Ten, Count Them

Have you seen the Ten Commandments lately? No, not the movie. I mean the cheap plaster facsimiles that adorn government buildings all around this country. Some (a few) are actually made of stone and are an integral part of the structure that houses them.

For some reason, they have become very important lately. Some want them removed from public buildings and others are just as determined to see them remain. But what about you? You’re pretty much an “average citizen”, right? Do you know where they are? Have you actually seen them? And when you did see them, were you moved in any way? Did you pause to read them and reflect on their meaning?

I’m going to suggest that a very large majority of Americans cannot tell you when or where they last saw the Ten Commandments. And I’m also going to state, not suggest, that a large majority of Americans could care less about what is written on those “phony” tablets.

Now this is what was written on the “real” tablets…
I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exo 20:4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exo 20:5 You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me,
Exo 20:6 and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments.
Exo 20:7 You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.
Exo 20:11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.
Exo 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which Jehovah your God gives you.
Exo 20:13 You shall not kill.
Exo 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
Exo 20:15 You shall not steal.
Exo 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Exo 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
Those tablets don’t exist anymore. And they don’t need to. For we are supposed to live them, not worship them. That’s the second and third commandments.

According to some polls, and the figures keep changing, some 70 to 80 percent of Americans are Christians. And yet I have to wonder about those numbers…here are some other numbers that may make you wonder as well.

“According to a statement made on a recent airing of James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" radio show, only 13 percent of Americans base moral decisions on biblical teachings. Even more disturbing is the fact that, according to Dobson, only 32 percent of those who are born again believe in absolute truth. Moreover, only 6 percent of Christian teens believe in absolute truth. “

Personally, I think the furor over the removal or the keeping of the Ten Commandments on or in public buildings is being staged for political purposes only. And that should be a crime…