Facebook is truly a marvel. It can be used for so many things. Sending love, birthday wishes, expressing out thoughts of the moment, making fun of human nature etc. etc. etc.
One thing I really like about Facebook is that I have friends who are diverse. We are different in so many ways color, age, location, political views, economic status, educational status, work and so on. I love having friends who help me to see things in different way. Sometimes, however, while I get the point, I don't particularly agree with the point. Today's blog highlights one of those times.
I was minding my own Facebook business, scrolling, when I came upon this meme by Katha Pollitt. She is a highly educated writer. She has contributed to The New Yorker, and, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Harper’s, Ms., Glamour, Mother Jones, The New York Times the London Review of Books. She has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered, Charlie Rose, The McLaughlin Group, CNN, Dateline NBC and the BBC. Her work has been republished in many anthologies and is taught in many university classes. *taken from The Nation for which she is a columnist. She's smart and well received. Yet I can't help but take exception to her view on the Ten Commandments. Feel free to look it or her up. Her meme quote says:
"When you consider that God could have commanded anything He wanted, anything! the Ten Commandments have got to rank as one of the great missed moral opportunities of all time. How different history would have been if He had clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny, taking over other people's countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife beating, stoning, treating women or anyone as chattel or inferior beings."
One of the first things that sticks out to me is her use of the word moral. Dictionary.com defines moral as:
1.of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical:
moral attitudes.
2.
expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work.
3.
founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom:
The left love to claim the moral high ground even against their Creator. Because they have the moral high ground no one can tell them differently. Not even God.
The second word is history. Holy Cow, part and parcel of the moral high ground is history. "History will judge", or "you will be on the wrong side of history" is a threat they throw out. Gasp, not that, please, no. You mean people who don't know me after I am dead may judge me? Oh, how will I live with myself? Yeah, I won't. I will be dead and won't give a flying crap what people think so give it a rest. Like history is a living being that can punish me. Marian, I am going to need to you sit down and think about what you've done. Said history, never.
I am not as educated as Ms. Pollitt. I don't think I have to be to disagree with her premise that God missed an opportunity to be clear. First, to the Israelite people the commandments were clear. Second, if one thinks they are clear. But one has to think but really not that hard.
So, here are a few of my thoughts regarding the Ten Commandments. If you want to read them for yourself they can be found in Exodus chapter 20 in the Old Testament.
Let's look at number one shall we? Thou shall have no other gods before me. A god can take many forms. Whether an actual idol or god other than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It can be our being prideful. Thinking we know better than God. Putting our own thoughts and ideas up a pedestal to be admired by us and others. Prideful people tend to be selfish, and unkind, feeling they are better than others which can lead them to think it's OK to hurt and oppress.
Two warns us to not take the Lord's name in vain. How about we don't think of it as just using the Lord's name as a swear word. But how about not using the Lord to justify your actions. No using his name to try to create a reason that you are allowed to do bad things.
How about number three? Keep the Sabbath day holy. It's supposed to be a day where we can rest from our routine labors and focus on the Lord. We're not to work or have those who work for us work on that day. What constitutes work is left up to us to decide. But if we are focusing on the Lord on the day of rest and doing his work our minds and hearts will be softened, open to inspiration from Him.
Let's look at honoring our parents. Part of honoring is showing love and respect. Loving and respectful people are kind to others and do what is right.
Let's move on to the very clear ones. Thou shalt not kill. I don't think I have to go in too deeply, right? Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You know don't lie, steal, or kill or commit adultery. People who obey these commandments are good and kind people. They have learned to control their emotions and their passions which makes them very unlikely to hurt others.
Lastly, let's take a look here. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. To covet isn't just to want one of your own but to want their specific house, or wife or anything that belongs to someone other than you. To want something that isn't yours so much that you are willing to fight, kill, lie etc. is a problem. People who steer clear of other's things, who seek after their own and practice good will toward others who have more or different are people you can trust.
He did forbidden war, thou shall not kill, tyranny, thou shalt covet or have other Gods, taking over other people's countries, thou shalt not covet, slavery, thou shalt not use t he name of God in vain, thou shalt not covet, exploitation of workers keep the Sabbath day holy, cruelty to children, honor thy father and mother, wife beating, thou shalt have no other gods, stoning thou shalt not kill , treating women or anyone as chattel or inferior beings thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain, thou shalt not lie. I am positive there are other ways to link these bad acts to not keeping the top ten commandments. I know that people who are honestly striving to keep the commandments are good salt of the earth people.
They are the kind of people who try to live their lives like this: The 13th article of faith from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
Following the Ten Commandments will get us there. That is the point of them, really, to help us to be higher and better people.
