Common Ground - the 4 to 7 Commandments

The 10 (or so) Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother
6. You shall not kill
7. You shall not commit adultery
9. You shall not steal
10. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
11. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor



I heard that there are a bunch of people who want to put the 10 commandments in court rooms. And there is another group of folks who think doing so would violate the Constitution’s separation of church and state. Well, call me a secular theocrat, but some of these things don’t have a damn to do with religion. Take “you shall not steal” -- well not take directly cuz that would be stealing and you would have to go to hell. But I think we all agree that stealing is wrong – so lets put it up. Got nothing to do with Jesus, Mohammad, Lao Tzu, Buddha or Santa Claus. It passes the test.

So of the others, the ones about coveting, and bearing false witness are actually written into our secular laws. So put ‘em up. Now some clearly have to do with G*d. These are 1, 3, and 4. Government can’t punish someone for hitting themselves on the thumb with a hammer, so we can’t outlaw any associated reactions. Plus, the government does a real bad job regulating concepts. Look what happened to the likes of war on inflation, and war on terror, and war on Christmas. So those 4 are out.

Then there is a grey area with the others: Graven images? Honoring parents? Adultery? All are close to the religious line, but they don’t cross it. So they could go up. But then again, a lot of people get riled when the government starts talking regulation around social issues. So this is a toss up. What if we put them up with asterisks that indicated there shall be no attempt for the government to enforce such laws? Then what the hell – put ‘em up if makes people happy.

This is an important area of common ground. Religious people would be glad to get 4 to 7 of their big concepts past the censors, and the liberal George W. Bush distrusters can remind Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and Alberto Gonzales that they are not supposed to lie and the judges are reminded daily to keep their eyes and ears alert for crimes and misdemeanours.

So if there is common ground on this, maybe we can all honestly work toward reducing the number of unwanted babies and pregnancies, slowing the killing in the middle east, and healing God’s project called planet earth. Because if there is an omnipotent God and he told us to be stewards of our brothers AND all creation…well I think he will be kind of p.o.ed. No wonder some people want the rapture – “oops, I’m outta here!”

Does your common ground include me or is it just sound.

-- Lou Reed