Last week on the Colbert Report, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (co-sponsor of a bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments) couldn't name the Ten Commandments. He only listed three on the show, although his office claims he got to seven, but the other four were edited out.
If he did make it to seven, then he should feel pretty good about it, since Jesus only came up with five when he was asked the same question in the gospel of Matthew, and the last one on Jesus' list is from Leviticus 19:18, not the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21).
. . . if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He [the rich young man] saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. -- Matthew 19:17-19
(Notice that the only commandments that Jesus lists are the good ones -- the secular humanist ones that deal with relationships among humans. Nothing about worshiping one god, making graven images, honoring the Sabbath, or taking the Lord's name in vain -- nothing that is about God.)
So let's give Westmoreland a break here. If he couldn't name all the ten commandments or named a few that aren't in the Big Ten, then so what? Not even Jesus could name them all correctly.
As Westmoreland's press secretary said, "I challenge anybody outside of the clergy to try to (name them all)." Both Jesus and Westmoreland failed that challenge; but then, they're not members of the clergy.
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5 comments:
I've been able to name all ten commandments since I was a kid. I'm surprised to occasionally hear statistics on what a small percentage of the population can name them all. (Of course I recognize the real irony is this guy supporting a law mandating the ten commandments' display, and not being able to name nore of them if not all.)
I'm curious, could you name them all, Steve? I'm guessing if any atheist could, you could.
I'm not sure I could, though I think I could do better than Westmoreland or Jesus.
They aren't numbered in the Bible and they're numbered differently by Catholics and Protestants. To try to deal with the numbering problem, the Eagle's Ten Commandments monuments had to make various versions to try to satisfy everyone. Eventually they just gave an un-numbered list of eleven commandments and let the reader number them however he or she saw fit.
Um... there's only TEN. Ten!!! I think any of us who sat through CCD or Sunday School as kids could name them. Or get to at least, like, nine. TEN!!! It's not like trying to name all the books of the bible or anything. With that one, I could probably get between three and seven...
Nope. Can't name 'em. And I went to church 3 or 4 times a week for the first 12 years of my life.
Oh, it's much better than this!
Remember that "Matthew" copied and "corrected" the gospel of Mark, and not only does Jesus in Mark not name them all, he gets one of them WRONG:
MK10:19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
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