10 on the “Big Ten” List

Some legislators want The Ten Commandments posted on walls in Texas schoolrooms.

I have a concern about #10. It lists a man’s wife as one of his possessions.

Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s house, or your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

Note that the wife is not first on the list. The house comes first.

But she is (we give thanks) above the ox and the donkey. And just above the slaves. Still, the wife is owned, just like the slaves and the ox and the donkey.

This old attitude remains enshrined in the traditional marriage vow. The father says, “I give this woman to be married to this man.”

Dad passed ownership to the husband, usually with a little money or a few sacks of grain to sweeten the deal.

I’m not sure we want to solidify this image of marriage in the minds of our children. There are too many boys and men who think this way already.

The “Big Ten” are a great and ancient moral code, but they don’t belong on classroom walls.

Nor do the teachings of Jesus, for that matter. Keep church and state separate.

But it is interesting that the legislators pushing The Ten Commandments never suggest posting words from The Sermon on the Mount.

And why not?

They don’t believe them.

Jesus told us to seek no revenge, to love our enemies, and to be kind to those who are unkind to us. The Jesus way is not on the Christian Nationalist agenda. +++

Sermon Sunday: The Double-Minded Christian.

Tune in. I may be talking about you. 11:00 a.m.