Meditation for December 17th
The Ten Commandments Now
A long time ago, an Egyptian Jew walked up to a mountaintop while he was leading a flock of Jews from Egyptian captivity back to the land chosen for the chosen people to get some rules from Yahweh. These were written into stone as the Ten Commandments.
Before these commandments were written, humans were unable to know what was evil. There was no basis of morals or ethics; people just ran around stealing, killing, coveting, and worshipping any old thing. There was just pure chaos in the Sinai Desert. Luckily, Moses was able to take God’s message to the tribe and stop the anarchy.
People refer to them all the time, and some want them placed in the halls of law or in schools. They weren’t the first set of universal laws, but because of larger armies and governments’ use of religion for control of the masses, they became the most popular.
What does it mean in today’s society? Do the laws hold up thousands of years later? Let’s look at each one.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
In the olden days, the land was full of gods. It’s actually remarkable how small Yaweh was in those days. No one fucking cared. Most people in those days believed in several gods doing different things. Yahweh was a jealous god with low self-esteem who was into the idea of being the only God.
Today, people believe in many gods again: money, science, resources, and God has become a tool for attaining those things. God is now put behind country, wealth, power, being right, oil, and other things humans have made worth something.
As a commandment, this one is entirely ignored. Just look at American flags with Jesus and Trump on them. People worship everything but god. The churches themselves don’t even put god above money, power, prestige, or control.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Ah, the worship of idols, real or imagined. This is, and all the other commandments, are dealt with by death. This is the picture of Zeus or Justin Beibler on your wall. These are pictures of saints and your heroes, including Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson. There should be no images that ask for worship at all. God is hella jealous and will think you are worshipping a Bo Knows Nike ad poster instead of him, and his followers will stone you to death. (And truthfully, I don’t think God could beat Bo Jackson in his prime at being a two-sport athlete)
A faithful Christian would have blank, white walls and would ignore superstitious beliefs, such as walking under ladders. People should be murdered for saying bless you after someone sneezes. Please refrain from enjoying any art, including music. The worship of celebrities is worshipping graven images, so stop going to concerts and listening to music altogether.
Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord thy God in vain
This is just saying God, God damnit, God fucking damnit, gawd, gosh, Jesus Christ, Jesus H. Christ, Jesus H. Christ in a crutch, God Jesus fuck it, Fucking God, God fucking Christ, Jesus having sex with Mohammed, god almighty, and just plain old Lord or Lordy. The vain part is saying it without true conviction or honest faith.
So it isn’t just saying it as an exclamation of anger or surprise (or from an orgasm when making boink), it is also when it is used empty of faith or meaning—just hollow words. So you could be saying ‘God bless’ in your Facebook post, but you are just trying to seem faithful, and your words are empty.
The entire modern political world in America has been the empty and vain proclamation of the Lord Almighty for political power. This is the very definition of the third commandment, and a good old stoning should be in order.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Because of the invention of new calendars and changing things for convenience, the Sabbath is usually on Sunday. This means worshipping the Lord and not doing anything else – no turning on and off lightbulbs or football.
There was a time when stores and other businesses were closed on Sunday. Then there were limited hours. Then it was just straight up open on Sunday. Now shops are open on Christmas and Easter. Even devoutly religious poor people are required to work on holy days, including the Sabbath. Consumerism beats this commandment hands down. See the first two commandments as well. People should be getting extra stoned to death.
Only the rich can spend time with their families on the Sabbath and on major religious holidays.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
And the commandment that sounds nice and makes sense. It’s even more critical or crucial than not stealing or killing, but in the order of things, less important than making fun of God or worshipping Derek. Essentially, it is essential in all cultures, so it almost seems to mention this. Duh, be nice to those who gave you life and raised you, even if they did a really terrible job. In fact, the Torah states that even the parents of parents ought to be honoured and respected.
This is really a clause to keep the children of Yahweh in the fold and not running off to hang out with worshippers of Baal because of daddy issues.
Thou shalt not kill
This one makes a lot of sense. Even in those days, murder was illegal, and the guilty would be punished. Pro-lifers who ignore all the rest of the laws of Moses will use this one for their war on choice, but usually in favor of non-believers, and even killing doctors who perform certain medical services.
This world is still full of war, and most of it from the three religions that stem from these very commandments, the Abrahamic faiths. Murder is fine, provided it is God’s will. So an unborn baby needs saving, but the expectant mother in Syria is the wrong worshipper. Seriously, either no killing at all or stop claiming your religion in vain – see the third commandment.
They say suicide is an unforgivable act and the soul will not find the comforts of heaven, but, boy, things would have been different if all murder were unforgivable in God’s eyes. Too bad he keeps letting his chosen people commit genocide to get what they want.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Cheating is a sin; this commandment makes sense, right? During the days of this stone chiseling, this wasn’t protecting love; this was protecting a man’s property, a wife, from being used without the man’s knowledge.
The old way of marriage, which some of the ritual survives to this day, is to buy a girl, from her father, who then pays for a celebration of the union of the two families, a union of family and marital, property, and financial unions, and the new family now keeps the woman.
True feminism is to cheat on your “man”.
Thou shalt not steal.
Another obvious one, right? This is just the loophole that says property and ownership are very real. The original translation was a little confused since it might have been just against taking people for ransom. Kidnapping has always been a very lucrative business, even in the Old Testament world. This commandment was also put separately from adultery because there needed to be a clause for not having your slaves stolen. Yes, God was pro-slavery.
In some views, this also refers to conning people out of things, even if you pay them. To truly appreciate and honor this commandment, you must pay full price for everything, and you must take no as a hard no. To do so is an act of stealing.
Thou shalt not bear false witness to thy neighbor.
This is the commandment that overrides the Fifth Amendment: if you have testimony, you must testify. Truth is the very nature of all of these commandments, so to lie to your neighbor is a commandment.
Slander and gossip are all forms of bearing false witness, so talking shit about someone is breaking a commandment, Kathy.
I laugh when I read this because of all the people who we elect to office swear on a bible that they will uphold the law and not perjure themselves. Then we just get shoved bullshit all day, every day, by these same people, a lot of them spouting their lies, Bibleible. It seems that truth is just not essential, and it is our job to form reality with language to fit our needs. This commandment would get a lot of people stoned.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.
The tenth commandment isn’t to steal; it already says you can’t, it says to borrow, but not to want it. This may seem wild to not want something that isn’t ours, but let’s look at the wisdom of it:
Communism. A political and economic system intended to equalize the masses. Instead of unequal classes where the rich hoard the resources and charge the poor to use them, the communists were trying to make sure everyone got access to their needs. This was supposed to be the government that helped everyone share equally, right? Too bad the CIA’s black market helped keep some Soviets with things others didn’t have. It would be hard not to feel jealous if your neighbor had a motorcycle and you didn’t. This is the reason the Commies fell to their knees. The United States alone spent a lot of money proving communism wrong.
This also helps in our capitalist society. So much is seen by us that we envy someone else having it, or we envy being the one envied and becoming what we want, because we like it. Advertising is a direct front to this final commandment. Our whole society, based on envy-based consumerism, is like God didn’t want that.
So we watch TV and scroll through social media, which is brought to you by the things you covet.
And when they talk about male or female servants, they are talking about slaves. Again, the Christian God is pro-slavery.
If we upheld the Ten Commandments today with the punishments offered in the Bible, we would be killing a lot of people. Would that be so bad?