I retired from the work force about 15 years ago and found that I had time that was not being used. Besides golf and my workshop activities, I became a member of some charitable boards and still had time to fully read the newspaper and listen to television news. Shortly, I found that the world was a much different place than I had perceived, and the moral character of it had changed drastically. Soon I was writing a book called OOPS We Lost Our Values. I had it published and gave as many copies away as I sold but felt good that I had tried to tell people about the change in values that had happened since I grew up. As I see the world now, with same-sex marriage and abortion on demand and now is starting to include infanticide, we have thrown our morality away. One party is willing to destroy this country for political power, hate has replaced respect, and name calling has replaced debate. As I have been writing about current issues and my bent on them, I have decided to publish part of the OOPS book that was rejected by the Christian publisher because it was too secular. I had included a chapter on the Ten Commandments but wrote it as needed by a secular society. I do not believe that God has a secular society, and if one is truly religious I believe that it is not turned off when we leave the house of worship but is carried into our daily lives. So following this introduction is the chapter that was not published in the book. It is presented in three parts.
The laws that have been used to civilize humans were written into text form about three thousand years ago, and today we have a controversy about displaying them in public. During the last year there were a couple of court cases involving the display of the Ten Commandments on public buildings or within them. The one case of displaying a new sculpture with the Ten Commandments inscribed was lost, and the sculpture had to be removed. Some of the others, which were inscribed on the sides of buildings, were allowed to stay. The first thing that came to my mind was why would the display of the Ten Commandments be offensive to anyone? Of course, those fighting against the display said it was the same as the government trying to establish a religion and that was forbidden in the Constitutional First Amendment. I had not read that amendment that way and still do not understand the religious intent of the display being any attempt of religious establishment.
The fight against religion has increased and is fulfilling the prophecies of many of the religions being fought. As one studies the reasons for this fight, it becomes apparent that the fight is not so much about religion as it is about the values and morality brought by the religion. Public religion to many is a reminder that there are moral laws that govern modern societies, and many times they go against the way some wish to live. The constant reminder of living outside of the normal moral values is the offense that is being fought against. To illustrate this, let us look at the Ten Commandments and see where they may be offensive to some.
I. The first commandment is an instruction from God to worship him only and not worship any other gods. To be offensive, this has to tell someone that they may be in trouble if they worship many gods and deviate from the one true God. Who God is varies from individual to individual and is very difficult to describe. The Jews have the God of Abraham, and Muslims have Allah, which is the same as the God of Abraham. The Christians have the Trinity consisting of God in three forms: God the Father, Jesus or the son, and the Holy Spirit. The other religions of the world have one or many gods, but if many, usually one is a main or most powerful God. The atheists have no God, which makes them the highest form of intelligence in the world. I guess that the atheists would have to believe in themselves as the God in their life. What is offensive about that?
To have no other gods before you is a very good thing if you stop and think who those gods usually are. We have discussed the politician worshiping power and re-election or the drama showing people worshiping money or sex. For this to be offensive, one would want to worship many gods and probably do so, such as pleasure, greed, sex, alcohol, drugs, power, dominion over others and many more. Because you are not Jewish, Christian or Muslim is not a reason to be offended by this commandment, but rather because you wish not to be reminded that the moral value of its content will not fit your lifestyle. This commandment does not push anyone to a particular religion but to a value system, and that seems to be the offense to some.