Ten Commandments and Life Quotes

Dinner Topics for Friday

Ten Commandments and Life Quotes

Our Moral Code

“We have been spending our moral capital with the same reckless abandon that we have been spending our financial capital. …

“There are large parts of [the world] where religion is a thing of the past and there is no counter-voice to the culture of buy it, spend it, wear it, flaunt it, because you’re worth it. The message is that morality is passé, conscience is for wimps, and the single overriding command is ‘Thou shalt not be found out.’”¹~Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s Chief Rabbi

Ten Commandments

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. …

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. …

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. …

“Honour thy father and thy mother. …

“Thou shalt not kill.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.

“Thou shalt not steal.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness. …

“Thou shalt not covet.” ^{(Exodus 20:3-4,7-8,12-17)}

Our code of conduct is definitive; it is not negotiable. It is found not only in the Ten Commandments but also in the Sermon on the Mount, given to us by the Savior when He walked upon the earth. It is found throughout His teachings. It is found in the words of modern revelation. ~Thomas S. Monson

Sociology and Culture

Article by David Brooks, distinguished Notre Dame Sociologist

“The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, … you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.

“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.”

“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal,’ the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’

“Rejecting blind deference to authority, many of the young people have gone off to the other extreme [saying]: ‘I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.’”

Those who conducted the interviews emphasized that the majority of the young people with whom they spoke had “not been given the resources—by schools, institutions [or] families—to cultivate their moral intuitions.”¹ David Brooks, “If it Feels Right. . .”, New York Times, Sept. 12, 2011, nytimes.com

There is no middle ground. We are followers of Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in His Church and His gospel, and we should not use a visa to visit Babylon or act like one of its citizens. ~Dallin H. Oaks

Discernment

 30 And again I would exhort you that ye would ^acome unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good ^bgift, and ^ctouch not the evil gift, nor the ^dunclean thing. Moroni 10:30

15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to ^ajudge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

16 For behold, the ^aSpirit of Christ is given to every ^bman, that he may ^cknow good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do ^aevil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

 18 And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the ^alight by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same ^bjudgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged.

 19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the ^alight of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a ^bchild of Christ. ~ Moroni 7:15-19

Ten Commandments, Murder, and Sharia Law

Dinner Topics for Monday

Ten Commandments, Murder, and Sharia Law

A Tale of Two Laws

Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities was about London and Paris, and the impact of their two differing forms of government. Continuing in our “Tale of Two” series, today we are seeing a tale of two laws: the Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian culture, and Sharia law of Islamic culture or political system.

I am all for freedom of religion. European history is fraught with religious wars and the slaughter of the Jewish people. We think how wrong it is to massacre so many innocent people.

When it legalized abortion, our own government failed in its Constitutional mandate to protect innocent life. Not only has the Supreme Court abused its power 50 years ago to establish the religion of atheism as the state religion, but it also has sanctioned the murder of countless millions of innocent born and unborn.

I am a Christian. My church, The Church of Jesus Christ, could only be restored in these latter days, in this great country of the United States, where there was freedom to do so. Even so, we know what it is like for Christians to be reviled, even in this free country, because great were the persecutions of the members of our Christian faith in the 19^th century, resulting in our prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother being murdered in cold blood. Christians of many denominations are still persecuted and reviled all over the world today.

I am old enough to remember the Cold War era, in which Communists purged their entire empire of God, and brutally punished believers.  Even so, it is hard to believe that today we are involved in the greatest religious war of all time. Atheists still cause trouble in our society, but now the greatest threat to our Judeo-Christian culture comes from extreme Islam’s declared war on all faiths other than their own. Islamic extremists even punish and kill Muslim reformers. They also have an abiding hatred for the Jewish people, and have sworn to destroy Israel.

Because I believe in freedom of religion, I was glad my prayers were answered regarding the man in Florida who wanted to burn the Koran books. First of all, it was an unchristian act. We are taught that when we “receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions,” we are not to turn and revile again, but to be “humble and penitent before God.” (3 Nephi 6:13) The God of Israel is a God of love, not hate, or He would not have made it possible for all human beings to be saved from death and condemnation.

There is another reason I was relieved. Islamists world-wide were threatening nothing short of World War 3 if those books were burned; many more innocent people would have been killed. (They didn’t need to declare war; they already did that with the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.)

Civil Law vs. Religious Law

Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and other religions residing in this land have always dealt with moral issues in their own way. However, a member of any religion who steals, vandalizes, rapes, murders, or violates any other law against the public safety is subject to those laws which protect the public. Someone who kills an abortionist is punished, even though the abortionist himself may be guilty of killing. We may not agree with that killing, but we do not take the law into our own hands.

In my church, which is worldwide, we are also taught to respect and obey the governments of the respective nations in which we reside, even if we don’t agree with them.  We don’t make political demands in the name of our religion. Sharia law (which is political), also, has a “necessity clause”, which allows Muslims to accommodate the laws of their land, such as buying car insurance or postponing prayers that cannot be performed at school or work. So, if their political demands are not met, no harm is done to their religion. (Warner, Bill, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, p. 42-43. Center for the Study of Political Islam: 2010)

That said, I come to this matter of murder, with which I have issue. All faithful Christians obey the Ten Commandments, which include the commandment not to kill. Our United States government is based on the Ten Commandments. Therefore, it is simply against the law to kill, except in cases of legal punishment for capital crimes and terrorism, as in the execution of Timothy McVeigh, a terrorist and mass murderer.

Obviously, Islamic terrorists do not honor the Ten Commandments (I’m not referring to the religion observed by moderate law-abiding Muslims who reside in our country). Radical Islam is not a religion, but is a tyrannical political system, called terrorism. Political systems are subject to the laws of the land. Like communism, Islamic terrorism seeks to replace existing law (in America, the United States Constitution) with a tyrannical law called Sharia law. Some of the plethora of killings approved by radical Islamists include suicide bombings—often involving children or adolescents as the perpetrators; “honor killings”—an example of this was a man in Arizona who purposely ran over his daughter with his car because she was becoming too Westernized. Sharia law permits some forms of honor killing, but does not seem to punish any of it. Also included is the killing those Muslims who convert to another religion.  (Ibid., p.14)

So, do we really have a dilemma here about freedom of religion and the laws of the land? No, we do not. Our Constitution, which was created by men possessed of an abundance of common sense and responsibility rarely seen today, declares that there shall be no establishment of religion. So the religion of Islam should get no more special treatment than any other religion. We are all subject to the law of the land. Article 6 of the United States Constitution says the Constitution is the highest law of the land and cannot be subjugated to any other legal code.

The purpose of our government is to protect life, liberty, and property. Any person or group who violates the life, liberty, or property of another individual is in violation of the law and deserves to be punished. We have freedom, but not without responsibility. We are free to choose our actions, but we are not free to choose the consequences.

For a beautiful, illustrated collection of Charles Dickens Stories, type Charles Dickens in the search bar when you click here

*Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, and Sharia Law

C.A. Davidson is author of Epic Stories for Character Education, a collection of scriptural epic stories told in easy, dinner-talk style. Young adult leadership training and daily dinner talk topics on parenting, sociology and culture, world history, heritage, stress management, and family traditions are provided in the “Dinner Talk for Champions” online magazine, and may be found at http://www.epicworld.info

© 2011 by Christine Davidson