Mike's New Law Prescription

 Well i was born in Louisiana in 1951 and spent most of my youth there. 

So I noticed that that state has mandated posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms. 

I wasn’t thinking much about that until I noticed that Michael Moore hath posted his recommendations for a  new ten commandments. 

Well ok gollee i mean this is America and people can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t. . . you know. . .(later)

You can view/hear his commendations at michealmoore.com, or something like that. iI think it is on the same online platform where I write blogs, Medium.com.

Let’s get to the point here. I have some things to say about Michael’s suggestions, but first some background about this commentator, me. So you understand the context of my analysis. 

After being born in Louisiana, I was raised in Catholic schools, in the Catholic faith, although my dad was a lapsed Baptist who never went church.  That said, I do think that my 12 years of Catholic education prepared me well for life and whatever it was that I have been doing with my life.  See http://www.careyrowland.com for more about that. 

I did the college thing at LSU, the hometown state university.  It was a great time of learning. Although I was a useless English major with a sort-of minor in political science, I did learn how read and write (you be the judge of that) fairly well.

But I digress. Getting back to the Ten Commandments. . . they are very important. They are a good guide for living and treating people properly in this world. 

When I was 27, I was born again. I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and He still is. 

Now the relationship between Christianity and its parent religion, Judaism, is complicated. Since I am no authority on these matters, I will just say that you should not be antisemitic. As a Christian, I love Jewish people. I applaud our nation’s armed forces who went over to Europe on Dday, back in the 1940’s and chased the damn nazis back into their holes. Let’s just hope that they never succeed in taking over this nation, as they were attempting to do at Charlottesville a few years ago and may were attempting to do on Jan6.

But really, getting back to the point:  the Ten Commandments are a good starting point for a correct understanding of what human behavior and Law should express. 

But we Christians found through Christ a more appropriate working out of that moral Law, through the life and teachings of Christ. You can find more about that in the gospels of the New Testament.  The essence of Jesus message can be discerned in reading his sermon on the mount and other teachings throughout those gospels. 

Here are a few of the primary principles that, I believe, take precedence over the Law and the Ten Commandments:  Blessed are the peacemakers.  Love your enemies. Feed hungry people; clothe people who don’t have enough. Visit people in prison. Love your neighbor as yourself. To that I would add: have some respect for your political enemies. 

Now I think I have written enough here to convey what I think needs to be said now and maybe even what you need to hear, or to read. So I will conclude by getting back to original impetus for this blog.  

I was amused by Michael Moore’s attempted revision of the ten commandments. It was about what I expected from a liberal filmmaker like him. I found his opening a little too irreverent, perhaps even sacriligious (since we were both raised Catholic.) He certainly had moments in his revisionist zeal of inspiration and even quality advice, but of course his liberal bent propelled him beyond the boundaries of propriety concerning identity issues. I mean, this present trouble that we have in America really started when somebody dragged the identity issues into what was called “woke” when “woke” was originally about civil rights and racism issues, which are totally relevant and we were seriously in need of improvement. The bottom line on the sex thing is, in this world, people are free to do whatever they want.

But the better bottom line is do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Selah!  Glass half-Full.