“[A] new poll has found that few Americans are familiar with more than four of the Ten Commandments,” writes Deanna Swift. “[M]urder, theft, and adultery ranked highest … while only a handful were familiar with Commandments prohibiting graven images and false witness.” (Via Alternet’s Peek.)
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. . . only a handful were familiar with Commandments prohibiting graven images and false witness.
Sort of explains how those good Christian Republican Party members can lie with such efficacy now, doesn’t it?
Perhaps that is why they are so keen on displaying them all over the place. If they knew that one of the commandments is obeying the sabbath, they would think differently. One of the biggest adjustments I had to make when moving from the US to Europe was the closing of stores on Sunday and being open for only a few hours on Saturday. I have to really plan ahead for the weekend. I can’t imagine the majority of American supporting the ten commandments if it involved not shopping on weekends.
where the blow up would take place. All the revenue lost by having their stores closed!
For those who are interested, here is a list of those Big 10 ” Thou shalt”‘s:
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shall not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
to open the stores in Europe on Sundays. Walmart has been fighting and fighting and succeeded in keeping the stores open later on Saturday. Some major grocery stores are now open until 8:00 pm on Saturdays.
moving into Europe!
Guess while BushCo is so friendly to corporate expansion/greed, the Waltons are working to spread their happy face to every hamlet and village in Europe.
God help those who face a WalMart coming to their area. Part of the charm of shopping in Europe is the local markets. Shopping for fresh food/flowers each day or two.
WalMart-BLECH!
In the UK it’s called ASDA.
Too many of us would call it AssDuh- an honestly named division of WalMart. (Did love Fairy dishwasher tabs, though).
Walmart closed on Sundays? Alabama would implode right after church the first Sunday it happened!
pull into the WalMart parking lot, the string of curse words coming out of the mouth of the righteous and holy because someone swiped the parking space they were waiting for. So much for that christian 10 minutes.
When I get a great parking space in front of a store, I always say “That’s what good clean christian living will do for you” and whoever is in the car always laughs hysterically.
Oh, see how the Va. General Assembly scrambled when they mistakenly gave workers a right to demand a day of rest. The business lobby went ape shit and demanded that the “mistake” be fixed. It was. Quickly.
And who says the government moves slowly?
I only recently became aware of the fact that there are differing versions of the Ten Commandments. So when we display them, we’re not just privileging certain religions, we’re privileging certain sects.
…I was told in parochial school – and Catholic numbering system of them – is the only correct way. All others are blasphemy. Which must have some Hebrews turning in their graves.
Had this discussion yesterday with my Jewsh colleague… which version indeed….
Yep. The ten quoted above are definitely not the Catholic version — the numbers are all out of order, the Catholic version has no “graven image” prohibition but does have two separate commandments prohibiting “coveting” — separating coveting spouses from coveting goods.
(We memorized these and the six precepts of the Church when we were six years old and preparing for First Communion. They explained that “adultery” is a sin that only adults can commit, so we didn’t have to know any more about it.)
In a similar vein, I always say I’m all in favor of prayer in the public schools — as long as the prayer is the “Hail Mary.”
. . . and practice even fewer.
It was the 10 suggestions.
George Carlin reduced the 10 to 2, and added one of his own (“Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.”)
http://www.geocities.com/bobmelzer/gc10cx.html
For obvious reasons of copyright, and because Booman’s attorney already gets enough of his money, I won’t reduce Carlin’s entire (very funny) riff on the 10 Commandments here, but just follow the link and enjoy.
Carlin’s Commandments:
I. Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie.
II. Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.
III. Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.
Good Old Carlin.
“It’s not hard to see the Bigger Dick Foreign Policy Theory in action. It goes something like this: ‘What? They have bigger dicks? Bomb them!'”
This is from Commandments Five to Eleven: Biblical arguments against public posting of the Ten Commandments by David E. Cortesi:
There you have the essential core of the Law as specified by Jesus: commandments 6, 7, 8, 9, and 5, omitting 10 (covetousness), but including the crucial Levitical eleventh.
A key point here is that Jesus is depicted as speaking to a Jew, in front of a crowd of Jews. He is not making new doctrine, he clearly is demonstrating his understanding of the Hebraic Law. If the first four commandments of Exodus were in fact specially privileged, Jesus would surely have been challenged for omitting them from his summary.
For corroboration we can turn to Saint Paul’s epistle to the early church in Rome, Romans 13:9,
Saint Paul’s statement on the crucial elements of the Law comprises commandments 7, 6, 8, 9, 10 (he restores covetousness but omits honor to parents), and the eleventh. Again, Saint Paul is writing to a congregation that is mostly, if not all, converted Jews who would be at least concerned if not affronted should their leader display ignorance of the Law as they were schooled in it. Hence we can assume that this is a fair summary of the Law as it was generally understood at that time.
So, according to Jesus, only half of the Commandments are important anyhow, plus the Levitical Law to “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”
Exquisite. Very much like the commandments of a local tribe, the Elwha.
Thanks Susan,
you and Booman have given me hope and I thank you greatly for it. Your analysis of many of the newsworthy items that MSM ignores, gives me talking points that I share with the wingers and republicans that I have to share my small town with here in Kansas. I am slowly and methodically becoming anathema to many of the wingers and some of the republicans are actually starting to open their minds to the illegality of this war.
How many commandments could Bush handle?
– Uh no.
I can fake this.
– Uh no.
– Yeah, right.
– Your joking.
– What ever benefits me is right.
– I love to work out and I have given up the Coke but I still need a drink or two.
-F you.
– O.K. snark.
Did I mess up starting the Iraq War? No, it’s all the liberals fault.
Wow is right, you nailed GW the talkinghead Bush, squarely.
I like to make fun but that is the most beautiful ten commandments I have ever read. Thank you for sharing.
It is a great honor to me to be read the wisdom that you bring to us. Many blessings my friend…if I may be so bold to say that.
Where I live, legend has it that Chief Niwot, of the Arapahoe Nation placed a curse upon the whites that invaded his world on the late 1880’s:
Niwot’s Curse
Peace
Why am I not surprised by this?
I read an article lately (does anyone remember it? I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw it. The LA Times, maybe?) about a study of teenagers’ religious tendencies. Apparently most teenagers consider themselves at least moderately religious, but most of the self-professed ‘Christians’ didn’t actually have any idea who Jesus was when probed.
I could go on and on about Evangelical mega-churches (which are plentiful around here) and their particular brand of ‘religion lite’, but I won’t. It’s just too depressing.
I’m just thrilled that there are so many heathens out there like me.
(Can you imagine how the ‘wingers will react to this? They’ll panic and set up a huge media campaign.)
My wife is pagan, a praciticing witch to be exact, I am a Native American, practicing Native American spiritualism, in the midst of small town Kansas USA. I do get plenty of looks and comments when they see the bumper sticker on my van, Life is a witch, then you fly.
My all time favorite, which was ripped from my wife’s car is,
Christianity has pagan DNA
It must have really pissed off some fundie in our community, because they tore it off in our driveway. We found it laying on the ground in multiple pieces.
So much for free speech from that fundie.
I hope you put it back.
We traded the car in for a newer one and my wife just hasn’t had the heart to put another bumper sticker on it yet. Though I am sure she will soon. We haven’t decided which ones to put on it yet, so we wait. lol
We see annually on nationwide t.v. Charlton Heston”s version with the 10 commands of stone….Most only know of the Heston version(or C.B.Demille)…The commands of stone are based on physical actions…Jesus’ message concerned not only the physical aspect, but also the spiritual aspect….A change of heart…Read the end of Matthew 25 about “Did you feed me, clothe, visit me in prison,etc.When you have done it to the least, you have done it to me(Jesus)….An example is that even tho most have not killed physically;words,actions are emotional and spiritual killers….As long as the extreme religionists hide behind the “stone”(displays) rather than accept Jesus’message of equality and liberation…Love your neighbor as yourself…..they will be able to continue the de-humanization, hate message,and think it is o.k……America has a “heart” problem……
Just a couple of notes..
Anyway… doesn’t surprise me what americans are ignorant of. Try surprising me with what they do know.
Pax
Heh, heh, heh.
We just remembered the one we missed: Remember the sabbath and keep it holy. Of course, that should not be surprising, given our spotty church attendance.
But that just doesn’t make any sense. We’re so Christian, but most of us don’t even know HALF of the commandments?
Of course, if you just had to post the commandments, I’d suggest they be posted in the offices of the RNC.
True, however, it would appear that a majority of them, electorally/politically speaking are all to familiar w/ these:
Greed
Gluttony
Lust
Envy
Sloth
Wrath
Pride
collectively referred to as “The Seven Deadly Sins”. Nuff’ said.
Looks like a Republican to-do list to me.
“Yeah, Dude, I saw Se7en. Like, that guy is totally awesome!”
As I’m sure eveyone knows, John Cleese’s entry in Who is Who lists his interests as “Sloth, Gluttony”.
It’s funny how all of these can be twisted so they don’t apply to yourself:
Greed – I know the value of a Dollar. My opponent …
Lust – I love my wife. My opponent …
Envy – OK, I’ll pass on Envy. Something about aspirations and goals?
…we don’t post them in every room of every public building in America.
and certainly dont abide by most of them.