‘Taking the Lord’s name in vain, people do that all the time’ Rogan says, but admits the Decalogue is ‘pretty legit’ By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, September 24, 2025A screenshot of podcaster Joe Rogan in a Sept. 16 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience.” | Screenshot/YouTube/JRE ExperienceAs a Texas law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools faces an uncertain legal future, podcaster Joe Rogan says he has a problem with one of those commandments in particular.In a Sept. 16 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” with actor Matthew McConaughey, Rogan took aim at Texas’ Senate Bill 10, which requires public school classrooms to display the Decalogue, but was blocked by a temporary injunction last month. Ranging in topics from adolescent confusion to nurturing personal integrity in a chaotic world, the conversation turned to the Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 20. McConaughey said he couldn’t think of a better moral target for children to aim for.”With all of that exterior stimulus and here we are with adult minds and even talking about it, man, imagine a child,” he said. “Does anyone have a better suggestion than the Ten Commandments to get a child’s mind going, ‘Ooh, just those 10 things, if I look at that and aim that direction, I feel like I can’t go wrong.'”The conversation then turned to SB 10, which drew criticism from Rogan, whose podcast is based in Austin, regarding displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools. “If I was going to put it in a school where there are non-religious people, there’s a bunch of stuff in there like, ‘not taking the Lord’s name in vain,’ ‘not having any other gods before me,’ where that would give people pause,” he said, referring to the first and third commandments.“They’d be like, Wait a minute, what are you telling me? I can’t take the Lord’s name in vain?’ Like saying ‘g——it’ is like taking the Lord’s name in vain, people do that all the time.” McConaughey compared taking the Lord’s name in vain with the burning of the American flag, a practice many believe should be illegal and that President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order against. “It’s similar to, on a national level, the flag burning thing … that would be like taking [the] Lord’s name in vain,” McConaughey said. “Burning the flag would be like taking the flag’s name in vain, right?”“Imagine that,” replied Rogan. “Imagine you get arrested for taking the Lord’s name in vain, right?” He compared the enforcement of what he called “Christian law” to the implementation of Sharia law, which is the body of religious law that forms the Islamic tradition.”And if you put something like that in, like now, what are you going to do? [Are] you going to enforce Christian law? What if someone enforces Sharia law? There’s a lot of talk of that,” he added. McConaughey, who was reportedly raised in a Baptist home, suggested an interfaith solution of allowing all faith traditions to “bring your best 10” and decide which values to represent. “What if we get with the Hindus and the Muslims and everybody, and you got to bring your best 10,” he said. “Christianity is bringing its Ten Commandments. Let’s get together here and we’ll put them all together.He continued, “Hell, we’ll mix some of yours, my number eight will be number nine because yours is going to be number eight, and we’re going to put them up there and it’s going to be a creed, a little constitution to get our day started.”After calling the proposal “interesting,” Rogan suggested such a plan would ultimately fail because, he said, “most religions are ideologically opposed to conflicting religions, they don’t want to accept that these other religions are correct about anything,” and named Judaism and Christianity specifically. “They share a bunch of things, but they disagree on Jesus and rising from the dead.”In another part of the interview, however, Rogan appeared to acknowledge the enduring timelessness of the Ten Commandments, asking, “Are there any in there that don’t hold up today? No, I think they’re pretty legit.”“If you think about it, they’re pretty legit and they’re 2,000 years old,” he added. “They kind of nailed it.”Despite previously identifying as an atheist, Rogan revealed in June that he’s been going to a “Christian church,” describing it as a “very nice” place where people are trying to become “better.”“It’s actually very nice,” Rogan said when asked about his experience at church. “They’re all just trying to be better people. It’s a good vibe.”
Joe Rogan, Matthew McConaughey talk Ten Commandments in schools
