From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jan 18 2002 - 01:18:29 MST
Seeing as it appears that we are to be inflicted with lengthy op-eds about
the evils of Islam on a regular basis, I am now going to begin a similar
program reflecting the evils of Christianity. In this instance, how it
conflicts with the "Republican values" espoused by the founders of the
United States of America. To save some time (as the 'Hang the Muslims' party
appears to be doing), this will largely be a cut-and paste exercise, but
hopefully the pieces selected will be of general interest.
Interesting quotations:
"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou
redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy
sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty."
"Nothing which a man devotes to Yahweh irredeemably from his own property,
whether man or beast or ancestral land, may be sold or redeemed. Everything
so devoted is most holy to Yahweh. No human being thus devoted may be
redeemed, but he shall be put to death."
"But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh thy god: in it thou shalt not
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy male slave, nor
thy female slave, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy male slave and thy female
slave may rest as well as thou."
The following piece is sourced from:
http://www.atheists.org/church/hangemall.html
The formatting there is nicer.
HANG ’EM ALL -- COMPLETELY!
---------------------------
by Frank R. Zindler
All over our country - in the north as well as the south - the battle cry is
"Hang Ten!" Ten Commandments, that is. Clergymen, judges, governors, and
legislatures have echoed the call. The states are beginning to command by
fiat of law that the primitive taboos recorded in the Hebrew bible be
displayed on courthouse lawns, in judicial chambers, in halls of legislative
assemblies, and in public schools.
Everywhere the claim is made that America was founded on the Ten
Commandments - or at least that its system of law and justice is based on
that biblical code. Not even the Chief Justice of the United States seems to
realize that our governmental system represents a reaction to the principles
inherent in that code - in some cases a mighty rejection of that code.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution, for example, is an eloquent
repudiation of the First Commandment's prohibition of religious freedom. It
is also a repudiation of the Third Commandment's prohibition of freedom of
speech.
The Thirteenth Amendment repudiates the institution of slavery which is so
cozily assumed by the Fourth and Tenth Protestant Commandments.
Consider: what could be more American than the principle that every person
is to be held accountable for his or her crimes only? Could anything be more
un-American than the Second Commandment's warning that "I Yahweh, thy God,
am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation…"? Not even the Common Law would have
hung a man because his grandfather had stolen a horse! The Second
Commandment (conveniently not enumerated in Catholic epitomes of the
"Decalogue") also prohibits the making of "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 waters beneath the earth." That would rule out all
representational art - including dollar bills that bear the likeness of
George Washington! What could be more American than Greenbacks? Yet Chief
Justice William Rehnquist seems still to cling to his 1980 opinion that "The
secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption
as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of
the United States." [Stone v Graham, 449 US 39.101 S. Ct. 192.66 L.Ed. 2d
199 (1980)]
The hanging of the Ten Commandments is fraught with problems never
considered by the pandering politicians who so eagerly rush to collect the
votes of their most superstitious constituents. For example, there is never
any discussion as to which of the three sets of Ten Commandments the Bible
claims to be "it" should be used. Nor is there any discussion as to which
epitome of any one of these sets should be used: Jewish, Protestant, or
Catholic. It is blithely assumed that all theists should be happy with their
"Hang-Ten" efforts. Yet it is hard to imagine "idolatrous Catholics" being
happy with a public monument displaying a Protestant commandment prohibiting
their cultic peculiarities. Nor does it seem that Jews could be happy with
plaques writing out the whole word "God" - regardless of which set or
version is engraved upon the plaque. Orthodox Jews, be it remembered, have a
taboo against "uttering" the name of their deity. The prohibition in
Leviticus 24:16 ("Whoever utters the Name of the Lord shall be put to
death") is taken very seriously. Not only do they not write out fully their
god's proper name -Yahweh - they avoid it wherever possible. Just as with
Protestant and Catholic versions of the Ten Commandments, the Jewish English
versions substitute the word "Lord" for the heap-big-medicine name "Yahweh."
In fact, the Orthodox go to the absurd extreme of writing "G-d" for "God" -
which Christians fearlessly spell out in its capitalized entirety. Certainly
it will shock the sensibilities of Jewish constituents to see public
displays that spell "God" with a vowel.
In addition to the problems of which set of commandments to display and
whose epitomized versions to enumerate, there is a further problem never
considered by the politicians: What are the commandments supposed to mean,
and whose interpretations are to be granted state backing? Is the
commandment that prohibits "bearing false witness" against one's neighbor a
rule for behavior in a court of law, or is it a prohibition of lying or
gossiping? Are the prohibitions against "coveting" injunctions against envy,
or are they (as some anthropologists claim) a ban against use of the "evil
eye"? Is "Thou shalt not kill" a universal ban on killing - of flies and
flamingoes as well as fetuses or Fascists - or is it a prohibition of
murder? What is murder?
A Modest Proposal
Considering the above-mentioned problems, it seems to me the only solution
to the problem of hanging commandments is this: hang them all! Hang all
three sets in full text - don't hang just the epitomes. Make sure they are
the best English translations possible, rendering the Hebrew Tetragrammaton
YHWH as "Yahweh," not the namby-pamby "Lord" of nearly all current
translations. (Political correctness would make it advisable for a
Spanish-language version be mounted also, wherever Hispanic votes are a
force to be reckoned with.) Then, so the probable meaning of the texts can
be inferred, mount other biblical verses that seem to clarify Yahweh's
intentions on the three occasions when he asked Moses to report the "Big
Ten." We should mount all the commandments in adjacent chapters in Exodus
and Deuteronomy so the full context can be understood by the average school
child or visitor to a courthouse.
Of course, very large walls will be needed for this civic purpose. If
monuments are to be erected, care will have to be taken lest they take on
the appearance of the Berlin Wall, since thoroughness perforce will make
commandment hangers want to stretch their displays as far as necessary.
Let us now consider what all should be displayed upon The Great Wall Of
America.
Three Sets of Ten
The standard set of Ten Commandments usually cited by Catholics and
Protestants alike is to be found in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. If the full text
were mounted - not just the differing epitomes - readers could puzzle out
the numbers on their own, so neither Catholic nor Protestant would feel the
sting of any governmental discrimination. (Atheists, of course, are never
considered important in such deliberations.) The Deuteronomy Ten would read
as follows, making the corrections to the text as indicated above:
Deut. 5:6 I am Yahweh thy god, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage.
5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
5:8 Thou shalt not make 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
waters beneath the earth:
5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh,
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,
5:10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments.
5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy god in vain: for Yahweh will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
5:12 Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as Yahweh thy god hath commanded
thee.
5:13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
5:14 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh thy god: in it thou shalt
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy male slave,
nor thy female slave, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy male slave and thy
female slave may rest as well as thou.
5:15 And remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt, and that
Yahweh thy god brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a
stretched out arm: therefore Yahweh thy god commanded thee to keep the
Sabbath day.
5:16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as Yahweh thy god hath commanded
thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in
the land which Yahweh thy god giveth thee.
5:17 Thou shalt not kill.
5:18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
5:19 Neither shalt thou steal.
5:20 Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
5:21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou cast
an evil eye upon thy neighbour's house, his field, or his male slave, or his
female slave, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.
5:22 These words Yahweh spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the
midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great
voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and
delivered them unto me [Moshe].
I am sure readers will agree that the above corrected translation is much
more interesting than the usual listings of the Ten Taboos commonly used in
Sunday schools. The uncivilized and primitive - as well as petty - nature of
these admonitions is much more obvious when the name of a minor Near Eastern
deity is used instead of the grandiose and abstract "the Lord." Then too,
the implicit toleration of slavery in this code is more obvious when
"servant" is replaced by "slave" - more accurately representing the meaning
of the Hebrew text. Finally, replacing the wishy-washy word "covet" with
"cast an evil eye" underscores the abysmal ignorance and superstition of the
author of this code. One can easily imagine him sporting a garlic necklace
and mounting a rabbit's foot on the end of his paddle.
Right beside the Deuteronomy code, we would want to mount the full text of
the commandments listed in Exodus chapter 20. We do not need to print the
full text of that set here, since in all but several details it is identical
to the Deuteronomic text. Nevertheless, the differences are important and
must be pointed out. In both sets, Jews are forbidden to work their slaves
on the Sabbath. However, the rationale for this oddly humane prohibition is
different in Deuteronomy and Exodus. Whereas in Deuteronomy the rationale is
that the Jews themselves had once been slaves in Egypt - and should
therefore be sympathetic to the condition of their own slaves - the
rationale in Exodus is much more primitive:
Exodus 20:11 For in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahweh blessed the
Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Posting the Exodus 20 set of commandments in full text would have the
beneficial effect of showing attentive readers that the god they worship is
not infinitely powerful: he gets tired too. Readers might start to wonder
what might happen to the world if Yahweh is prone to napping while resting.
If he's sleeping on the days worshipers are in church praying to him...
The other difference is that "coveting" is mentioned twice in the Exodus
commandments instead of once as in Deuteronomy, and the order of what is not
to be "desired" or "coveted" is reversed. Exodus forbids evil-eyeing the
neighbor's house before forbidding the evil-eyeing of his wife. This order
makes it a bit more clear that wives are merely chattels - movable property.
Yahweh certainly would never allow them to vote or drive an automobile
without a chaperone.
Ten More To Hang
It seems almost certain that the lawmakers and judges who are clamoring to
have the Ten Commandments hung on public walls do not know that there are
three different versions printed in their bibles. Still more certain is that
they do not know how bizarre the third set is, nor that it arguably is the
oldest (most authentic?) version of the Decalogue. It is found in the
thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus:
Exod 34:1 and Yahweh said unto Moses, hew thee two tables of stone like unto
the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the
first tables, which thou brakest.
34:2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount
Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
34:3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen
throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that
mount.
34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up
early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded
him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
34:5 And Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name Yahweh.
34:6 And Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh El,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
34:7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the
third and to the fourth generation.
34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and
worshipped.
34:9 And he said, if now I have found grace in thy sight, my Lord, let my
Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon
our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
34:10 And he said, behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will
do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation:
and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Yahweh: for it
is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
34:11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out
before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Ten Cultic Commandments
The First Commandment
34:12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants
of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down
their groves:
The Second Commandment
34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous god:
34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they
go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one
call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
34:16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go
a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
The Third Commandment
34:17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
The Fourth Commandment
34:18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt
eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib:
for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
The Fifth Commandment
34:19 Every first birth of the womb is mine; and every firstling among thy
cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
34:20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou
redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy
sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
The Sixth Commandment
34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in
earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
The Seventh Commandment
34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat
harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the years end.
34:23 Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before Lord
Yahweh, the god of Israel.
34:24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders:
neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear
before Yahweh thy god thrice in the year.
The Eighth Commandment
34:25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither
shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning.
The Ninth Commandment
34:26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the
house of Yahweh thy god.
The Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mothers milk.
To make clear the context and to make people understand that the above
commandments (which I have taken the liberty of numbering as one through
ten) are really the Big Ten, not just some other commandments Yahweh fancied
to add, several of the verses following them should be mounted also:
34:27 And Yahweh said unto Moses, write thou these words: for after the
tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
34:28 And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did
neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words
of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
34:29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
two tables of testimony in Moses hand, when he came down from the mount,
that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with
him.
34:30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the
skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
34:31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the
congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
34:32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them
in commandment all that Yahweh had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
If this third set of the Big Ten were displayed, the cultic origins of the
so-called moral code would be a bit more obvious. What moral quality is a
Gentile going to perceive in abstaining from Goat Stroganoff? It would make
it clear that the Decalogue is really just a "Jewish thing," replete with
animal sacrifice, special festivals, and opportunities for priests to
parasitize the people. (Who do you think ends up eating all those
firstfruits and first-borns?) It also should underscore the religious
intolerance behind the Ten Commandments, thus highlighting the un-American
nature of the code.
Readers of the third set might also be astute enough to note that although
Yahweh is represented as promising to write the Decalogue on stone tablets
provided by Moses, in the end it is Moses who is indicated as having done
the writing - even though nowhere in the text does it indicate he took with
him a chisel. It merely says, "And Yahweh said unto Moses, write thou these
words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee
and with Israel." For all anyone might suppose, Moses was taking dictation
with pen and papyrus!
The implication of animal sacrifice in the Ten Commandments should appall
any right-thinking American - even if he or she isn't an animal-rights
activist. Furthermore, reading about 'redeeming' "All the firstborn of thy
sons," thoughtful readers might conclude that human sacrifice was originally
required. They would, of course, be correct in this inference.
In Leviticus - the book in which Yahweh's taboo manufacturing goes into
overdrive - we are commanded (verses 28-29): "Nothing which a man devotes to
Yahweh irredeemably from his own property, whether man or beast or ancestral
land, may be sold or redeemed. Everything so devoted is most holy to Yahweh.
No human being thus devoted may be redeemed, but he shall be put to death."
We must suppose that humans thus sacrificed were not eaten by the priests as
were the oxen and sheep. But who knows what the Levite appetite may have
been like in those barbarous times?
Jews and Christians alike often make a big deal out of the story in Genesis
22 about Yahweh commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac but then, just
as Abraham is about to perform the holy deed, stopping the slaughter with
the explanation "This was just a test." Hustlers for holiness never mention
the more primitive case of Jephthah's daughter - a case where Yahweh
receives the life of an innocent girl, completely in accordance with the
Leviticus quotation just cited.
The story of Jephthah's daughter is recorded in the eleventh chapter of
Judges, beginning with verse 29:
Then the spirit of Yahweh came upon Jephthah and he passed through Gilead
and Manaseh… Jephthah made this vow to Yahweh: 'If thou will deliver the
Amonites into my hands, then the first creature that comes out of the door
of my house to meet me when I return from them in peace shall be given to
Yahweh; I will offer that as a whole-offering.' So Jephthah crossed over to
attack the Ammonites, and Yahweh delivered them into his hands… But when
Jephthah came to his house in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him with
tambourines and dances but his daughter, and she his only child… When he saw
her he rented his clothes and said, 'Alas, my daughter, you have broken my
heart… I have made a vow to Yahweh and I cannot go back.' She replied,
'Father, you have made a vow to Yahweh; do to me what you have solemnly
vowed, since Yahweh has avenged you on the Ammonites, your enemies. But,
father, grant me this one favor. For two months let me be, that I may roam
the hills with my companions and mourn that I must die a virgin.' … At the
end of two months she came back to her father, and he fulfilled the vow he
had made; she died a virgin. [New English Bible, modified]
For Further Clarification
Readers will agree that mounting all the texts and stories quoted above
would greatly improve citizens' understanding of the Thirty Commandments,
some ten of which politicians want to hang. Too easily, one might suppose
that all the commandments are to be interpreted in some absolute manner. If
one has only the epitome "Thou shalt not kill," for instance, it is easy to
suppose that killing is prohibited. To clarify just what the Sixth
Protestant Commandment actually means, we should also hang on the wall some
other commandments of Yahweh that serve to limit such sweeping
understandings.
We have already cited the commandment of human sacrifice in Lev. 28-29. That
certainly should be mounted on the wall right beside the first and second
Sixth Commandments. Right after that, we should mount Exodus 22:18: "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live," and 22:19 "Whosoever lieth with a beast,
shall surely be put to death."
Further clarification (although perhaps not edification) of the limits
placed by Yahweh's biographers on the killing commandment can be had from
other verses in Exodus, from chapters between the first and second sets of
Ten Commandments to be found in that book.
Thou Shalt Kill
Exodus 22:20 He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto Yahweh only, he
shall be utterly destroyed.
Exodus 21:15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely
put to death.
Exodus 21: 17 And he that curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be
put to death.
Exodus 21: 20-21 And if a man smite his slave or his slavegirl with a rod,
and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished: Notwithstanding, if
he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money.
(This one may take a bit of puzzling out on its own, and perhaps it should
be mounted beside one of the commandments that presupposes slavery.)
Exodus 22:2 If a burglar is caught in the act and is fatally injured, it is
not murder; but if he breaks in after sunrise and is fatally injured, then
it is murder. [NEB, modified]
There is another commandment which, although in purport it is a killing
commandment, perhaps should be mounted beside the Yahweh's Name commandment.
It is found in Leviticus 24:13-16: Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, Take the
man who blasphemed out of the camp. Everyone who heard him shall put a hand
on his head, and then all the community shall stone him to death. You shall
say to the Israelites: When any man whatever blasphemes his God, he shall
accept responsibility for his sin. Whoever utters the Name Yahweh shall be
put to death: all the community shall stone him; alien or native, if he
utters the Name, he shall be put to death. [New English Bible, modified]
Another lovely commandment which all capital punishment advocates will be
gratified to see published on public walls is found in Leviticus 24:17: "And
he that killeth any man, shall surely be put to death." The "Family Values"
people also will be pleased to see the tough-love commandment in Deuteronomy
21:18-21: "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey
the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have
chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his
mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the Elders of his city, and
unto the gate of his place: And they shall say unto the Elders of his city,
This our son is stubborn, and rebellious, he will not obey our voice: he is
a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with
stones, that he die." Just in case readers of public walls should want to
rush right out and start obeying all these killing commandments, it is
necessary that they be aware of a curious restriction Yahweh is alleged to
have placed on such sacred slaughter. Right after the kill-your-drunken-son
commandment, in Deuteronomy 24:22-23 we read:
And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to
death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon
the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day: for he that is
hanged, is accursed of God; that thy land be not defiled, which Yahweh thy
God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Alas, the Good Book gives no hint as to what "inheritance" modern followers
of this commandment may expect to receive, nor in which governmental agency
to apply for the righteousness reward. Deeper understanding of the
anti-killing commandment would also be gained by sundry verses in
Deuteronomy, such as the following:
When a man takes a wife and after having intercourse with her turns against
her and brings trumped-up charges against her, giving her a bad name and
saying, 'I took this woman and slept with her and did not find proof of
virginity in her', then the girl's father and mother shall take the proof of
her virginity to the elders of the town, at the town gate. The girl's father
shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, and he
has turned against her. He has trumped up a charge and said, "I have not
found proofs of virginity in your daughter." Here are the proofs.' They
shall then spread the garment before the elders of the town. The elders
shall take the man and punish him: they shall fine him a hundred pieces of
silver because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel, and hand them
to the girl's father. She shall be his wife: he is not free to divorce her
all his life long. If on the other hand, the accusation is true and no proof
of the girl's virginity is found, then they shall bring her out to the door
of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death. [New
English Bible]
Just where, exactly, one is to find the town gates of Brooklyn or Miami
Beach is unclear - as is the question of how the stoning is to be carried
out if the non-virgin's father's "house" happens to be an apartment at the
Waldorf. But no one ever claimed that the life of the Bible-believer would
be easy.
All Christians would agree that Yahweh would have been out of his mind if
his anti-killing commandment had been in any way intended to outlaw war. To
understand the deadly dimensions of biblical warfare, a brutal passage from
Deuteronomy 20:11-18 should be scribed upon the school-room walls:
When you advance on a city to attack it, make an offer of peace. … If it
does not make peace with you but offers battle, you shall besiege it, and
Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hands. You shall put all its males
to the sword, but you may take the women, the dependants, and the cattle for
yourselves, and plunder everything else in the city. You may enjoy the use
of the spoil of your enemies which Yahweh your God gives you. That is what
you shall do to cities at a great distance, as opposed to those which belong
to nations near at hand. In the cities of these nations whose land Yahweh
your God is giving you as a patrimony, you shall not leave any creature
alive. You shall annihilate them - Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites,
Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites - as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that
they may not teach you to imitate all the abominable things that they have
done for their gods and so cause you to sin against Yahweh your God. [New
English Bible, modified]
Finally, since Right-to-Single-Celled-Lifers (otherwise known as Compulsory
Pregnancy People) seem not to be very well versed in the holy book they
think they are defending, a passage showing that abortion is not murder -
rather an offence on the level of a parking ticket - should be engraved upon
school-room walls (perhaps in the restrooms). It is found in Exodus 21: 22:
When, in the course of a brawl, a man knocks against a pregnant woman so
that she has a miscarriage but suffers no further hurt, then the offender
must pay whatever fine the woman's husband demands after assessment.
To be sure, the passage refers to accidental abortion. But considering that
in the entire Judaeo-Christian bible there is not a single mention - let
alone prohibition - of intentional abortion, and considering the fact that
the Bible does decree death for such seemingly trivial offenses as
pronouncing the name 'Yahweh' or for working on the seventh day of the week,
it should be obvious that intentional abortion was too trivial to merit
mention by the Lord of Hosts.
Space does not permit listing all the other biblical passages that should be
mounted for the purpose of clarifying the Ten-Times-Three Commandments.
There are many that would need to be cited to explain the institution of
slavery, the sacred inferiority of women, and the biblically abominable
practice of homosexuality. Even the question of killing could be better
understood if several dozen more passages were mounted - despite the
considerable attention I have given to the problem in citing the passages
presented above. Nevertheless, we may hope that the public walls on which
the commandments are to be mounted have more space available than does this
journal.
If "the" Ten Commandments are to be hung upon the public walls of America,
not just epitomes should be hung. Jews, Catholics, and Protestants epitomize
differently. Hanging only one type of epitome would discriminate against the
other two. Complete texts of the Commandments should be hung to avoid
discriminating against any major "Faith-Based Organization." But hanging
just one of the three available sets of ten would also leave one open to
charges of discrimination. So all three sets of commandments the Bible
claims to be the Ten should be displayed. Finally, since these admonitions
are so difficult for modern minds to understand or interpret, other
commandments such as those quoted in this article should be hung beside the
Big Ten.
My advice to the legislators and judges who are rushing to "Hang Ten!" is
that they should not be faint-hearted in their efforts by hanging only
epitomes of the commandments. I say, hang 'em all - completely!
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