My Response: Right. Wrong. Maybe.

June 27, 2024

I'm a bit slow on the uptake. So, I first thought the judge you were talking about was A Chief Justice of SCOTUS, and I had no recollection, and I had to Google the name before I found out he was an Alabama State judge. Then his aberrant behavior became clear. The Old South just can't let it go, that is, their way of thinking. I worked in the cane fields in Okeechobee, FL, and believe me, it's just like I imagine it was in the old plantation system where workers are truly considered property.

All the same, I strongly agree with you on some points, don't understand others, and disagree with you on a few. Let me start in a positive way...

I agree that apparently, Judge Moore is a real scumbag, certainly not a Bible Believing Christian. Not everyone who takes the name of Christ in a useless or empty manner is really a true Christian. That is what is meant by"taking the name of the Lord in vain. - https://www.bibletools.org

It's not about cussing or using inappropriate and noxious language.

Jesus called out the Religious Leaders of the day for their blatant hypocrisy and the rules they had made up, oppressing the Jewish people, piling on their backs unnecessary and burdensome regulations - some of which actually countermanded the Mosaic Law. Also, He taught, "For I say to you that unless your righteousness shall abound above that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall never enter into the kingdom of the heavens." - Matthew 5:20, Berean Literal Bible.

An example Jesus gave was that hating someone was equal to murdering them in one's inner thoughts or "heart.". Therefore He was not disobeying the Ten Commandments but elevating them to a higher rubric.

So, I have no idea of understanding where you have concluded that Jesus didn' obey the Ten Commandments. An example might help.

By the by, I agree with you that the KJV Bible is written in an archaic language, and although it was the everyday, understandable vernacular, the language of ordinary people in the early 17th Century, I don't understand why you would use it to prove your points. I think it would be more appropriate to use a translation written in today's vernacular. There are many, and with notes, and with references. Often they have a full explanation of what methodology was used to produce their final edition.

Another place of agreement I believe I have with you is the Constitution's Clause of the separation of Church and State. You don't have to go very far back in history from the Colonials to see the fluctuation of Protestant and Catholic Kings and Queens ruling the British Empire to see who got to keep their guns...

Everything you said about the Donald and MAGA "evangelicals" was definitely on point.

Enough buttering you up...

You have the wrong idea about God being some sort of mean ogre. For example, Israel's purpose was to reveal God's precepts and parental purposes for both individual's lives and Society's success living in close proximity together - for all Societies. When the nation failed miserably - as in wanting to become like the surrounding nations and to assume their practices of idol worship - God eventually would punish them and more severely than they deserved, as their rewards were also more than they deserved. At least that is what the Bible says. You were a Religious Leader, and I'm sure you have read that in the Bible, right? Anyways, the Israelites had actually turned God's purposes on its head and were destroying God's ultimate plan to be revealed finally in the Gospel.

I don't know about anybody else, but when I disobeyed my Dad and did something very bad, he would get angry. My Dad loved me and made sure that there wouldn't be a "next time" for my own benefit. He also didn't want to sully my name or his... There are dads out there who are mean ogres and punish severely and without reason. But let's not put all people "into one basket" or "throw the baby out with the bathwater."

The principle I've learned is that God, like a good parent, actually does know what will hurt and harm us, preferring that we choose to listen. He created us and just maybe knows what is best for us. Like don't eat pork, because it has a microscopic parasite that can kill you... In other words God was saying, "You can't see it, I know, but believe Me, it's there, and it can kill you."

Nevertheless, no, no, a thousand times no, the Ten Commandments or any other religious text should not be posted in Public Schools. If parents want, they can post them somewhere at home. Still, this doesn't negate the fact of the moral and civil decline - in this country and around the world. Don't you think we'd better start posting something? ...the Bill of Rights perhaps? ..."How to Have Civil Discourse"? There's got to be posters for that kind of thing.

One more by the by: my wife Patty was horrified by the Middle School's required reading assignment of a totally inappropriate read for the grade level... maybe for Seniors in High School... It seemed then as now, someone is making these decisions without parental consent or even parent's knowledge. It has the same potential for skewing young minds as when my older brother left the book Candy on my bed. Never heard of it? Don't bother. It was purely pornographic. The fact remains whoever is choosing required reading has their own agenda. What ever happened to A Tale of Two Cities or Brave New World or Lord of the Flies and other Classics?

Here's another question I had. Because when I was growing up, we had the Ten Commandments posted, too, the Bill of Rights, the Lord's Prayer, maybe. As a boy, ya know, I didn't pay much attention to any of it, and my life was mainly looking out the window, peeking at the girls, maybe passing notes, waiting for Lunch and Recess, Dismissal - you know all the meaningful and most important stuff occupying our restless little minds...

You didn't mention the profane mission of some overzealous and self righteous political Nationalists, working covertly under the pseudonym "Christian" and editing books, even removing many from the schools and libraries - not unlike the Nazis of 1930s Germany. So, what do you think? Are they inane, insane, or both?

So, I guess there's more to discuss, but I should probably end this on a high note. Many stories can be looked at as allegory, but then retrieved back as meat and potato realistic truisms. Without a personal relationship with God, applying that dynamics of God Jesus, and the Bible is intellectually a challenge, to say the least... I'd say impossible...

"Farewell and adieu, my fair Spanish Ladies. Farewell and adieu to my Ladies of Spain..."