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Who Determines Right From Wrong? By Gary Petty All across the United States people are involved in a debate about the biblical Ten Commandments. It's ironic that while some Christians vehemently defend the posting of the Ten Commandments, many other Christians believe that these laws have no application to modern Christianity.
ur society is in the midst of a morality battle. The latest battle in this war is the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools and government buildings. Underneath the surface, there is a much more important issue in the Christian community than posting of the Ten Commandments. The question really being asked is "Are the Ten Commandments even relevant today?" A recent survey found that most people could name no more than two of the Ten Commandments. Many of the respondents felt the commandments should be revised for modern times. They felt observing the Sabbath and honoring one's parents were outdated and suggested new commandments such as, "Thou shalt not drink and drive" and "Thou shalt care for the environment" be used as modern replacements. New commandments
Over the last few decades various movements to create a new Ten Commandments have surfaced. In his book The Second Ten Commandments: A Guide to Success in the Age of Consciousness, Orion Moshe Kopelman, claims that the Ten Commandments have outlived their usefulness. He promotes commandments like "Maximize your time spent in flow and happiness" and "Act true to your inner voice and fulfill your mission." John Leo, in U.S. News & World Report, speculates that if we begin to change the Ten Commandments to fit into modern ways of thinking, they might appear as:
Anti-Commandments movements One of the most powerful anti-Commandments movements of our time is the New Age movement. Shirley MacLaine, a queen of New Age philosophy, promotes two modernized commandments in her book Dancing In The Light: "Know that you are God" and "know that you are the universe." Jesus Christ participated in the typical first-century Jewish debates over Old Testament law, which included the Ten Commandments. When asked to state the most important law, Jesus simply reiterated two laws from the Old Testament: love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). Wrong freedom
Confusion reigns A third force of resistance is in Christianity itself. Since the early days of Catholicism--and in the relatively shorter lifetime of Protestantism--there has been a struggle in defining the relationship of God's grace to God's law. Many churches openly denounce the keeping of the Ten Commandments as unnecessary for Christians. Others give lip service to them but only keep the ones they like. If Christians accept the validity of the Ten Commandments, then they must face some hard questions about their own religion. There are profound differences between the belief that there is a Supreme Being with knowledge of right and wrong, and possessing the right to enforce His reality on His creation, and the belief that each person is a god or goddess with only his or her own thoughts and feelings as determinants of right and wrong. This confusion leaves most professing Christians so bewildered that they base their religious convictions on vague concepts of morality devoid of any real guidelines for conduct.
Are the Ten Commandments relevant today, or can we trivialize them to the same level as "use a good day planner to maximize your time"? Are they simply Ten Suggestions the Creator wanted to pass on to His children? Are they laws that only applied to an ancient people but have little application to modern life? If they are applicable today what is the price we pay both individually and collectively for breaking them? Building relationships In his 1996 U.S. News & World Report article, "Thou Shalt Not Command," John Leo wrote, "It's possible to put together a modern, pro-impulse set of commandments based on advertising slogans--'Just do it,' 'Just be,' 'Sometimes you gotta break the rules,' 'Peel off inhibitions,' 'Find your own road.' The National Parenting Center asked children to suggest additional commandments. Among their ideas: 'No bombing for the heck of it,' 'Thou shalt not address people by their color' and 'No grabbing.'"
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