Woody Cavenaugh

nice post, but one question: how do you figure that "the western world bases its law on those laws"?

the first four are devotional, not legal.

the other six are pretty universal, not confined to the western world, and not original to my hebrew ancestors, either.

"Good laws transcend religion."

Great line! Too bad some can't figure it out.

Excellent question Ed! (Thanks for dropping by.)
It had been so many years since I was in Sunday school that I made a point this morning (after getting your comment) to go look up the big ten and take a refresher. You are very correct, the first four are religious in nature. Number five honor your father and mother, is more of a good idea than a specific law. As a child it probably means listen to your mother and father. As an adult it probably means something like take care of your mother and father and make sure they don't have to eat cat food and live without heat.
Six, seven, eight, and nine, are laws in most cultures, not just the west like I originally said. Number ten (the covet one), seems more like a good idea than a hard and fast rule, and probably could be classified in the same group as number 5.

One thing I find really interesting is that since at least the time of the ten commandments in almost every culture everyone agrees that killing, stealing, sleeping around, and lying, are law worthy. It makes perfect since to us because this is all we have ever known, its part of our culture. How did we as a species (almost universally) decide that killing, sleeping around, stealing, and lying were bad things? I don't even think we can address the question properly because we can't get outside of it to look in. Our whole society was built on thousands of years of these principals. Don't even get me started on the exceptions that cultures make to these laws. (War, execution, vendetta, etc.) There just aren't enough hours in the day.

More in the direction of me getting back on topic, I wonder why people get worked up by these ten christian laws when the bible is chocked full of rules and regulations in both the old and new testimate. We have Christian Conservative Republicans having fund raising pork Bar-be-cue dinners all the time including Saturday and Sunday. And at these rally's they probably talk about the evils of being homosexual, quoting chapter and verse from the good book.

What made the christians adapt the Big Ten and ignore all the hundreds of others rules except when it suits their political or moral adjenda? Are christians fundimentally lazy? They talk the talk but I can't help but notice that my friends practicing other religions work a great deal harder to follow their religions rules. Crap. I digressed again.

To sum up. Ed's right, I jumped to a conclusion by my statement that the Ten Commandments are what western law was based on.

I needed a good laugh this morning, so I strolled on over to take a gander at the tablet. Now I'm sorry I missed the media coverage and Melissa Westmoreland getting her WXII camera close-up! How boring! You'd think they'd dress it up a bit with some decorations or at least have a link to Vernon Robinson's website since he's the guy who shelled out $2,000 to have it made! (Don't worry...that ain't a link to Robinson's xenophobic website. Its bad enough I linked you to Westmoreland's, right?)

This probably has something to do with the College Repugnicans' "Moral Week". I guess they didn't like the press their homophobic gay bashing got last year, so this year its a 1-ton monument resting blankly in front of the window to the EUC food court.

Aw shucks, Woody. I thought your comments were HTML enabled. I posted a few links in my last comment, but you're probably not missing anything by them not appearing.

Anyway, you raised a good point regarding the Tibetan monk mandala exhibit. Consistency of religious tolerance is a good thing. We should point out that the monks destroyed their mandala when they were done. Can we expect the same from the College Repugnicans?

There is a paper sign next to it that yesterday morning read something like "placed by the UNCG College Republicans"
Meh. Par. Not terribly worried about it, the wood it's sitting on indicates a temporary installation at best, and there's all kinds of crazy crap in Elliot from time to time. Rock on first ammendment.

Yesterday afternoon, the sign had been replaced by something saying something along the lines of "by the Conservative Sudent" something something. Fair enough.
Conservative students got just as much right to free speach as everyone else. Rock on first amendment.

So, they're changing the sign (probably after it's unintentional removal) regulalry.

I walk by this morning, and the sign is changed again.
I wandrer over.
"Yadda yadda yadda, conservative students organization yadda yadaa yadda"
But... this time the UNCG College Republicans logo is back at the bottom with some little red and white flag stripeing around it. Cute.
Then there's a slogan underneath that, in much smaller lettering.

"For Our Country All"
Come again? *blink* *blink*

"For Our Country All"
Ok. Now, that has a particularly disturbing ring to it.

"For Our Country All"
Are they trying to bait people for attention so that they can cling to their identity of a persecuted minority?
Now THAT's almost as distrubing as the slogan itself.

"For Our Country All"
For the love of G-d.

Either
A) These kids are pig ignorant of the fascist slogans of 1930's Spain and Itally, or...
B) They're intentionaly using fascist language in their slogan.

Nothing but class these guys.
There might be a C), but I can't place it.

"these ten christian laws."

hmm. i believe they were carved into those first tablets in hebrew, which is how they are displayed at temple emanuel...but as i once wrote in a column, "like bagels and irony the Ten Commandments have come to be enjoyed by Christians as well."