Thursday, August 28, 2003
ALABAMA’S BIG TEN COMMANDMENTS MOVED FROM THE COURTHOUSE
The sneaky little bastards snuk in quietly and moved the 2.6 tons of granite commandments to a less public place in the courthouse. I was holding out for the mustard seed group, those with the faith that could move mountains, to lend a helping faith hand. But symbolism was lost on this crowd.
I’m always amazed at the cognitive dissonance fundamentalists inform their souls with. Ostensibly, Judge Moore thought it most appropriate to display the Big Ten in front of God and everyone at Court because “the commandments are the foundation of our legal system of justice.” So much for those snitty little Greeks and that democracy thingie and then those wine-sotted Romans with their little legal structure. Lightweights!
The Ten Commandments Rule!
. . . maybe . . .
Pardon my question, Justice, but are you blind?
Here’s a synopsis of the Ten Commandments and according to my Lexis-Nexis match query on our legal system.
The God stuff
- only one god
- no graven images
- God’s name in vain
Well, we don’t have laws on the book for these. We even have God on our money, gravenly speaking. And lordy sakes, can we cuss up an ugly one with impunity.
The consumer stuff
- no coveting (right, like we’re not marketed to for coveting. A neighbor’s ass is looking mighty fine sometimes, but there’s no law agin’ it.)
- Sabbath day holy (right, like we’re not supposed to watch football on Sunday or drink beer. We leave it up to the Sabbath-Day Adventists to handle this for us.)
- Bearing false witness (right, like no one ever lies, “no, honey, those capri pants don’t make you look fat.”) At least we’ve got a little perjury action on the books to get some mileage out of one of the Ten Commandments.
Honoring Parents
The older we get, the more we realize how important they are to us. However, there’s no State of Arizona statute that compels me to call Mom every two days. She thinks there is, but there ain’t.
The big ones—murder and stealing
Judge Moore is right on this one. We’ve got laws on murder and stealing. Coincidentally, so does every other civilized society irrespective of Moses’ Big Ten. And methinks that if we didn’t have the Ten Commandments that we probably would have at some time or another in our history, hit on the idea that “murder bad (unless it’s the enemy who doesn’t agree with us) and stealing bad (unless it’s from people who can’t defend themselves). So I’m not totally convinced.
The last juicy one—Adultery
All the good laws to penalize adultery are fading away. Replaced by laws against incest, rape, child abuse—practices which were taken for granted in the good old days. So Judge Moore loses on this adultery one too.
Justice is Blind, but does he have to be stupid too?
The sneaky little bastards snuk in quietly and moved the 2.6 tons of granite commandments to a less public place in the courthouse. I was holding out for the mustard seed group, those with the faith that could move mountains, to lend a helping faith hand. But symbolism was lost on this crowd.
I’m always amazed at the cognitive dissonance fundamentalists inform their souls with. Ostensibly, Judge Moore thought it most appropriate to display the Big Ten in front of God and everyone at Court because “the commandments are the foundation of our legal system of justice.” So much for those snitty little Greeks and that democracy thingie and then those wine-sotted Romans with their little legal structure. Lightweights!
The Ten Commandments Rule!
. . . maybe . . .
Pardon my question, Justice, but are you blind?
Here’s a synopsis of the Ten Commandments and according to my Lexis-Nexis match query on our legal system.
The God stuff
- only one god
- no graven images
- God’s name in vain
Well, we don’t have laws on the book for these. We even have God on our money, gravenly speaking. And lordy sakes, can we cuss up an ugly one with impunity.
The consumer stuff
- no coveting (right, like we’re not marketed to for coveting. A neighbor’s ass is looking mighty fine sometimes, but there’s no law agin’ it.)
- Sabbath day holy (right, like we’re not supposed to watch football on Sunday or drink beer. We leave it up to the Sabbath-Day Adventists to handle this for us.)
- Bearing false witness (right, like no one ever lies, “no, honey, those capri pants don’t make you look fat.”) At least we’ve got a little perjury action on the books to get some mileage out of one of the Ten Commandments.
Honoring Parents
The older we get, the more we realize how important they are to us. However, there’s no State of Arizona statute that compels me to call Mom every two days. She thinks there is, but there ain’t.
The big ones—murder and stealing
Judge Moore is right on this one. We’ve got laws on murder and stealing. Coincidentally, so does every other civilized society irrespective of Moses’ Big Ten. And methinks that if we didn’t have the Ten Commandments that we probably would have at some time or another in our history, hit on the idea that “murder bad (unless it’s the enemy who doesn’t agree with us) and stealing bad (unless it’s from people who can’t defend themselves). So I’m not totally convinced.
The last juicy one—Adultery
All the good laws to penalize adultery are fading away. Replaced by laws against incest, rape, child abuse—practices which were taken for granted in the good old days. So Judge Moore loses on this adultery one too.
Justice is Blind, but does he have to be stupid too?
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