Why do progressives want to remove the Ten Commandments? Maybe because the 10th Commandment forbids their “need v. greed” utopia. The 10th Commandment is the real issue in the Presidential election campaign. Indeed, the putative President, Barack H. Obama, named the issue without realizing it.

Moses receives the Ten Commandments

Moses lived about 3600 years ago, give or take 45 years. The Jews believe they can find the actual day he received the Ten Commandments. They reckon that this major historical event occurred 50 days after Passover. They call it Shavuot.  This year that falls on May 27th. That is the same day as Pentecost in the New Testament. Most Christians accept Pentecost as the day the church became the church.

For the last 3600 years the Jews have held the Ten Commandments in high regard. So have the Christians for the past 2000 years.  At the time of the founding of this country, the Founders based our rule of law on the ultimate law given to Moses on that historic day.  As a matter of fact, this set of laws is in such high regard that Moses and the Ten Commandments are frequently on display at many courthouses nationwide in one form or another – up to and including The United States Supreme Court.

The 10th Commandment in detail

The Ten Commandments on display in St. Mary's Church, Childrey, England. Photo: Brian Robert Marshall; CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic License

Many who study the Ten Commandments, whether they be Jew or Gentile, observe that they consist of a vertical plane, which deals with our relationship with God, and a horizontal plane, which deals with our relationship with others.  The 10th Commandment is a prime example of a Commandment that deals with our relationship with others.  It reads:

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 donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. Exodus 20:17, NKJV

Since the word “covet” has disappeared from the modern vernacular, to be clear, this Commandment specifically tells us that what your neighbor has is his/her’s and you are not “entitled” to it.  The 10^th Commandment actually is stronger and “Commands” that we shouldn’t even so much as desire (or be jealous) of the possessions of another person.

On this special day of Shavuot, we would be wise to go back to our roots of faith that teach us self-government, which is ultimately more significant than national government. But, alas, many in government manipulate the masses to ensure their power. And in 2012 they have perverted this particular law of self-government. We call them politicians. But they are perverters of the 10th Commandment when they preach in the name of Social Justice.  They certainly make it sound “Christianly”, but it is a promotion of unrivaled greed that celebrates covetousness beyond all measure.   Those who promote Social Justice use words like fairness or level playing field or the current favorite, common good. But it is nothing more than the forcible taking of one man’s possessions to give to another.

Of course, charity is a virtue. But covetousness is not charity and it is not a virtue. Charity is the voluntary giving to someone in need that is prompted by compassion. Social Justice is the involuntary taking of someone’s property and giving it to someone else.  Even Robin Hood would have recoiled in horror from such a perverted ideology.  He robbed from the rich to give money back to the poor whom the rich unjustifiably robbed.

To be fair, this confusion of the Christian principle of charity with the concept of Social Justice lies on the shoulders of the clergy and rabbis of this nation.  They have let the perversion stand.  We can blame our power-crazed politicians for much of this, but the truth is that they couldn’t manipulate the electorate with this concept if the men and women of God understood and delivered the truth.

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