Do the Ten Commandments Matter?

I was raised in an evangelical church and was a pastor in evangelical churches for thirty years. I don’t know that I fit there very well but that was not their fault, I just see things from a different angle than most folks in that world. They saw me as too liberal and they were right, so we parted company, but it was not done in anger nor do I hold any resentment toward anyone. So, this blog is done with concern and no anger. It is just the way I see it.

 One of the things I continued to admire about the Evangelicals was their firm stand for the principles stated in the Ten Commandments. While I often did not agree with the inflexibility and judgmental attitude they demanded, I was glad they continued to emphasize the importance of these words even though they sometimes made pests of themselves trying to get them displayed on government property.

 While I do not think they should be displayed there I certainly do think they are important. A society such as ours must have some sense of a final authority. Some place that settles the question whether or not something is right or wrong. We do not live in a black and white world. We face far too many gray areas for us to not have some final authority that settles at least some of the issues.

 I remember telling a college class how important I thought a final authority was to a society. Without some place or person, we can go to for a final word we are left with no moral compass to guide us. A student spoke up with concern in his voice and said, “You are right. Why doesn’t someone write one?” I said, “Who would you get to write it? Do you think congress could define what a lie is? In a gray world we do not always get to choose between good and bad. Sometimes we must choose the lesser of two evils and that makes it vital for us to have some basis for determining how to make those kinds of choices.

The truth is we have such an authority. To me there are three sources that form the moral compass I try to follow. One is the Ten commandments, the second is the golden rule of doing unto others as we would have others do unto us, and the third is the question, “What would Jesus do?”

 The first two of these sources can produce a solid way for society to follow a final word or authority. The “what would Jesus do” is an additional source we agree to when we commit to follow Him.

 This need for authority makes the Ten Commandments vital, particularly so to a democracy that depends on individual morality. They do not answer every question but certainly give a foundation we can build upon. I cannot imagine where our world would be if we did not have this long history of God speaking to us about the areas He knows must be followed if we are to survive in a society.

 That is why the Evangelical emphasis on those ten statements has been a source of comfort to me. Now that source has gone missing. Sadly, I have watched the leadership of the Evangelical church check off commandment after commandment in order to justify their support of a person who seems intent on defying each one.

 Every issue is met with justifications that boggle the mind. They even dare to simply say, “We will give him a mulligan on that sin.” Mulligan has become the modern-day version of the old Catholic pattern of selling indulgences during the dark ages.

 As of recently they must now add murder to the list of justified sins. Some Saudi prince is too good of a customer for our bombs, so we are giving him a mulligan for murder.

 It is like that was the final commandment to check off and so all of them have now been covered and gutted.

 I wonder how they will get around the issue of, if the president can get mulligans why can’t the members of a church? The deacon having an affair? The pastor caught in some sin? Is sin no longer sin if someone is rich and powerful?

 So right and wrong are arbitrary? The Ten Commandments are just ten suggestions? There is no final word, so we are left to follow our own guts? Or the gut of some “leader”?

 There is an old Testament text that says, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” The result was chaos.

 Makes putting the Ten Commandments on display in the church sort of hypocritical don’t you think?

 So where should they be displayed? Can’t put them on the lawn of the capital and now they don’t even fit in our churches.

 Maybe we can find a museum that will put them in a corner somewhere so future generations can search history to remember a time when lying was not just political rhetoric, stealing was not just smart business practice, adultery was more than boys being boys, murder was not a political necessity, and God did not play third fiddle behind greed and power.