Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has signed into law the requirement that all school classrooms in that state display prominently a poster on which are written the ten commandments from Deuteronomy. They have until January 1, 2025, to comply.
Sure. Go ahead. Great idea. This will be a teaching moment. Let’s not stop with those ten.
Here’s what we’ll put up on the walls:
The Jewish Ten Commandments
The Christian Golden Rule
The Five Pillars of Islam
The Eightfold Path of Buddhism
The Seven Fundamentals of Satanism
The Nine Beliefs of Hinduism
The Five Parts of the Zoroastrian Avesta
The Pagan Credo
The Eight Pastafarian Commandments
What’s that you say, Governor Landry? You’re interested only in Christianity? Then I guess only that second one can be posted.
Sorry? What? Oh, you want to include what’s in the Bible, whether it’s Christian or Jewish? Well, if you insist. But I don’t think there will be room on the walls for everything. Because, I mean, Deuteronomy 4:2 says you can’t add to the commandments or leave any out.
Here’s just a small collection of what you’ll have to post
10:19 Love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
14:6-29 You may not eat the camel, the hare, the rabbit, the pig, whatever doesn’t have fins and scales, the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, the red kite, the falcon, the raven, the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk, the pelican, the cormorant, the stork, the heron, the hoopoe, the bat, or any winged creeping things. You shall not eat anything that dies of itself, but you can give it or sell it to a foreigner. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. You shall give in tithe all the increase of your seed, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase to be given to the Levite and the foreigner.
15:1 At the end of every seven years, every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother.
22:5 A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
22:9-12 You shall not plant two kinds of plants in the same field. You shall not wear clothing of mixed fibers. You shall wear a cloak with fringes on the four borders.
22:13-25 If a husband believes his bride not to be a virgin, her father and mother may show him tokens of her virginity. If the husband is wrong, he must pay 100 silver shekels to her father, and the two shall remain married all their days. If virginity cannot be proven, she shall be stoned to death at the door of her father’s house. If a couple commit adultery, they shall both be killed.
But my favorite is the first of the ten you want to separate from all those other, inconvenient commandments (in violation of 4:2). Deuteronomy 5:7 says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Why is that my favorite, you ask?
Because it leaves room for other gods. And I really don’t think that’s what you want to tell school children.
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Brilliantly written, and you have pointed out so many of the things that folks forget are all part of the Jewish law. Another brilliantly articulated piece, RR!
What next? Crucifixes in every classroom? This is so effed up. A handmaid's tale scenario may not be too far off, especially considering we might be witnessing the last breaths of the U. S. Constitution and democracy.