, even police, fire, and medical services, shut down completely on the sabbath?
And which or whose "sabbath," anyway?
If you take a look at the Constitution, you won't find anything remotely like the command "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." The closest is the "Sundays Excepted Clause" in Article I, section 7:
"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, in like Manner as if he had signed it."
It's not the same, though, because it doesn't actually reference a "sabbath." Conservative Christians who assume that Sunday must be the sabbath will equate the two, but the fact is they aren't equivalent. Moreover, there's nothing in the Constitution about exempting Sundays for any other situations which we should expect if the point is to reserve Sunday as a day of rest.
The truth is, this clause was added to prevent the Congress from using religion in an underhanded way by making it harder for the President to veto a bill.
Attempts to Legislate the Fourth Commandment
There have of course been many attempts to enforce the Third Commandment with the law — or to be more specific, to enforce mainstream Christianity's ideas about the Third Commandment. These are known as "sabbath" laws or "blue" laws and forced a variety of businesses to be closed on Sundays. At times they were strict and forced all businesses to be closed; currently any such laws are loose and only require certain businesses (like those that sell alcohol) to be closed on Sundays.
It's important to keep in mind, though, that even when these blue laws were at their strictest, they didn't forbid absolutely all work. At no point did any level of government in America make it a crime to cook or light fires, activities which are defined as "work" and thus forbidden to Jews on their sabbath. Instead, "work" was defined in a much more limited manner.
Speaking of the Jewish sabbath, that occurs on Saturday and America's blue laws never required any businesses to close on that day. This has created real hardships for Jews in America because they had to close on Sundays for the Christian sabbath but also on Saturdays so they could observe their own sabbath, putting them at a disadvantage relative to Christian businesses.
The Supreme Court has even found that these sabbath laws are constitutional, arguing that it's legitimate for the government to enforce a mandatory day of "rest" even if it coincidentally falls on the Christian sabbath and creates hardships for others. The key to the successful defenses of these laws has, though, been removing the rationale which exists in the text of the Fourth Commandment: honoring God.
Nevertheless, these laws have mostly disappeared because most people just don't like them — they aren't popular and aren't welcome anymore. So while legislating the Fourth Commandment has existed over a long period of time and has been successful from a constitutional perspective, it has become unpopular with the general public and can't easily be labeled a "foundation" for American law or government.
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