Ten Commandments and the Civil Law:

Ed Brayton once again debunks the myth that the Ten Commandments are the basis of America's civil law. To the contrary, under the old, pre-Enlightened order when Church & State were not separated, the Ten Commandments were part of the civil law in Western Christian societies, complete with laws meriting the death penalty for breaking the First Command or worshipping false gods or heresy in attempting to worship the "true" God.

Fast forward to America's Founding, the organic law of which holds parts of the Ten Commandments could be part of the civil law (don't steal, don't kill), parts have nothing properly to do with the civil law (don't worship false gods). Accordingly, Nature's God grants men an unalienable right to break the First Commandment -- arguably at least the first four -- and rules announced in other parts of the Bible. If one believes in God granted unalienable rights as instructive of America's Founding order, one must begin with the premise that Nature's God grants men a right not just to do what the Bible forbids but that for which the Bible demands the death penalty (worship false gods).