Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The meaning here is that
you cannot serve both God and Mammon. To accord undue respect and precedence
to the wealthy — by favoring them with tax reductions, for example-is
in clear breach of the spirit of the First Commandment. "They have made
a golden calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto!"
Graven images. The Lord's meaning is obscure here, but most
modern Bible scholars take this Commandment to be a proscription of
racial profiling. There are still too many of us, even in our law-enforcement
services-the great majority of whom, of course, are doing a wonderful
job! — that have within our minds a "graven image" of minority
people as less law-abiding than whites. Similarly, the Second Commandment
directs us to support affirmative action — to fight against those
who have a "graven image" of minorities as inferior and unworthy to
take their proper place in our institutions and workplaces. The solution
is to outlaw all these "graven images" in people's minds by hate-crime
legislation.
Taking the name of the Lord in vain. The Religious Right seek
to advance their reactionary, intolerant, mean-spirited, social program
— discrimination against the differently oriented, taking away
a woman's right to choose, opposition to gun control — under cover
of faith and righteousness. Is this not taking the Lord's name in vain?
I say to you, they shall have their reward!
Remember the sabbath day. What Yahweh has in mind here is the
need for a minimum wage, without which millions of American workers
would have no choice but to work seven days a week just to make ends
meet.
Honor thy father and thy mother. Prescription drugs for the
elderly! Social security in a lock box! What could be plainer? And those
who seek to drain off money from the Social Security trust fund, built
up over the years by our parents' labor, to invest it in risky market
schemes — what are they? Enemies of the Lord!
Thou shalt not kill. Not to be taken too literally, of course.
Both Al Gore and I certainly support capital punishment, so long as
it is only used in the most extreme cases, after all possible appeals
have been exhausted, and of course is administered fairly. Yet
there are those — governors of large and important states!
— who are cavalier with this, the gravest of all executive responsibilities,
and even boast of the numbers they have put to death! They shall find
themselves hereafter in the place of wailing and gnashing of teeth!
Adultery. Often taken wrongly to be a proscription of extra-marital
affairs — a shameful (though, of course, not impeachable) form
of activity which, by the way, neither Al Gore nor I myself has ever,
ever engaged in — the Seventh Commandment is now recognized by
theologians to refer to the "adulteration" of our air and water by pollutants,
as has happened so grievously in the once-beautiful state of Texas.
"He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those
who dwell therin."
Thou shalt not steal. When Big Oil and the big drug companies
can raise their prices with impunity, what is that but theft? They are
stealing your hard-earned money — and the Republicans want to let
them get away with it! "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and
he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away
even that which he hath!" That's George W. Bush's tax plan in a nutshell.
Bearing false witness. God does not like the politics
of personal destruction. When powerful people seek to drag down public
servants-men of principle and faith, who may be struggling valiantly
with their own personal demons — accusing them of corruption, of
shady business practices, of unlawful dealings with foreign powers;
and when all this is investigated at a cost of millions, but no evidence
of malfeasance found — what is that but bearing false witness?
"Their iniquity shall be visited upon the children to the third and
fourth generations!"
Thou shalt not covet ... any thing that is they neighbor's.
In particular, if thy neighbor's kids are getting a private-school education
you can't afford for your own kids, do not covet! The reason P.S. 857
has failed to teach your kids how to read, write, or make change is
that miserly, ungodly Republicans in Congress refuse to fund your school
system adequately. Vote in Democrats and we will build a glittering
new school for you, like the ones in Kansas City, with gyms and computers
and stuff — we'll even put in new metal detectors and condom dispensers!
These so-called "vouchers" are just an appeal to envy! Which is wrong!
enator Joe Lieberman
has now suggested that it is ungodly not to be an environmentalist. Delivering
an environmental address at a park in Wisconsin last Wednesday, he said:
"If you believe in God, I think it's hard not to be an environmentalist
because, you see, the environment is the work of God." He went on to accuse
Gov. Bush of choosing "to side with the polluters."
