The five commandments
Jonah Goldberg has a solution for the "crisis" in Alabama.
"...So let's do the political thing: compromise. If the ACLU et al. won't accept Ten Commandments, how about five?
"Surely 'Thou shall not steal' doesn't bother anybody. If it did, the ACLU would be suing to have laws against theft repealed (I know, I know: Don't give them any ideas). And a prohibition against bearing false witness shouldn't raise eyebrows now that Clinton's out of office.
"Honoring thy father and mother is still considered 'uncool' by much of the Hollywood crowd, but, really, where's the harm? And covetousness - at least in the forms of greed and materialism - has always been one of the left's biggest peeves, so no problems there. Also, going by the left's rhetoric on war and the death penalty alone, I have to assume they're not going to complain about the whole 'Thou shall not kill' thing.
"Hey, look at that, that's five right there."
"...Of course, both sides would be furious at my Solomonic suggestion. But that fury would be instructive. Yes, the folks praying outside the Alabama courthouse would fairly complain that God's Word cannot be abridged like a Reader's Digest story. But they'd really be angry because their favorite parts had been cut out.
"Meanwhile, the hired-gun atheists and hypersecularist lawyers who've descended on Alabama would be irate because God would still be the Man behind the curtain. They'd still be His Commandments, just a politically correct condensed version. And any public hint that our laws are derived from God drives such people bonkers."
Jonah Goldberg has a solution for the "crisis" in Alabama.
"...So let's do the political thing: compromise. If the ACLU et al. won't accept Ten Commandments, how about five?
"Surely 'Thou shall not steal' doesn't bother anybody. If it did, the ACLU would be suing to have laws against theft repealed (I know, I know: Don't give them any ideas). And a prohibition against bearing false witness shouldn't raise eyebrows now that Clinton's out of office.
"Honoring thy father and mother is still considered 'uncool' by much of the Hollywood crowd, but, really, where's the harm? And covetousness - at least in the forms of greed and materialism - has always been one of the left's biggest peeves, so no problems there. Also, going by the left's rhetoric on war and the death penalty alone, I have to assume they're not going to complain about the whole 'Thou shall not kill' thing.
"Hey, look at that, that's five right there."
"...Of course, both sides would be furious at my Solomonic suggestion. But that fury would be instructive. Yes, the folks praying outside the Alabama courthouse would fairly complain that God's Word cannot be abridged like a Reader's Digest story. But they'd really be angry because their favorite parts had been cut out.
"Meanwhile, the hired-gun atheists and hypersecularist lawyers who've descended on Alabama would be irate because God would still be the Man behind the curtain. They'd still be His Commandments, just a politically correct condensed version. And any public hint that our laws are derived from God drives such people bonkers."
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