Friday, February 1, 2008

Maybe Mike Huckabee is onto something

There was a lot of hand-wringing from political writers recently when former Arkansas governor and God-fearing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he thought the Constitution should be based on the Ten Commandments. Or something like that.

Personally, I think that would be a great idea.

For openers, we would have to immediately pull our troops out of Iraq, or at least disarm them, because of the sixth commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Try as I might, I couldn’t find any clauses in there about being able to kill people with whom we disagree. And the death penalty? Forget about it. (Oh, yeah – no more abortions, either: Mike was right about that).

No graven images. What would that mean for the advertising industry?

Welcome back, Blue Laws.

Honor thy father and mother. Doesn’t that kind of sound like we should have a national health care plan, especially for the elderly?

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Oops – time to rethink the way political campaigns are conducted.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t interpret the part about taking the Lord’s name in vain as being only about the things we say when we smash our fingers with a hammer. Maybe it also refers to how many people use that name in order to raise money or get elected.

Thou shalt not steal. I don’t see any exemption for the government.

All in all, Mike, you’ve really hit on something. Let’s get that ball rolling!

One thing, though – there's nothing in there about gay marriage. Sorry.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HMMM....having a hard time figuring out how honoring our father and mother has ANYTHING to do with health care for the elderly. The commandment says to HONOR them, not take care of them. Next time you write your liberal views, make sure they make some sense.

Anonymous said...

Ummm..... which theological seminary did you go to? Also, where exactly did you pick up your morality? I suppose all of the children of Lynchburg should be allowed to shoot their parents as long as they "honor" them. If one is to "honor thy mother and father" it means more than just "listen to" or "abide"- it means to respect and take care of them- to do honor to them.

So if your version of "honoring your parents" is abandoning them, then count me out. And stop trying to tie your immoral views to conservative view points or to Christianity- they do more damage to them than all the liberal groups in the world.

Anonymous said...

Funny how the first two folks to respond only attacked the "honor your Father and Mother" part of the article. Maybe that's because they can't refute the rest of it. I'm a Christian and it's about time the all Christian's follow what Jesus said and did, not just what we want for ourselves. An article like this should get people thinking, but alas, the ones who aren't really thinking now probably never will start.

Anonymous said...

The literal rendering of the commandment is "Thou shalt not MURDER." The Bible certainly doesn't prohibit a person or nation the right to self defense. Maybe you should study a little deeper and read the whole Bible before you try to tell people what it says or means.