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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/18/2008 : 03:40:12
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Ok. everybody prepare yourselves. You must go into your prayer closets and purify because -- are you ready? -- the first weekend in May is going to be Ten Commandments weekend! How exciting, praise and glory be & all like that.....
In all truth, I didn't know this either until I read about it just a moment ago. Evidently, it's the real deal.
"Ron Wexler's Ten Commandments Commission ready to roll
House resolution congratulates the TCC and its supporters for their "key role in promoting and ensuring recognition of the Ten Commandments as the cornerstone of Western law"
Did you know that for the past two years, Congress has designated the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend (TCW)?" Most of us pay little attention to congressional resolutions. All sorts of resolutions are proposed; some pass, others are tabled, and still others are withdrawn.
These days, two resolutions relating to the Ten Commandments are being considered by Congress; one will again designate the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend," while the other aims to celebrate the Ten Commandments Commission (TCC), an organization led by a former veteran of the Israeli Armed Forces, and made up of a host longtime conservative evangelical Christian leaders.
For months, Chris Rodda, a Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF - website), has been following developments surrounding the two Ten Commandments resolutions -- Senate Resolution 483 and House Resolution 598.
The Senate Resolution, introduced by Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback -- with Connecticut Independent Joseph Lieberman as its co-sponsor -- aims to once again recognize the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend."
According to Rodda, the author of "Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History -- Volume I," Brownback's resolution comes packed with 10 Whereas' starting of with: "Whereas the Ten Commandments are precepts foundational to the faith of millions of Americans," "Whereas the Ten Commandments are a declaration of fundamental principles for a fair and just society," and "Whereas, from the founding of the United States, the Ten Commandments have been part of America's basic cultural fabric," followed by quotes from Presidents George Washington, John Quincy Adams, and Harry Truman."
<snip>
"Ron Wexler and the Ten Commandments Commission
Wexler's Ten Commandments Commission claims that its "main purpose ... was to create a global think tank with the world's leaders who have already recognized the power behind the TCC." Its intended "objective is to have 5 million strong members/supporters and bring the Ten Commandments -- Watchman United on the Wall message to every church and ministry in the nation."
According to the bio posted at the TCC website, Wexler was "born and educated in Israel and served in the Israel Defense Force during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. He is also the principal owner of Heritage Study Programs, Inc., "an educational organization."
Wexler is president of the Millennium Council, "a cross-cultural, interdenominational strategic coalition of influential Christian leaders," that he helped bring together. He is "also the Founder and President of the future Garden of Beatitudes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee ... [which] will be a cross-cultural, spiritual center and a learning facility ... [featuring] a devotional garden, a theater, classrooms and dormitories, a state of the art conference center, and a hotel."
Ten Commandments Commission Members and Supporters include Dr. Myles Munroe; Pastor John Hagee, Cornerstone Church; Dr. Paul Crouch, Trinity Broadcasting Network; Bishop T.D. Jakes, Potter's House of Dallas; Jerome Edmondson , Senior Partner - Edmondson Associates; Benny Hinn, Founder of Benny Hinn Ministries; Richard Roberts, [former] President - Oral Roberts University; Floyd Flake, Pastor and former Congressman; Pastor George Morrison - Chairman, Promise Keepers; Congressman Bill Dannemeyer; Mathew Straver, president -- Liberty Council; and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, President - Toward Tradition.
The group's Media Committee includes Dr. Frank Wright - President National Religious Broadcasters; Dr. Ron Hembree, President - Cornerstone TV; Dr. Richard Roberts -- [former] President ORU; Larry Bates, President Information Radio Network; and Ruth Schofield, President -- The Washington Report."
And so forth. I wonder; how long will it be before we can all ignore the Ten of 'Em on the DC Mall and statehouse lawns, and standing alone in the fetid halls of Congress.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2008 : 15:57:07 [Permalink]
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Did you know that for the past two years, Congress has designated the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend (TCW)?" Two resolutions relating to the Ten Commandments are being considered by Congress; one will again designate the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend," while the other aims to celebrate the Ten Commandments Commission (TCC), an organization led by a former veteran of the Israeli Armed Forces, and made up of a host longtime conservative evangelical Christian leaders.
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Really sounds like the way to separate Church and State!| Most of us pay little attention to congressional resolutions. |
I sure as hell hope so! They can stuff their resolutions way up into a place the sun don't shine and several here don't want to hear about! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/19/2008 : 04:55:26 [Permalink]
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Well, there's a practical use for this clunker: bore it to take a padeye, then make it into a navigational bouy anchor in the Inland Waterway. It is, after all, said that it should be our guide in life and holding a bouy in place would guide us a lot better than just reading grade school-level mutterings about God (the entire first half of the damned thing; the rest most of us already follow anyway).
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2008 : 22:25:03 [Permalink]
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Does Congress give out special weeks to mark anything special to any other religion? Do you think they would???
It looks like the 10 commandments week isn't all that Congress has planned for May. Check this out (sorry if someone has mentioned HR 888 somewhere else here earlier this year; I didn't search to check).
OK. Couple of things really irk me about this type of importance played to the 10 suggestions. ('Course, I'm easily irked.)
First, they are like totally cherry-picking. The list they cling to isn't even the "final version" given in Exodus (though it is repeated in Deuteronomy, I've heard that as the excuse for why theirs must be the Actual Ten Commandments). It's just the set that they have some hope of following. If thinking believers (*ahem*) actually read Exodus, they'd see that the version they like is given in Exodus 20, followed by many verses of conveniently forgotten laws such as whether or not a man's daughter he sold into slavery can go free (she can't), and others which haven't been forgotten but apparently weren't important to make it onto the tablets, such as the one against bestiality. And the instructions on how to properly worship go on and on and on, including the commandment to choose your animals without any blemish for sacrifice to God, and to prepare anointing oils the right way so their smell is pleasing to God, etc.
And THEN God writes it all on the 2 tablets, in Exodus 31:18, and Moses carries the tablets down from the mountain. But Moses gets mad shortly thereafter, throws down the tablets, watch that temper Moses, and they break in Exodus 32:19, oops. No problem, God tells him in Exodus 34:1 to chisel out 2 more tablets & bring them back the next day, & God will write down the commandments again.
Are you with me? THIS is going to be God's set of commandments, the second draft if you will. And THIS set, in Exodus 34:10-26, is the one that got written on the stone tablets - must be true, it says so in Exodus 34:28 "and he wrote on the tablets the words of the convenant - the ten commandments." And THIS set is that one that includes such instructions as "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread" and "The first offspring of every womb belongs to me".
Second, the ten commandments people cling to doesn't even cover half of the serious violations between people. Like, where are "Thou shalt not abuse thy children or thy spouse", "Thou shalt not commit incest", "Thou shalt not rape", and "Thou shalt not enslave any other person"? (The Golden Rule would make a much better law to engrave & put on a pedestal, IMO.) Oh, and how does "Do not covet" fit with our system of capitalism, getting people to BUY STUFF by making them COVET it through advertising???
Third, they manage to conveniently leave out some bits and use translations that make it more convenient for them. Cherry-picking, I tell you! The last set of commandments, summarized on the slab shown above as "Thou shalt not covet", is much more evocative in its full glory: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his male slave, nor his female slave, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." (Guess it's OK for women to covet stuff, including perhaps the neighbor's wife.)
And apparently a number of Hebrew scholars say that the meaning in Hebrew of the commandment translated as "Thou shalt not steal" is actually "thou shall not steal another person (such as a slave)"(short discussion here). Oh, but that doesn't make as much sense, better ignore that.
Jeeeeeez. Aren't they even thinking about this at all?? (*snort*)
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I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney
*some restrictions may apply |
| Edited by - Zebra on 04/19/2008 22:27:15 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2008 : 22:34:42 [Permalink]
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Zebra asked:
Jeeeeeez. Aren't they even thinking about this at all?? (*snort*)
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Well, first they would have to be capable of thinking. They mostly get that capability smothered out by their indoctrination.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Roy's Rock writ large....
