MAGA-aligned Governor Mike Braun of Indiana shared a photograph of a Ten Commandments monument on social media and wrote: “This monument was banned from the Statehouse grounds more than 20 years ago. It reflects foundational parts of our shared history: The Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights and the Indiana Constitution. It was banned under a legal standard that no longer applies. It’s time to lift the ban and put this monument back where it belongs.”
Charles Short, a self-described “Pre-maga Paleo-Republican since 1978” in West Lafayette, Indiana replied to Braun: “Governor, as a Republican and a Presbyterian deacon, it would seem we have far more important things to do than re-fight the monument battle. The Commandments are etched first on the hearts of the faithful. Let that be the church’s business, while you seek proper government.”
Governor, as a Republican and a Presbyterian deacon, it would seem we have far more important things to do than re-fight the monument battle.
The Commandments are etched first on the hearts of the faithful. Let that be the church’s business, while you seek proper government.
— Charles Short (@CharlesShort) December 31, 2025
Braun’s Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith replied to Short: “Government does well when it protects and promotes the virtue upon which our society rests. As Founding Father Benjamin Rush rightly warned, ‘Without virtue there can be no liberty, and without religion there can be no virtue.’ Restoring this monument to its rightful place isn’t about nostalgia, it’s about preserving the moral foundation that makes good governance possible for Hoosiers, now and for generations to come.”
Short replied to Beckwith: “While a republic cannot function without a good and moral people, the republic itself is not charged with making people good and moral. That is the purview of churches, temples, synagogues, kitchen tables, good parenting, and the people’s spiritual leaders.”
While a republic cannot function without a good and moral people, the republic itself is not charged with making people good and moral. That is the purview of churches, temples, synagogues, kitchen tables, good parenting, and the people’s spiritual leaders.
— Charles Short (@CharlesShort) December 31, 2025
Note: In April, after Democrats in the Indiana Senate argued against an anti-DEI bill and compared it to the Three-fifths Compromise, Beckwith defended the Compromise and called it “a great move” that “helped to root out slavery.” (The Compromise counted each Black enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being for the purposes of taxation and representation.)
Beckwith’s comments about the Compromise were condemned by the Alliance of Baptists, the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, and the Indiana chapter of the National Action Network.
Governor Braun was also critical of Beckwith’s comments saying he “did not like it” and “definitely wouldn’t have used that characterization.” Indiana state representative Earl Harris Jr. (D) called Beckwith’s statements “shameful whitewashing” of history.