jeudi 23 août 2018

Are the 10 Commandments inviolable? Or, is the Sheriff of Nottingham the Good Guy?

"They are the 10 Commandments, not Suggestions"

Christians love to proclaim the 10 Commandments, so much that they think they need to be posted in public places all over, including the courthouse lawn and in public schools. But we also know that they are broken all over the place, and it seems ok. So the question is, how strict are the 10 commandments, really, for Christians?

For example, we know that Evangelicals largely have no problem with the president, who has exceedingly and on multiple occasions violated the commandment against adultery. And it's not like there is any gray area there - "Thou shalt not commit adultery." I'm sure there are a lot of other examples of where they ignore violations.

One major issue of contention is the "Thou shalt not kill" commandment. People try to argue that it "really" says "Thou shalt not MURDER," which, I contend, is a really dumb commandment because, by definition, murder means "killing when you are not allowed to do it." Therefore, the commandment reduces to "don't kill when you aren't allowed to kill" which is pretty meaningless.

But given that, there is another example. "Thou shalt not steal." Stealing means taking things that don't belong to you. Then again, I don't know if it requires that it be considered illegal or not, so I won't make that argument. I will only say, stealing means taking something that doesn't belong to you. And the 10C are clear about it - thou shalt not do it.

Which brings me to the question: the story of Robin Hood. Robin Hood is a thief. He steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The Sheriff of Nottingham is the law enforcement who is trying to apprehend the thief.

I want to know, from a Christian perspective, who is the good guy? The stories are very clear that Robin Hood is meant to be the good guy, and the Sheriff is the bad guy. But from a 10C perspective, that's backwards. Robin Hood is a thief.

The 10C don't say it's ok to steal if you take money from a rich person and give it to the poor. There is no context on the commandment to suggest it doesn't always apply. It's a commandment, not a suggestion.

I'll admit I've not been involved in a lot of discussions about Robin Hood with others, but I've never heard anyone suggest, in any way, that Robin Hood is not the protagonist and the Sheriff is not the antagonist. But it seems to be that would have to be the way to view it from a 10 Commandments perspective.

I haven't looked, but I'm sure there are places on the internet where preachers have gone off on the story of Robin Hood, and probably even tried to get books about Robin Hood banned from schools. But I'm not aware of any such thing.


via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2NcnUpp

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