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oraxx's avatar

There are perfectly good secular justifications for outlawing murder and robbery. Under certain specific circumstances it can be illegal to lie. Everything else in the Ten Commandments would be unconstitutional should anyone try writing them into law. The Constitution never mentions the Ten Commandments. Never-the-less, the religious right continues to push the fiction this country was some how based on them. Pushing religious nonsense like this is ever so much easier than working to solve actual problems.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

This is the reason why civics classes need to be re-emphasized in American classrooms. The problem with that, of course, is that Donald Trump would immediately protest against such action because he is no more about the Constitution than he is about law and order.

Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

More likely, he would mandate that they teach kkkristian nationalism as a core value of the Founding Fathers.

Stephen Brady's avatar

They are convinced they are absolutely right in these things and have some intrinsic right to impose their 'truth' on every member of society. That monument could be put in the front yard of some church and nobody would say boo! But, no... they have to make a big display of their faith and their power to impose it.

oraxx's avatar

Once people become convinced they are operating under divine sanction, they can rationalize a justification for anything.

Jenna Sutton's avatar

Which is truly horrific.

Stephen Brady's avatar

Because they would surely rid the world of us infidels if they could.

Nuki Mo's avatar

Using their ever changing definition of infidel. Religion is a cult many are born into and never learn to critically think for themselves. Most can’t handle reality or tough situations. They’ve been programmed to not think or act. “It’s in Gods hands, now. Whatever HE (the invisible, loving, all knowing, guy in the sky who can do all things) decides.” Ya know, the “do all be all” that needs certain people to let you know what HE wants you to do. Who needs cult members in gov’t to legislate his commandments & post them on state capital grounds. Things this invisible be all do all guy can’t just make happen or do on his own. Btw, you better do what this living God says, or he’ll smite/hurt/kill you & your loved ones! WTF?

oraxx's avatar

Their endless prayer reinforces all their worst tendencies.

Nuki Mo's avatar

Created as a way for those in and seeking power to control and maintain control over the masses. Religion is a cult many are born into and never learn to critically think for themselves. Most can’t handle reality or tough situations. They’ve been programmed to not think or act. “It’s in Gods hands, now. Whatever HE (the invisible, loving, all knowing, guy in the sky who can do all things) decides.” Ya know, the “do all be all” that needs certain people to let you know what HE wants you to do. Who needs cult members in gov’t to legislate his commandments & post them on state capital grounds. Things this invisible, be all do all guy can’t just make happen or do on his own. Btw, you better do what this loving God says, or he’ll smite/hurt/kill you and your loved ones! WTF? “Don’t blame the controlling killers, it was Gods will. HE told me himself. He “chooses” to only have two way communication with me. I’m special. He can just as easily speak to you but chooses to only speak to me.” Again, WTF? THINK PEOPLE, THINK! You’re being conned, grifted and bamboozled!

Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

And all the while that they are preaching hatred and bigotry, they proclaim, It's not me; it's 𝕲𝖔𝖉 while pointing to the sky.

Carl Woodall's avatar

Can you say project 2025? White supremacy and Christian nationalism has to be stopped or our country, as we know it is doomed.

ericc's avatar

Not committing adultery (without the informed consent of ones' spouse) is a pretty good moral and social-stability rule. There's not really any reason for the state to be in the business of enforcing it, but it is definitely the sort of moral/ethical thing I'll be passing on to my kid at the right age.

cdbunch's avatar

I'd consider it a contractual violation from a legal standpoint. From a moral standpoint it's a violation of your promise to your spouse. Open marriage is a mutual (contractual and moral) amendment to the original agreement.

oraxx's avatar

My wife's idea of open marriage is me opening the door to take the trash out.

cdbunch's avatar

Like I said, it has to be mutual.

cdbunch's avatar

Not really, marriage has several legal ramifications that remain outside of whether the parties are sexually exclusive. Over 1100 federal benefits are gained with that contract.

I also believe n-way marriage should be legal, though I acknowledge the lack of precedent for equitable divorce.

This, despite the fact, I don’t believe I could agree to either in my personal life.

ericc's avatar

N-way marriage, historically and empirically, has resulted in heavy peer, societal, and economic pressure put on young women to conform to a social agreement they would not otherwise voluntarily take, and one which keeps them as essentially slaves to an older man. You have to solve that problem before you make it legal, otherwise you'll have 100 abusive keep-my-teen-harem-ignorant-and-uneducated marriages for every happy well-adjusted polyamorous one. I don't think that's impossible, but it is a 'tread very carefully' issue.

cdbunch's avatar

Also, those problems have historically and empirically, existed in 2-way marriage probably since the institution was initiated. Cultural changes are the only way it’s going to get better, and keeping it illegal has neither stopped the phenomenon nor is it likely to push those changes.

cdbunch's avatar

That’s rather like saying we have to fix the problems of under-age prostitution before we can legalize it for adults.

Joe King's avatar

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠—𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡 ”𝑢𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥ℎ𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑂𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑠’ 𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑙 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠”—𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦.

They'll cherry-pick anything, won't they?

Once again, Christian Nazionalists pissing on the Constitution. Their other justification is a deliberate misunderstanding of completely different ruling in order to essentiaally claim that SCOTUS has now made the government promotion of Christianity legal. Do they really need the courts to tell them in plain language you shall not promote any religion?

Jenna Sutton's avatar

“Christian Nazionalists” - can’t believe that’s the first time I’m seeing this pun? Portmanteau? Finally accurate spelling? It’s def my new favorite and I will be spending the rest of the day teaching autocorrect to spell it thusly.

Joe King's avatar

I've been using that for a few months now, for the same reason I call their party the NSGOP.

Stephen Brady's avatar

We need a new Constitution - one with a whole bunch of 'Thou shalt nots' and some big, sharp teeth.

Claudia's avatar

The constitution is actually very clear.

The problem is that some people WANT to violate the constitution and some people WANT them to get away with it.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Trump and too many Republicans have demonstrated that they have little to no regard for the Constitution if it stands in the way of their continued aggregation of power.

Crowscage's avatar

You have to be very specific with the religously retarded.

Dan Barker's avatar

Did you notice that the image of the Ten Commandments you display at the top of your article is the Catholic version? Kentucky will likely use the Protestant version. We know that is the older Catholic version because it is missing the 2nd commandment about making graven images. This kinda makes sense, because that stone tablet is itself a graven image! You can't see it in that cropped image, but in order to make it 10, the Catholics split the final commandment about coveting into 2 commandments about coveting. Technically—if those are based on Exodus 20 (instead of some of the other biblical versions of the Ten Commandments, like in Exodus 34, which ends with "Don't boil a goat in its mother's milk")—the Protestant version would be more respectful to the text. The deleted 2nd commandment about not making graven images is really about idolatry, and we know that the Roman Catholic church has been enamored with visual images, relics, statues, even going so far as to say that objects can be venerated (a synonym for worship).

cdbunch's avatar

They use the DeMille translation, I suspect.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Charlton Heston was both Moses and the voice of God. Moses was talking to himself. Literally.

Crowscage's avatar

So how is that different from every christain ever shat out onto the world?

ericc's avatar

From what Hemant says, it doesn't sound like they got an Exodus 20 Protestant OR Catholic version correct.

Which could be stupidity, could be intentional/malicious, or could be intentional/copy editing (they only got so many characters so they truncated)

Septuagenarian Contrarian's avatar

All good points. BTW are you the same Dan Barker as in FFRF? Proud member!

Dan Barker's avatar

That’s me. (Or more correctly, “That’s I.”) Thanks for being a member. We just passed 42,000 paid members (not counting hundreds of thousands of social media “Likes”).

Joe King's avatar

They are so good at cherry-picking that their minds won't even register the words "graven images".

NOGODZ20's avatar

How about a commandment that forbids God's representatives (or anyone else, for that matter) from molesting children (not that IT would be followed, either).

Boreal's avatar

Well "god' does give instructions on killing children so I'm guessing he is okay with his followers raping them as well.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Hell, Yahweh talks about EATING children. Not sure you get more disturbing than that.

cdbunch's avatar

I thought that was talking about worshipers of Molach.

cdbunch's avatar

Third tablet.

Thou shalt not rape.

Thou shalt especially not rape children.

Thou shalt not treat people as property.

Eve and her daughters are people.

Old Man Shadow's avatar

We must put up a graven image to tell everyone not to put up graven images!!!

Michele's avatar

*paging Lucien Greaves to the red courtesy phone*

Tim Holdener's avatar

Time to dust off the Baphomet statue

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Lucien will fall on this one with both feet!

Whitney's avatar

Maybe I'm tired and annoyed today. Maybe it's the frustration talking. Maybe it's something else entirely, but I'm sick of these Christian monuments that try to demand the public act the way Christians want, when said Christians refuse to demand the same behavioral ethics from their own leadership.

How many cases of adultery have we heard about down through the years? How many lies have been told by Christian leaders? How often have Christian leaders been sent to prison for things like embezzlement then gotten out and repeated the same crimes? Someone explain to me why we need these monuments in front of government buildings and not churches, because this isn't making a lick of sense. If the local churches want a monument up so badly, they can pay for it on their own property and leave the rest of us innocent bystanders the heck alone; it's clearly not making any difference to the folks that actually need to hear these commandments.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Going to put up 10 C monuments on public land? Then get the "real" 10 C found in Exodus 34 (that bear little resemblence to the set found in Exodus 20) and print it in Aramaic.

Even better? Put up an Englsih translation of those commandments next to it and watch people scratch their heads in bewilderment.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

If I recall correctly, there are three different versions of the ten commandments. I say, put up all three then along with that display, add the question, which one is is the Real McCoy?

NOGODZ20's avatar

According to teh bibbel, the Exodus 34 set is actually called the Ten Commandments in Verse 28. :)

NOGODZ20's avatar

All 10 Commandment monuments are themselves a violation against the making/worship of graven images according to Exodus 20:4.

Hey, xtians: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below the earth." Got that? No creation/worship of idols or likenesses of ANYTHING above, on earth or under water. What's so hard to understand.

By creating monuments of commandments that were meant for the Chosen People ONLY and demanding they be venerated, you are sinning and demanding others to sin.

ericc's avatar

𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡’𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒

So not just illegal, but low quality illegal. Like truck nutz on a stolen truck.

Sigh. Hopefully someone will sue. Until then, I will pretend-hope that they at least install it backwards, so that it faces the people who need a moral reminder rather than the visitors who don't. :)

Whitney's avatar

"...one senior C.D.C. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation."

When the CDC is worried about retaliation 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡, things have gone epically wrong.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Considering the fact that the man is a serial adulterer, it would be a delicious bit of karma.

Mr.E's avatar

not sure how sleeping around he is doing as President, but it would justice in a way

Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

He has talked about his beautiful relationships with Putin and others.

Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Just been to the chemist and got my flu jab. Bugger gave me a covid jab as well. I guess he did ask though. :) In and out in less than 15 minutes. And being over 65 it's free.

larry parker's avatar

I was going to make fun of your use of 'chemist', but I Googled chemist and three local pharmacies popped up.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Thanks to Monty Python, I knew what "chemist" meant. :)

larry parker's avatar

I knew too, but that doesn't stop me from having a little fun.

Guerillasurgeon's avatar

That's what we older people tend to call pharmacies, though that word is taking over I think promoted by actual chemists who think it's a bit more posh. Although Christ these days they sell just about everything from Winnie the Pooh coffee mugs to jigsaw puzzles. You gotta fight your way through them to get to the actual drugs.

NOGODZ20's avatar

And yet it still doesn't sound as crazy as anything coming out of Trump's mouth.

Daniel Rotter's avatar

"They're eating the cats! They're eating the dogs!" sounds like a stereotypical sensationalist headline from the type of tabloid highlighted by Matri. It certainly does NOT sound like something uttered by a major party presidential contender in a public debate.

NOGODZ20's avatar

And as soon as he won? That dogs and cats story disappered. Why, it's as if the whole thing was made up.

John Smith's avatar

I also notice that Trump nor the Republican Party has mentioned anything more about the person that was killed by a sniper at a Trump rally when Trump was running for president.

It’s as if Trump and the Republican Party don’t care anymore about that person or that person’s family. What a surprise!/s

NOGODZ20's avatar

I like to refer to it as that sphincter between his nose and chin.

Daniel Rotter's avatar

If I'm not mistaken, eating minivans is part of the Mediterranean diet./s

Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

OT : Anti trans troll spotted on the last jerry corner post. If someone wants to play with him.

Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

T'es bouché à l'émeri ou t'as juste une case en moins, trouduc' ?

No sabes nada, Jon neige baka !

Are you plain stupid or a basket case, asshole ?

You know nothing, Jon snow the dumb !