Thou Shalt Not...

Without Works

Show Notes

Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.

Amity: Effective June twenty-seventh, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, and the Ten Commandments, into their curriculum. Ryan Walters, Republican State Superintendent, insisted on this plan, made effective immediately. This followed a Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 which required that requires the following:

Lemuel: ( in stentorian voice ) “Each public school governing authority and the governing authority of each non-public school that receives state funds shall display the Ten Commandments in each building it uses and classroom in each school under its jurisdiction. The nature of the display shall be determined by each governing authority with a minimum requirement that the Ten Commandments shall be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches. The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or framed document and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font.”

Amity: This is an issue that surfaces every few years, causes controversy, then sinks quietly, unresolved. This time it has gathered force from the increasing number of supporters on the Evangelical right. According to Superintendent Walters, “This is not merely an educational directive, but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.”

Lemuel: To our unchurched listeners, perhaps even those who do not care for the oeuvre of Cecil B DeMille, We will enumerate the commandments:

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.

3.Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.

1. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5.Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

1. Thou shalt not kill.

2. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

3. Thou shalt not steal.

4. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

5. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

Lemuel: The first problem with this particular set of rules is that it narrows the interpretation of the commandments through its language. This is a specific translation, and that is dangerous for what is being purported to be the words of God himself.

Amity: The other, obvious problem, is that these are specifically religious rules. The first four of these commandments are meant to regulate and set apart religious practice from the other spiritual ideas.

Questions:

So why are we returning to this?

Why the effort to enforce a set of religious rules that Republican leadership privately ignores? How many of these commandments has Trump broken? Theft? Adultery? False witness? Coveting?

ORGAN END STINGER Amity: That brings us to the end of this week’s episode. If you like it, please subscribe and leave us a review - and share it with a friend.

Lemuel: We have an internet home: withoutworkspodcast.com. Our show notes and links to stories we talk about can be found there.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ [e-mail]

Our Internet home: www.withoutworkspodcast.com

Amity: We are also reachable at [e-mail], on twitter @withoutworkspod and on Facebook at Without Works podcast.

All that information is on the website as well, so go there and have a look around.

I’ve been Amity and he’s been Lemuel, and we urge you to go out and do something good.

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