Ken Hurley
Sinners unite! In 1631, a tiny typo shook the religious world. In a reprint of the King James Bible by the famed, and later defamed, royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the word “not” was shockingly omitted from the Exodus version of the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” was mistakenly printed as “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Oops, but oooh, the fun, said God. The typo appeared in about a thousand copies, which later came to be known as the “Wicked Bible” or “Sinners’ Bible” or “The Adulterer's Bible.” When the error was discovered, about a year after publication, Barker and Lucas were summoned to the Star Chamber to be adjudicated, fined £300 (equivalent to about $82,000 in 2024) and had their printing license revoked. All the King's Men proceeded to find and destroy as many copies of the Wicked Bible as possible, making it a rare collector’s item. Today, only about 15 copies remain. I know one copy is in the New York Public Library rare book collection.
And, from the “Here We Go Again” file. Commandments in the classroom! Dateline June 19, 2024 BATON ROUGE — The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced that they will file suit to challenge a new Louisiana law that mandates Ten Commandments in each K-12 Louisiana public school classroom. Apparently, Louisiana hasn't learned from Kentucky. (All bourbon aside.) In Stone v. Graham, the U.S. Supreme Court on November 17, 1980, ruled (5 – 4) that a Kentucky statute requiring school officials to post a copy of the Ten Commandments (purchased with private contributions) on a wall in every public school classroom violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which is commonly interpreted as separation of church and state. Looks like they can't actually post these Commandments on their side of the Wall Between Church and State, so they chose to legislate posting them on the walls of Louisiana's public schools. The Court found that the Ten Commandments "had no secular legislative purpose" such as murder and stealing and was "plainly religious in nature" such as the worship of God and the observance of the Sabbath Day.
Rhetorical question: How would the U.S. Supreme Court rule if the word “not” were deleted from each of the applicable Commandments, a la the Wicked Bible?
Problem: We're in different times now. The Court's decision was narrowly divided in 1980. Today, we have a Court stacked with Christian Nationalists who are quite capable of ruling based on their religious biases and not precedent.
One more thing, the Court, at the end of its recent term, ruled in Donald J. Trump v. The United States, that presidents do have immunity from prosecution and cannot be criminally charged for "official acts.” How much immunity and to what extent is yet to be determined. This ruling allows presidents to engage in what otherwise might be criminal acts as long as they are considered “official acts” of the job — without criminal accountability. Hypothetically, even ordering assassinations. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the determination of what may or may not be a presidential official act “... is best left to the lower courts …” We now have a dramatic expansion of executive authority. Or, in other words, the president who would be king. Our former president tried to overthrow our democracy with a violent insurrection. What might he do now (if elected) in the name of “official acts?” Not just him… future presidents too.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a scathing dissent, the ruling creates “nightmare scenarios” for what a president is now legally permitted to do. “Orders the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
However, how can it be an “official act” when a lame duck president conspires with his private attorneys to overturn the results of an election? More likely it is an act of a despotic narcissist,
convicted fraudster, convicted felon, consummate liar, and twice-impeached former president who attempted to overthrow American democracy so he could cling to power. Hyperbole? Nah. Wicked.
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