By ROBERT P. SELLERS
Recently, watching an old movie about a trial in a small American town, I noted the wooden panel displaying the Ten Commandments placed on the back wall of the courtroom. Visible, just for the moment when the protagonist walked across the room to address the jury, the image lodged in my subconscious.
Hanging on the wall where truth was sought and justice dispensed, the sign was a relic of an earlier era of our national life when we were less attentive to the religious diversity of our citizenry. Nonetheless, those biblical commandments — conceived as a fitting movie prop because they are so familiar — have caused me to consider their relevance to our self-identified “law and order” president, Donald J. Trump, and those who admire him — ironically often people who believe we ought to have the Ten Commandments posted in every schoolhouse and courtroom.