During a debate about displaying the Ten Commandments in local government buildings in southern Florida, Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall dismissed the sacred meaning of the words found in the Bible.
“It has nothing to do with religion,” he declared. “This proposal has nothing to do with religion. Zero, zilcho, nada.”
Now, before you dismiss Hall as some godless, woke atheist attacking the Bible, he’s actually a Christian minister and the person who authored the measure to post the Ten Commandments! But this pastor who really wants to post the Ten Commandments had the gall to suggest he likes them just because of their supposed historical importance.
“It has to do with providing something that’s historical in our nation based on the founding fathers, their principles, their virtues,” Hall claimed. “I didn’t bring this up for anything religious. I brought it up to bring awareness of the virtues and the things that our country actually needs to get to. It’s this cancel culture that’s canceled everything good, everything historical. How’s that worked out for you? How’s it worked out for Washington, D.C.? Crime-ridden but now is turned around because we’re bringing back some things that needed to have happened a long time ago.”
Despite his false claim about crime rates in the nation’s capital, which were at a 30-year low when President Donald Trump sent in National Guard troops, I’m not sure how that proves the county should hang up the Ten Commandments. It’s not like Trump is reducing crime rates by putting up posters with words from Exodus 20. Nor is crime going down because of the massive posters going up of Trump’s face on government buildings — which probably precludes also posting that commandment about graven images.
Screengrab as Chris Hall speaks during an Aug. 26, 2025, Collier County Commissioners meeting in Naples, Florida.
Putting aside the non sequitur about Trump’s use of military forces in D.C., the idea that Hall just wants to hang up the Ten Commandments because he’s a history buff is absurd. He’s been outspoken about his conservative Christian beliefs, and during the commissioners meeting was wearing a heart-shaped pin with one half filled in with the U.S. flag and the other side with the Christian flag. His official biography on the county’s website not only notes his three decades in ministry but also declares that he and his wife “are strong believers in the Lord!” He also previously insisted that he ran for the office in 2022 because God directed him to and argued that we need to “make America godly again.” And later in his remarks about posting the Ten Commandments, he spoke about his faith in ways that show he really is driven by faith to post the words from the Bible.
“I sat here and listened to personal attacks on me,” Hall said after a long public hearing with numerous residents opposing his measure. “To the one speaker who thought that I needed a $50 Christian trophy, here’s my answer: ‘For I know who[m] I have believed and I’m fully persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against this day.’ And ‘every weapon that’s formed against me shall not prosper.’ And I condemn those words because that’s my right as a saint.”
Hall quoted, albeit with some edits, 1 Timothy 1:12 and Isaiah 54:17 to anoint himself as a holy crusader. That’s odd if this is just a quest to honor history. In reality, he’s claiming the goal is historical because that’s what the courts require. And he’s including the Ten Commandments with other documents like the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and preamble to the Florida Constitution to suggest this is just a display of historical documents. In fact, he originally just wanted to post the Ten Commandments but added the other documents after county lawyers told him he needed to create the guise of it being a historical display.
But we shouldn’t be fooled. The only reason the conservative Christian pastor wants to post the Ten Commandments is because it’s a religious document he affirms. And for him to suggest otherwise, as he did during his official remarks, is to bear false witness (hint to Hall: that’s one of the Ten). The remarks by Hall and others on the commission as they passed the proposal 4-1 are quite revealing, so this issue of A Public Witness heads to Florida with the zeal of Moses descending from the mountain.
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