The 10 commandments are pretty funny, even if you ignore all the differences from the different factions.
Like, there’s a commandment against bearing false witness, which is sometimes interpreted as not lying. But, it pretty specifically isn’t against lying in the original text. The modern translation of the text is more or less: “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor”. So, it’s a specific kind of lying: giving evidence as a witness in a criminal setting. So, you’re ok to lie, just not in court. Also, you’re ok to lie as long as it isn’t concerning your neighbour. What’s a neighbour? Depends. The original jewish interpretation is that it’s a member of the same religious community. Jesus tried to expand that to say everyone was your neighbour. But, arguably the original interpretation says it’s OK to give false testimony against non-jews.
Then there’s the obsession over your neighbour’s wife and stuff. The catholic version of the 10 commandments actually devotes 2 whole commandments to it. But, what’s weird is that stealing and adultery have already been covered. This (or these) commandments are about coveting. In other words, they’re trying to control not your actions but your feelings.
IMO, one of the funniest ones is “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”. It’s pretty vague, what does it mean to “remember” it? You’d think that the absolute bare minimum would be to remember which day of the week it is. But, if that’s the case, why would the jewish and christian sabbath days be different? I guess they forgot.
Wait, wasn’t one of the main points of Europeans immigrating to America was for freedom of religion?
Yes… but no.
It wasn’t just freedom to express their religion, it was also the freedom to form governments where they could be in power, and thus impose their religious beliefs on others.
The British colonies were basically religious fundamentalist zones. For example: Maryland – land of Mary. Was intended to be a Catholic colony. Massachusetts was meant as a Puritan colony, and they strictly enforced that. A woman named Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for the crime of being a Quaker.
According to Wikipedia: It is named after Henrietta Maria, the French-born queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland during the 17th century.
Interestingly though, Henrietta Maria was named after her parents (Henry IV and Marie de Médicis / Maria de’ Medici), and it’s likely her mother’s name came from their Catholic faith.
So Maryland was named after Henrietta Maria who was named after Marie de Médicis who was named after the biblical Mary. (Unless she was named after another Mary)
If the law goes through, there’s an obvious solution: display it alongside its equivalents. I bet that would be very educational for a lot of people.
Kind of doesn’t work as a joke because the point of displaying the commandments is for the kids to read them.
I thought the point was to tie the schools up in legal proceedings, wasting their money so the kids end up with less of an education and the religious right can funnel the public money into private schools?
This state…I’m more disgusted than ever before. That’s saying something.
