Month: January 2025

North Dakota is considering a law that would require colleges and public schools to hang a copy of the 10 Commandments in every classroom. They already have a law that shields teachers from lawsuits if they elect to display these ancient rules of conduct. They are not alone. Other legislatures are considering, or have passed, similar laws.

Proponents of these statutes argue that, regardless of religious affiliation, the Commandments provide moral guidelines essential to ethical living. There is little doubt that they are more concerned with imposing their religious beliefs on society. The Commandments are to appear as a talisman of faith rather than any real guide to behavior.

These ulterior motives are evident by the fact that supporters of these laws eschew any rational discussion of what the Commandments actually say. Of course, even quoting them is problematic, unless you go back to the original Hebrew. I will use the King James version because it is the one most generally accepted by Christians in this country. In fact, I would bet that many think God used the King’s English when speaking with Moses on Mount Sanai.

Exodus 20: 2-17 states:

2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 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:
5 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;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 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.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 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:
11 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.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 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.

Let’s look at what is to be imparted to the children of North Dakota.

Commandment 1 is bound to confuse the young ones. The edict to have no other God before this God implies that more than one God exists, heresy to any monotheist. The Bible itself does recognize these other Gods, mentioning, by one count, 54 alternate deities. My guess is that will not be discussed.

More difficult is the identity of the “me” referred to. Moses’ followers knew who this was. But there is still that pesky First Amendment. We cannot just come out and say that this is the Christian God (sorry Jews and Muslims, but he’s ours!!!). Does that leave “me” to be defined by each student based on their own beliefs?  Are we really just saying, “Hey, get a God and put it before all the others.”?

The Second Commandment is one we kind of ignore. After all, we are a society of graven images, whether it’s touchdown Jesus, a meme coin of an orange god, or a poster of the latest pop idol. And we certainly do bow down and serve those idols, especially if there is money to be made doing so.

The second half of this Commandment (Exodus 20:5) will certainly be excised. How can we explain to kids that even if they keep the Commandments they are in deep doodoo if their Grampa slipped? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Plus, it doesn’t fit well with the idea of a loving God we like to project. Let’s face it. The God that promulgated these Commandments was not cuddly. Best to skip over that.

Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. Make it useful, Gosh Darn it!!!

Keep the Sabbath holy. It’s a day of rest. No tee ball games. Close the mall. Don’t go to restaurants, but have something at home, preferably made the day before. No football on the telly. They’re working and that’s forbidden. On second thought, let’s not get out of control.

We can all agree that honoring your mother and father is a good thing, can’t we? (Unless your parents are worthless heathens who voted for the wrong party, and object to us posting these commonsense rules of behavior).

Thou shalt not kill. It gets no more basic than that. However, as the Genie would say, there are a couple of provisos and quid pro quos. While you cannot kill, the state can do so on your behalf. Oh yes, and you can kill if we put you in a uniform and point you at someone we call an enemy. Otherwise, it’s a no, no.

I think it is a wonderful idea to introduce adultery (No. 7) to elementary school children. I can imagine the following conversation:

Tommy: Mrs. Snodgrass, what’s adultery?

Mrs. Snodgrass: Why that’s what your father does with his floozy of a secretary when he goes on [air-quotes] business trips.

Tommy: I get it. Like what you and Principal Principle do in the janitor’s closet when you think no one’s looking.

Mrs. Snodgrass: Shut-up Tommy.

There can be no argument with Number 8, can there. We should not steal. Failure to pay contractors who have done work for us or buying a painting of ourselves with money set aside for charitable donation doesn’t really count. Then again, most legislators are probably relying on kids not going that deep.

The prohibition against “false witness” also makes sense. Children should be taught that claiming something untrue is true with the intention of hurting someone or ruining their reputation is wrong. You know, like alleging that your neighbors are capturing pets and eating them when you know that’s false. No decent person could support that.

The final Commandment raises the inevitable question as to who our neighbor is. Moses could not have meant just the family next door. Might he have meant only those in our “tribe”? Possible, but certainly by the New Testament this was understood more broadly. That’s the whole point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, isn’t it?

Putting that side, this is a good one. It is almost Buddhist. Striving is the source of suffering. Envy eats at the soul. For your own sake, and that of your community jealousies should be put aside. I think we have a winner!!!!

So, if we just pare these Commandments down, ignore the bits that are problematic and the hypocrisy of those pushing for their display, we have some decent guidelines for living a virtuous life. We could display these and explain away the difficulties, or we could look to another set of precepts that are not so laden.

I would suggest the Seven Social Sins, a list promulgated by Anglican Minister Frederick Donaldson, and popularized by Mohandas Gandhi. These sins are:

1. Wealth without Work

2. Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without Character

4. Commerce without Morality

5. Science without Humanity

6. Religion without Sacrifice

7. Politics without Principle

These I can get behind. They apply to everyone, regardless of gender, race or creed. No provisos and quid pro quos are needed. Put them up in every classroom. Make it mandatory that a week is spent reviewing and discussing them. Of course, for that to happen we would have to have legislators that avoid sin Number 7. Good luck with that!!

In the meantime, we have to fight to uphold the secular Commandment embodied in the First Amendment separating church and state. There should be no backdoors or loopholes to this Commandment. The beliefs of religious sects do not belong in our classrooms, no matter how you mask them. As my Father would say, “And thus ends the reading of the word”.

Once again, Time has picked it’s Person of the Year. Once again, it is the most banal and obvious choice possible. Does anyone really want to rehash the 2024 antics of He Who Will Not Be Named in This Blog? We have been inundated with his insanity to such an extent that the thought of reliving his buffoonery is more repulsive than Saw VII. At least that movie would get my blood pumping, which is preferable to getting my blood pressure soaring.

To rectify this travesty, I feel compelled to nominate my own person of the year. (I can feel the collective anticipatory intake of breath). My nominee is Gisele Pelicot. (I can now hear that intake of breath coming out in a collective, “Who?”). If you are not familiar with her story and her courage, you should be, as horrific as it is. I promise that it is much more enlightening than the drivel from Time.

Gisele Pelicot was, by all outer evidence, a normal housewife living in Avignon, France. In 2020 her husband Dominique was arrested for filming up the skirts of female customers at a local store. While investigating this crime police seized his computer, laptop and phones. What they found was mind-boggling.

Dominque’s electronic devices contained hundreds of images and videos of his wife being raped while unconscious. They revealed that he had solicited men to assault her and that over 50 had taken him up on that proposition. Gisele was faced with the nightmare reality that her husband had drugged her and then sold her lifeless body for other men’s “pleasure”.

Naturally Gisele felt the impact of the drugging and assaults. She went to see a doctor on numerous occasions, often accompanied by her husband, complaining of memory loss and pelvic pain. I don’t know whether the Doctor dismissed her symptoms or failed to do a thorough exam, but nothing came of those visits.

All of this brings to mind the 2022 movie Women Talking, and the book it was based upon. There too women were drugged and raped. Their physical complaints also led nowhere until incontrovertible evidence uncovered what was happening. After those responsible were arrested the women had a choice to make on how to respond. They chose to leave their community and head out to an uncertain future.

Gisele Pelicot faced a similar dilemma. French law offered her anonymity as the state pursued her husband and her rapists. She could testify behind closed doors. Her name and image would be kept out of the papers. “Justice” could have been pursued without public scrutiny.    

The choice that Gisele made, and the aftermath of that decision, is what sets her apart and leads me to think that she deserves to be honored. As horrific as her experience was, she recognized that being a silent victim achieves nothing. She went from being a casualty to being a crusader.

Gisele waived her right to anonymity and a closed-door trial. She not only agreed to testify in public but put herself forward as a spokesperson for victims of sexual assault. She did so with her head held high. She refused to be ashamed of something she had no control over. Instead, she proclaimed “The shame is theirs”.

In support of her plight and in recognition of her firmness and tenacity, thousands rallied around her. People gathered at the courthouse. Supportive slogans were pasted on walls around the courthouse. Demonstrations were held in her honor.

The trial resulted in the conviction of 50 of the 51 charged defendants, with the last convicted of having drugged and raped his own wife with Dominique. Moreover, it put the spotlight on a culture that enabled the abuse of women. The coverage made clear that while the nature of this crime might be exceptional, the attitudes that let the defendants act as they did was not.

Pelicot’s testimony put the spotlight on French women’s mistrust of the legal system and the perception, borne out by statistics, that judicial punishment of sexual assault was inconsistent and generally light. The result is that the vast amount of rapes cases reported to police (94% according to Euro News) are dropped. That discussion spread throughout Europe and beyond.

It is hard to say whether Gisele’s heroism will have any lasting impact. Other high-profile cases – Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby – have engendered similar outbursts which have died down as time has passed. One can only hope that the repercussions here are more permanent.

Even if not, I would choose to celebrate someone who bravely stood up for what is right and for a better world. Too often we recognize only those that are the most divisive and selfish-centered because they are the loudest. It takes someone like Gisele Pelicot to remind us of what is really important.    

I will leave the last words to Gisele. “I wanted when I started on September 2 [the opening day of the trial] to ensure that society could actually see what was happening and I have never regretted this decision. I now have faith in our capacity collectively to take hold of a future in which everybody, women, men, can live together in harmony, in respect and mutual understanding”.