Texting the Ten Commandments

Rags, writing for a blog in Connecticut, wrote a post in which he gives his interpretation of how God would give the Ten Commandments to Israel if God had to use text.


Texting the Ten Commandments:

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg's
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re: bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl. ttyl, JHWH. ps. wwjd?

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Ten Commandments

The Killing of Reverend Fred Winters

The killing of the Reverend Fred Winters is another evidence of the excess of evil that prevails in our world today. Winters was a Southern Baptist minister and the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois. He was killed on Sunday, March 8, 2009.

Winters was killed by Terry J. Sedlacek, a 27-year-old man from Troy, Illinois who, according to a news report, suffered bouts of erratic behavior caused by Lyme disease. While Winters was preaching at the early Sunday morning service, shortly after 8 a.m., Sedlacek entered the sanctuary, exchanged a few words with Reverend Winters, then fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol four times. Winters, 45, and the father of two daughters, died of a single shot to the heart.

Winters came to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in 1987. At that time the church had an average attendance of 32 people during Sunday worship. Today the church has about 1,200 members with three worship services on Sundays.

This tragic death was unnecessary and reflects the contempt and disrespect that some people have for human life. Many people in our society today do not understand that God values human life and that God has established laws that protect human life.

God values human life because every individual was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). Since every person bears God’s image, the killing of one person is an affront to God.

The sixth commandment is a prohibition against the willful and deliberate taking of a human life: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). This commandment concerns the taking of our own and our neighbor’s life. Killing is never right, but the sixth commandment does not forbid killing in war, in self-defense, not even when the state puts a criminal to death. What the commandment forbids is taking life out of malice, hatred, revenge, anger, or any reason that results from human interaction.

As tragic as the death of Reverend Winters was, this is not the first time nor it will be the last time that such an event will take place. Killing inside a church or a temple has happened before and it will happen again.

When Solomon tried to kill Joab, the commander of the Israelite army, Joab, fearing for his life, “fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar” (1 Kings 2:28). The tent of the Lord was a place of refuge and safety. But Solomon, when he was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and had taken refuge beside the altar, ordered Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, to go inside the Lord’s tent and kill Joab (1 Kings 2:29-34).

Zechariah, son of Jehoiada and the prophet of the Lord, was also killed in the temple. When Zechariah stood before the people and told them about their rebellion against the Lord, the people, by order of king Joash, stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple (2 Chronicles 24:20-22).

Even the king of Assyria was killed in the temple while he was worshiping his god. According to 2 Kings 19:36-37, after King Sennacherib of Assyria left Judah and returned to his palace in Nineveh, “as he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat.”

How can we explain the death of Reverend Winters? Seeking to understand what had taken place, Nate Adams, Executive Director of the Illinois Baptist State Association, said:

“Our great God is not surprised by this, or anything. That He allows evil and free will to have their way in tragedies like this is a mystery in many ways. But we know we can trust Him no matter what, and draw close to Him in any circumstances.”

Adams’s statement can be one reason why someone may choose not believe in God, but the presence of evil in the world is a good reason to believe in God, since the existence of evil also presupposes the existence of good, for God is good (Psalm 73:1).

It is evil that unhinges human beings into committing the kind of atrocity that took the life of the Reverend Winters. When that kind of evil happens, nothing can be controlled and nothing can be understood, thus our search for answers when at times answers cannot be found.

Evil is the result of human sin but only people who believe in God can truly understand the awful nature of sin and that the consequence of sin is the suffering of the innocent. This is the reason there are laws, both human and divine. Law is the process by which God and human authorities try to ratify the crooked effects of the madness of evil.

When human laws and divine laws fail to establish a society in which people live under the law, the result is the triumph of evil and the imposition of the will of outlaws.

It is in the arena of good and evil where we find God. However, people who do nor fear God may not fully understand that evil is a consequence of their rejection of God. Paul said that people who not acknowledge God do things that should not be done. They are filled with evil. They murder, they are heartless, ruthless, and inventors of all kinds of evil (Romans 1:28-31).

God and God’s people are in no way strangers to the horrors of evil. Jesus suffered by the hands of evil men (Hebrews 13:12). Jesus also said that his disciples would be persecuted (John 15:20). In the list of faithful people in Hebrews 11, we find many who suffered for their faith. These were the people who “were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented” (Hebrews 11:35-37).

Evil is a reality in the world and the death of Reverend Winters is evidence of the reality of evil. People try to understand the presence of evil in the world, but the reality is that alone, human beings cannot understand the problem of evil. It is only when people and God fight together against evil, that goodness can happen. If a person walks alone, then evil becomes incomprehensible, understanding fails, and fear and horror triumph. Alone, a person cannot hold the key that unlocks the mystery of evil.

The explanation of this paradox, how can evil exist in the presence of a holy God, is only explained when one walks with God. People will escape from the depths of despair and the horrors of evil if they walk in harmony with God.

Under his light everything becomes clear. As Jesus said: “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will” (John 13:7).


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Evil, Fred Winters, Murder, Ten Commandments, Theodicy

The Tenth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:21)

Part 1: The Status of Women in Israelite Society

Part 2: The Deuteronomic Concern for Women

Part 3: The Tenth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:21)

In my study of the Deuteronomic concern for the status of women in Israelite society, I will discuss a few of the laws enacted in the book of Deuteronomy that seek to improve the legal rights of women in Israelite society in the seventh century BCE. Today I will continue my study with a review of the Tenth Commandment. When we study the Tenth Commandment as it appears in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, we can see an important change of attitude toward the status of women in Israelite society.

In the Tenth Commandment, as it appears in Exodus, it is clear that the woman is included in what belongs to a man, that it, she is considered part of his property:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:17).

The “house” is not merely the dwelling of a man, but his entire household, as in Genesis15:2. In Exodus the idea of the “house” includes the wife, the male servants, the female servants, cattle, and whatever else a man may possess (“anything that belongs to your neighbor”).

Although the wife was part of a man’s house, the wife was not considered an absolute property of her husband, debased to the level of a slave as female servants were. The woman had rights as a wife and as a mother. In the home she probably supervised servants, educated children, and participated in the religious life of the family.

In Israel, most marriages were sealed with the gift of the mōhar. There is much question whether the mōhar, the bridal price which a man gave to the father of the bride, was actually a purchase by which a woman became the possession of her husband. Whether the mōhar was considered the price paid for the bride or a compensation that contributed to the union of two families, it is possible that in many situations, the mōhar was considered a purchase, which served to promote the idea that the woman was the husband’s property.

According to Exodus 21:7, a man could sell his daughter to a man, but in this case she became a concubine and not a slave. Rachel and Leah complained that their father Laban had sold them to Jacob. They said: “Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us.” However, if they were sold to Jacob, Laban’s action may not represent an Israelite practice but it may reflect a Mesopotamian marriage tradition (see Genesis 29:26).

The mōhar, the bridal price was paid by Shechem to marry Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. When Hamor and his son Shechem went to Jacob and his sons to ask permission for Shechem to marry Dinah, Shechem told Jacob: “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife” (Genesis 34:11-12).

The versions differ in their translation of mōhar:

NRSV: “The marriage present.”
NIV: “The price for the bride.”
ESV: “The bride price.”
HCSB: “The compensation.”
ASV: The dowry.”
GWN: “The price paid for the bride.”

Since Shechem had to pay the mōhar and give a gift to the family, it is clear that the mōhar was the price he had to pay to obtain Dinah as his wife.

In the Covenant Code, the mōhar was also the price paid by the man who seduced a virgin. The man who violated the virgin must pay the “bride-price” (mōhar) and take the woman as his wife (Exodus 22:16-17). When David planned to marry Saul’s daughter, he was told that “the king wants no other price for the bride (mōhar) than a hundred Philistine foreskins.” Although the request was unusual, David had to pay what Saul requested as a mōhar before he could marry Michal. When Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac, Eliezer gave Rebekah’s family expensive gifts (Genesis 24:53) probably as a mōhar, even though the word is not used in the text.

In the book of Deuteronomy, however, the attitude toward women changes. The book of Deuteronomy’s revision of the Tenth Commandment separates the woman from a man’s property in order to give proper attention to the rights of the woman:

Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Deuteronomy 5:21).

The Book of Deuteronomy demonstrates more respect for women in general for it emphasizes the rights of women as persons of worth, not as mere property of their fathers and husbands.

The fact that the writer of Deuteronomy placed the woman first reflects the desire to emphasize that the woman was not to be considered the property of her husband. In addition, while the book of Exodus uses the same Hebrew word hāmad (חמד) to describe coveting a man's wife and his possessions, the book of Deuteronomy uses two different words for coveting: hāmad (חמד) is used to describe coveting the wife and ’āwāh (אוה) is used to describe coveting a person’s property, as if to emphasize that the two desires are completely different.

This concern for the dignity of Israelite women is characteristic of the book of Deuteronomy, and it is consistent with the author’s desire to actualize Mosaic laws in order to correct social problems prevalent in Israelite society in the late seventh century B.C.E.

Walter Kaiser, in his book Hard Sayings of the Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996) said that since the Ten Commandments were written “by the finger of God” on Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 9:10), the Exodus version of the Decalogue was the original and that the wording of the commandment in Deuteronomy is a free restatement of the Exodus commandment (p. 173). Kaiser wrote:

This allowed Moses to present the commandment with some modifications and updating of the situation in light of their pending entrance into the land of Canaan, while still adhering closely to the original form. In fact, these differences are very slight and of very little consequence except as viewed against the challenges that present themselves in entering into the land.

I do not believe that “these differences are very slight and of very little consequence.” In his commentary on Deuteronomy 1-11 (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 1991), Moshe Weinfeld wrote:

The Deuteronomic version inverted the order of these two commandments. Unlike the Exodus version, which has “house” before “wife,” Deuteronomy puts first “wife” then “house” and devotes to the “wife” a separate command, which suits the general tendency of this book. Deuteronomy gives special attention to women’s rights, and therefore he gives preference to the wife and reserves for her a separate injunction. By the same token she does not join the slave, the animal, and so on, contrary to the arrangement in the Exodus version.

I believe that the Deuteronomic sequence of “wife” and “house” is a radical shift in the view of the status of women in Israelite society. The Deuteronomic change reflects the increased concern for the status of women in Israelite society in the seventh century BCE and the recognition that women had legal rights as members of the covenant community. In future posts, I will discuss some of these rights.

To be continued.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Decalogue, Deuteronomy, Israelite Law, Ten Commandments, Tenth Commandment, Wife, Women, Women’s Rights

The Ten Commandments of Blogging

The Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain has published the Ten Commandments of Blogging. These Ten Commandments of Blogging were first published by Ruth Gledhill, The Times Religion Correspondent. Gledhill also has an article discussing these Commandments.

These are the Ten Commandments of Blogging:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
8. You shall not steal another person’s content.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
10.You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

I am well aware of the 8th Commandment for blogging. For this reason, I want to give credit to Ruth Gledhill by saying again that this list as well as Moses’ picture on this post were taken from her blog.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Blogging, Evangelical Alliance, Ruth Gledhill, Ten Commandments

“You Shall Not Steal,” Exodus 20:15.

In his book, Written in Stone: The Ten Commandments and Today's Moral Crisis (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), Philip Graham Ryken gives a broad application of the Decalogue to the moral crisis facing society in the twenty-first century.

I have selected a brief section from the book, a section in which Ryken applies the teachings of the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15) to some of moral issues people and society face today. It is a long section, but a section worth reading. For the sake of space, I have removed the footnotes that appear in this section. The footnotes are fully documented in the book.

In his study of the eighth commandment, Ryken wrote (pp. 170-173):

Everyone knows that stealing is wrong. Even people who don't read the Bible know the eighth commandment, which says, "You shall not steal" (Exod. 20:15). To steal is to take something that doesn't belong to you. The Hebrew word for stealing (ganaf) literally means to carry something away, as if by stealth. To give a more technical definition, to steal is to appropriate someone else's property unlawfully.

What the eighth commandment forbids seems very simple. However, most people fail to understand its full meaning. Like the rest of God's law; the prohibition on stealing is comprehensive:

Ganaf-stealing-covers all conventional types of theft: burglary (breaking into a home or building to commit theft); robbery (taking property directly from another using violence or intimidation); larceny (taking something without permission and not returning it); hijacking (using force to take goods in transit or seizing control of a bus, truck, plane, etc.); shoplifting (taking items from a store during business hours without paying for them); and pickpocketing and purse-snatching. The term ganaf also covers a wide range of exotic and complex thefts ... [such as] embezzlement (the fraudulent taking of money or other goods entrusted to one's care). There is extortion (getting money from someone by means of threats or misuses of authority), and racketeering (obtaining money by any illegal means).

This is only a partial list of the countless ways people violate the eighth commandment. They pilfer public property, stealing supplies from hospitals, building sites, and churches. In fact, one hotel reported in its first year of business having to replace thirty-eight thousand spoons, eighteen thousand tiles, three hundred and fifty-five coffee pots ... and one hundred Bibles!

Citizens steal from the government by underpaying their taxes or making false claims for disability and Social Security. The government teals too. With its huge bureaucracy, the federal government commits theft on a national scale by wasting public money and by accumulating debt without fully planning to repay. Deficit spending is really a way of stealing from future citizens.

There is theft at work. Employees fill in false time cards and call in sick when they want a day off. They help themselves to office supplies, make personal long-distance phone calls, and pad their expense accounts. Sometimes they go so far as to embezzle, but a more common workplace theft is simply failing to put in a full day's work. Instead workers idle away their time, sitting in their offices and surfing the Internet, sending e-mail to friends-even playing computer games. Whenever we give anything less than our best effort, we are robbing our employer of the productivity we owe.

These are not victimless crimes. Employee theft of time and property costs American businesses and their investors more than two hundred billion dollars a year. This affects all of us. According to some estimates, as much as one-third of a product's cost goes to cover the various forms of stealing that occur on its way to the marketplace. This “theft surcharge," as analysts call it, is a drag on our whole economy.

For their part, employers often steal from their workers. They demand longer hours than contracts allow. They reorganize their workforce to improve their profits, and then the workers who still have jobs end up doing all the work that used to be done by the people who got laid off (plus their own of course)! This is just a sophisticated way for companies to steal from their best employees.

Large corporations steal from the general public. They keep some of their transactions off the books. They hide their losses in offshore accounts. They manipulate securities by providing false information. One of the worst offenders in recent history was Enron, the vast energy company whose spectacular collapse in 2001 injured the whole U.S. economy and cost some people their life savings. Enron's faIl was quickly followed by a series of others as Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Rite-Aid, and other well-known corporations were caught cheating the public. The nefarious executives from these companies knew all the tricks, but this is hardly a recent phenomenon. Martin Luther identified certain men of his day as "gentlemen swindlers or big operators. Far from being picklocks and sneak-thieves who loot a cash box, they sit in office chairs and are called great lords and honorable, good citizens, and yet with a great show of legality they rob and steal." And John Calvin said, "It follows, therefore, that not only are those thieves who secretly steal the property of others, but those also who seek gain from the loss of others, accumulate wealth by unlawful practices and are more devoted to their private advantage than to equity"

Many common business practices are immoral, even if technically they are not illegal. This is especially true in marketing. What many business people consider good salesmanship actually violates the eighth commandment. There is price gouging, in which the laws of supply and demand are used to take advantage of helpless consumers. There is false advertising and deceptive packaging, which is designed to make a product look bigger and better than it actually is. Salesmen exaggerate the value of their products, trying to sell people things they really don't need. Before the sale, every car is touted as the finest vehicle in automotive history; but once the sale is made, and it's time to talk about a service contract, suddenly the car is going to need all kinds of repairs that ought to be paid for in advance! And so it goes.

These practices are all violations of the eighth commandment. Calvin was right when he said, "Let us remember that all those arts whereby we acquire the possessions and money of our neighbors–when such devices depart from sincere affection to a desire to cheat or in some manner to harm-are to be considered as thefts." Similarly, Luther said that we break the eighth commandment whenever we "take advantage of our neighbor in any sort of dealing that results in loss to him." How much business falls to measure up to that simple standard?

Then there is all the theft that is tied up with credit. There is usury, the lending of money at exorbitant rates of interest in order to make unjust profits. Today the most blatant offenders are the credit. card companies that charge interest at nearly 20 percent. The same sin is committed
on a larger scale when international banks hold debtor nations in fiscal bondage. This is only one small aspect of a much wider problem, which is that a small minority uses the vast majority of the world's resources– and does everything they can to protect their advantage. But the Bible teaches that the poor need our help and that they should receive loans free of interest, at least within the community of God's people (Lev. 25:35-38; Deut. 15:7-8). There is another side to this, of course, which is that some people buy on credit without ever intending to repay. No doubt this helps explain why in recent decades credit card debt has risen from five billion to more than five hundred billion dollars.

The list goes on. There is insurance fraud, the filing of false claims. There are the deliberate cost overruns that make up the difference between the estimate and the final price whenever work is contracted. There is the theft of intellectual property, the violation of copyrights, including the unlawful duplication of music and videos. There is plagiarism, the misappropriation of someone else's work. Then there is identity theft, in which personal information is stolen off the Internet and used to run up outrageous charges.

There are countless ways to steal.

I have read Ryken’s book and I recommend it. Right now, a Bible study group in my church is reading and discussing the book and they are enjoying it. If you are preparing a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments or if you have a study group looking for a good book to read, Written in Stone may be the book they are looking for.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Decalogue, Philip Ryken, Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments: The Computer Animated Version

Patrick Rills has a review of the animated version of “The Ten Commandments.” His review reflects the views of others who have seen the movie: the movie is not worth seeing. The following is an excerpt of Rills’ review:

“The Ten Commandments” is a painfully unnecessary, computer generated regurgitation of the classic biblical story of Moses and his people's exodus from oppression in Egypt. Unlike the many versions before it, this incantation of the Old Testament tale is forged in mediocrity and is a slave to its own lack of artistic vision.

Although this film is computer animated, don't expect the lively quality of Pixar. I doubt this movie's imagery would have impressed audiences ten years ago. The graphics make it seem more like the introduction of a cheap Nintendo 64 console game than a feature film. The characters move with a lack of fluidity similar to that of the reanimated corpse of Mr. Roboto. Besides the characters, even textures and liquids had the unpolished look of amateur artists, with the parted Red Sea looking like two massive Jell-O molds.

Rills concludes that this remaking of “The Ten Commandments” is an attempt at exploiting the success of movies that have a biblical theme. Since I do not like animated movies, this is one movie I am not planning to see.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Movies, Ten Commandments

The “Ten Commandments” for Drivers

The Vatican, through its Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, has released a document titled “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” in which they offer Ten Commandments for Drivers.

The introduction of the documents says:

These Guidelines for the pastoral care of the road, which is looked after by a specific Department of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, are the outcome of a great endeavour entailing listening, reflection and insight.

The Document breaks down into four quite separate parts, taking account of the specific nature and scope of issues connected with the road as a place for pastoral care. The first part is devoted to road users (motorists, lorry drivers, etc.) and railway users, and to the people who work in the various related services. Parts two and three concern street women and street children, respectively, and the fourth regards the homeless (tramps).

This Document is dedicated to all the above-mentioned people, but account should also be taken of pavement dwellers and street vendors, as well as the link between the road and tourists, pilgrims, gypsies, circus and fairground workers and street actors.

The Pontifical Council introduces several Old Testament and a New Testament texts to provide a biblical basis for the Ten Commandments for drivers. The following are the Old Testament texts used by the Pontifical Council:

Notes from the Old Testament

11. The Bible contains continuous migrations and wanderings. The Patriarchs, Abraham (cf. Genesis 12:4-10), Isaac (cf. Genesis 26:1,17,22), Jacob (cf. Genesis 29:1; 31:21; 46:1-7)) and Joseph (cf. Genesis 37:28) led a wandering existence. When their descendants had become a numerous people, Moses led them out of Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:41), crossing the Red Sea (cf. Exodus 14) and wandering in the desert (see Exodus 15:22).

12. In the experience of mobility, full of risks and tragedies, the People of God are always assisted by the special protection of Yahweh (see Exodus 13:21). The repeated unfaithfulness of the Israelites to the Covenant would later lead to a far more distressing journey, the deportation to Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 24:15). After long years of exile, God's faithfulness was manifested in the proclamation of Cyrus, which gave the opportunity of the joyful return journey to the Promised Land (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Psalms 126 [125].

13. The psalmist (cf. Psalms 107 [106]:7) indicates the "straight way" on which the Lord leads, whilst the prophet Isaiah calls for preparation of the highway of the Lord (cf. Isaiah 40:3). The importance given by the Bible to the theme of wandering - of travelling - also clearly emerges from the fact that the term "way" is used as a metaphor to indicate all kinds of human behaviour. The Scriptures insistently exhort the choice of "straight ways", and not "to stand in the way of sinners" (Psalms 1:1), and to walk in the ways of the Lord (cf. Deuteronomy 8:6; 10:12; 19:9).

The Ten Commandments for Drivers

61. With the request for motorists to exercise virtue, we have drawn up a special "decalogue" for them, in analogy with the Lord's Ten Commandments. These are stated here below, as indications, considering that they may also be formulated differently.

I. You shall not kill.

II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

IV. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.

V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

VII. Support the families of accident victims.

VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

X. Feel responsible towards others.

Read the the document by clicking here.

I don’t know about you, but as for me, I believe these are the Ten Commandments that should be placed in buildings everywhere.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Drivers, Pastoral Care, Ten Commandments, Vatican

You Shall Not Steal Thy Brother’s Song

Every Christian knows that stealing is wrong. Christians know by heart what the eighth commandment says: “You shall not steal.” To steal means to take possession of that which belongs to another person.

The Hebrew word for “stealing” covers a wide range of thefts, including music.

James Michael Stevens, a prolific musician, has written an article in which he tells of his experience with churches and Christians singers who use his music without paying royalties.

The following is an excerpt of his article:

The second example is of another church that has thousands in attendance every Sunday and which may indeed be the world's largest. The church was selling about 20 different CDs on the church's website that contained our song. I contacted them to see if I could get some copies of the CDs and to make them aware that all of them had been done without permission, without our knowledge and without paying royalties. Since the church was merely selling them and were not the record producers, I thought they would want to know since their church was one of the world's best known with one of the most famous pastors of all time. The next day, someone went on the church's website and removed the title of our song from the song list of each of the CDs. Now understand that they were still selling the CDs, and our song was still on each of them, they just removed our title from the list so no one would know.

Now let me share some of the reasoning that Christians gave for illegal copying:

One person said that the fault of the illegal copying was with the greedy record companies, because the record companies charged too much for their CDs. Since they charged "too much," then this made it OK for the music to be copied without permission. Hey, if they cost too much, don't buy them. Perhaps some in the record industry would like to give their input, but my guess is that they actually lose money on many if not the majority of releases.

Here was the logic from another party, which was actually a man in a Christian singing group. The young man said in essence that he had made illegal copies of a CD from a name artist and gave the copies to friends including a minister of music at a church. The minister of music listened to the CD and liked it so much that he invited the artist to his church to perform. The artist got a "gig" and was able to sell "legal" copies of his CDs at the concert. The question to me by the infringer was "Did my making the illegal copies hurt or help the artist?" .Or does the "end, justify the means?"

Another gentleman, who was also a Christian musician, suggested to me the bible does not even support the idea of intellectual property rights and therefore, there was no such thing as giving a valid "moral" argument for the refraining from copyright infringement, only a "legal" one. There were many other bizarre justifications as well.

Read the article by clicking here.

To pilfer music without proper acknowledgment is one way by which countless Christians violate the eighth commandment. And this kind of stealing is not a victimless crime. Christians composers make a living from their work.

In his book, Written in Stone: The Ten Commandments and Today’s Moral Crisis (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2003), Philip Graham Ryken wrote: “There is theft of intellectual property, the violation of copyrights, including the unlawful duplication of music and videos” (p. 173).

It is sad that some of the people who are pilfering music are some of the same people who advocate that the Ten Commandments be exhibited in public places.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Christian Music, Stealing, Ten Commandments