Sat, Aug 23 2003

Are They The Complete Ten Commandments?

There's been a lot of uproar about a certain display in Alabama. From what I understand, a monument depicting the Ten Commandments was placed in the rotunda of the State Judicial Building under the direction of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Reaction has ranged from outrage to full support, and many feel this issue is a pivotal one in matters regarding the separation of church and state.

I have a question (since I haven't seen the actual monument). Does the display depict the Ten Commandments in their entirety, as translated from the original documents (as far as possible)? Which churches version of the Commmandments is Alabama displaying? The Catholic version? The Protestant version? The original Ten Commandments, from what I understand, includes a phrase in the 4th commandment which roughly translates into something like "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God..."

Instead of getting all wound up over the placement of the monument, I'm wondering why no one seems to be getting wound up over the fact that very few actually practice this 4th Commandment as it was originally handed down. The seventh day of the week is Saturday, folks. Ask any Seventh-day Adventist, or, better yet, ask any Jew. If you do some research, you'll find out that humans originally migrated to Sunday as a replacement day of rest to appease sun worshippers and to woo said sun worshippers into the fold. The first day of the week is not in the real Ten Commandments. If Moore doesn't have the seventh-day listed as Sabbath on the monument, his Ten Commandments are basically incomplete.

Where are all the people standing up on their hind legs about that?

posted at: 10:57 | category: /Politics | link to this entry