I mentioned in a previous post, one for which I have provided a link to at the end of this post, that the Texas GOP was pushing for a law which would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public schools. At it turned out, the GOP legislature in that state did not push it forward.
Not to be outdone however, the Louisiana legislature, which also features a super majority for the GOP, did pass such a law, and with the governor now a Republican, this requirement is now the law of the land in that state.
(As a side note, the Texas Lt. Governor who was none too happy with the lack of progress on that front, is vowing to make Texas the second state to enact this directive. And I imagine that states such Missouri and Alabama might follow suit as well.)
So, what is so bad about displaying obviously moral guidelines to help our young people navigate the world?
Well, let's refresh ourselves with those Commandments.
Where did they come from?
Most Biblical scholars attribute the Commandments as given to Moses by Yahweh (God) at Mt Sinai. Verses in the Bible, specifically from Exodus and Deuteronomy, recount the event. And while there is some debate on the true origin of these directives, and some slight disagreements among various faiths as to the order, content, and even if ten was used more as a memory tool than the actual number, most people recognize the following list as the ten commandments.
1
God wants what is best for you. If you put something else before Him in your life, it’s harder for him to bless you.
2
Anything you worship more than God is a “graven image.” Cars, clothes, sports, even our jobs are dangerous things to worship because they can go away. But God will never go away, and that’s why it’s best for us to only worship Him.
3
This can mean using God’s name like a swear word, or it can mean saying you are a Christian but not living or acting like Jesus would want you to act.
4
Sunday, or the Sabbath day, is a day we can all go to church, worship God, and learn how to be better people and Christians. Keeping it holy means doing our best to remember Him throughout the day.
5
It’s important to show our parents respect. This might look different for everyone, but we should always try to love and care for those who cared for us first.
6
A simple but important rule for anyone.
7
Men and women make promises to each other when they are married. These promises are important, and breaking them causes deep sadness. Keeping those promises help men and women have happy marriages and happy lives.
8
It is important to God that His children are honest with each other. Taking anything that doesn’t belong to you is stealing, and is against His commandment.
9
This one is about honesty. If you lie to someone, you are “bearing false witness,” and may cause harm to yourself and to others.
10
To covet means to be so jealous of something someone else has that you want it desperately. Coveting makes a person miserable and keeps them from putting God first. This commandment helps keep you from falling into this bad habit.
Now, again, thinking of these as guidelines, it is hard to fault the logic of posting them, perhaps not just in classrooms, but in the board rooms of corporations, on the floors of Congress, during political speeches, on green screens behind every single political opinion pundit and news person. In this way, when business decisions are made, political speeches are given, laws are debated, opinions are offered, we can see how their words compare to these precepts.
Maybe even have a score card under each speaker, tallying the times a commandment is broken either through past actions or current words.
Can you imagine, keeping track of the times someone has lied about a electoral candidate or a group of people, how many times a business person has made a decision based on greed, how many times someone stole from others through graft, or pay for play or any of the myriad ways that the rich influence our elected officials?
Many people advocating for this law, state that many of our current laws are based on the Ten Commandments, such as #6, Thou shalt not kill. Should we follow this example and make some other laws based on the commandments?
How about #4, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Should we pass laws mandating church attendance on Sunday? Or just make it a general law that requires some kind of church attendance once a week, regardless of the day or building name? This wouldn't create a government sponsored religion, just a requirement for attendance at one's religion of choice.
I personally might go to different ones, just to see which provide the most serious spiritual guidance, or just meet with a group of people who prefer no religion affiliations. Would meeting once a week to play volleyball in appreciation of the sun, exercise, and camaraderie count toward my requirement?
Along those lines, I am old enough to remember when stores were closed on Sundays and when very few people worked that day for just such a reason. I imagine it was the business community that pushed us away from those "blue" laws.
One might posit that eliminating those laws was a violation, not just of commandment #4, but also of #1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me, money being the god in this case, and even perhaps #2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, the graven image being the desire for business success and material gain.
By the way, the term blue law may have been derived from an 18th century list of Sabbath regulations, which were printed on blue paper.
Another easy target to make illegal would be #7 Thou shalt not commit adultery. Now, when I say easy, I don't mean it will be easy to prosecute the tens of millions of Americans who have broken this commandment, but it is easy to determine that it has been broken.
Perhaps when the commandment is broken, a fine can be levied which can then be used to provide money towards combating child poverty, or put towards reducing the federal deficit. The fines could be on a sliding scale, when admitted readily, $100 per occasion, but when turned in by a adultery bounty hunter, $500 per event.
A double win there, as this provides money and jobs!
You may be laughing at such a concept, but there is a real push among certain far right camps to rescind no fault divorce laws, and return to the days when a couple could only break up for cause. When we understand what was the reality for most of history, the cause was only when the husband decided there was a reason, women having very limited rights to begin a divorce proceeding.
To be honest, I am all for more spirituality in America, and if having the ten commandments, or any of the plethora of guidelines that exist from the hundreds of other sacred texts which provide principles for a moral life per the various religions that claim to be the one true way to heaven/nirvana/enlightenment, etc, I am on board.
But that requires us to remember that the founders specifically mandated in the Constitution, in the first amendment for that matter, that
Congress shall make no law respecting an
So, maybe we have a rotating set of instructions which reflect the different religions of our time, thereby reminding our children that god can be found in a plethora of religious books, that no specific set of rules is any better than the next, but that it is important to seek out one's own path to being a better person, and living a virtuous life, without judging someone else's choices.
Can you imagine?
Of course, we all know that becoming a better person or living a life as god wishes, is not the main point of these political stunts. It is to make clear which religion, which set of beliefs, which way of living is the best one, is the one blessed by the true god. And who is not loved by god, and who we need to purge from our country.
I have written under the label Separation of Church and State before, and as promised, here are links to two of those posts.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/02/another-step-towards-theocracy.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/one-step-forward-for-american-theocracy.html
To be honest, I am somewhat surprised that the Louisiana GOP legislature and governor are so eager to display the Ten Commandments considering that their candidate could be considered somewhat of a record holder, in terms of breaking the commandments.
I mean, it is well documented that the former president is twice divorced, having fathered five children with three different women, and who broke commandment #7 during all three marriages. And such unfaithfulness certainly equates to violation of #10 Thou shalt not covet.
Additionally, he had been convicted of business fraud, specifically of lying to gain a monetary advantage in applying for loans, not to mention maintaining a separate set of books to as to cheat the state of New York out of tax revenue, so there goes #10 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Speaking of commandment #10, Trump stomps on this one every time he demeans immigrants, or people from Muslim countries, or pretty much anyone who disagrees with his thoughts.
If you haven't been paying attention, he supported the candidate running in the Virginia Republican Primary against the incumbent Bob Good, because Good, who is the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, and has supported all of Trump's claims about the election being stolen, had the temerity of supporting Desantis in the beginning of the GOP Republican Presidential Primary.
Of course, he has endorsed Trump since Desantis's departure from the race, but that is not good enough for the man who demands total loyalty. What is truly sad, is that Good is currently claiming election fraud as the ballots are being counted (he trails by a very slim margin), and is faulting RINOs for his deficit, not once mentioning that Trump was among those who supported the opposition candidate.
Which brings us back to commandment #1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. It is very clear that Trump demands that he be placed before anything or anyone else. So Bob Good, continues to prostate himself before the altar of Trump, just as do so many GOP elected representatives and wannabes.
From wanting to name airports after him, to applauding him in the halls of Congress, forty one months after he sent his cult members to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election, they violate commandments #1 and #2.
Well, at least Trump hasn't killed anyone. Except that he has bragged about how he could violate commandment #6 Thou shalt not kill, when he says he could shoot someone in Times Square and not lose any popularity, and when his lawyer, while addressing the Supreme Court of the United States of America, says he could have his political rival killed, and not be prosecuted unless he was impeached first.
So yes, let's hang those commandments, let's provide moral lessons to our children, and let's illustrate how not to behave by using the example of someone who not only has a history of violating the commandments, not only requires his followers to violate commandment #1 by elevating him to the status of God, but actually boasts about being able to violate commandment #6 with impunity.
Maybe, along with the commandments, we can post a picture of Trumps' mug shot with a warning not to be like him.
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