A month ago, I wrote a column about how we -- that is, our civilization as a whole -- tends to ignore the Ten Commandments.
I did not intend to disparage the original Ten Commandments. They were an amazing summation of principles needed for a small, close-knit tribe of desert wanderers to survive without fracturing over internal tensions.
The Jewish people teach that they have 613 Mosaic commands to follow. By comparison with all the others, the Ten Commandments stand out for their focus on basic attitudes. The rest deal with details, everything from what you can eat and what you can wear to how to sell your daughter into slavery.
The original Ten Commandments are so remarkable I’m almost inclined to believe that Moses did have divine help composing them.
But they are not, and they were never intended to be, a code of business ethics in a global economy. Or a survival kit for an overpopulated world. They don’t tell us what to do about climate change, mass extinctions, fossil fuels, circumcision rituals, elections, continental drift, radiation, or stem cells. In the middle of a desert, the health of oceans was the farthest thing from their mind.
For a world where a butterfly’s wings in the Andes can affect a typhoon in Japan, we need at least a planetary perspective, perhaps even a universal perspective.
Years ago, I edited a book by Fr. James Conlon, which he called Geo-Justice. His theme was simple -- if it’s not justice for the whole planet, if it benefits only a small portion of this planet’s inhabitants, it’s not justice at all.
So I started wondering what God might want to etch onto titanium tablets today. (I use “God” as a shorthand way of referring to what Rudolf Otto called the “numinous presence” a century ago.)
I won’t claim “Thus saith the Lord.” But this is what I think God might be trying to tell us.
1. Make a deliberate effort to be aware of my presence in every context and situation.
2. Do not let any theory – logic, mathematics, physics, economics, biology, philosophy, or anything else – define what I am or what I can be. Test every theory by exploring ways of disproving it.
3. Truth includes contradictions and paradoxes. The universe runs on opposing forces. Don’t deny them; keep them in balance.
4. Everything evolves. Treat nothing – no custom, no tradition, no concept – as unchangeable and unquestionable.
5. Do not waste.
6. Treat all life with respect, because it is related to you.
7. As far as possible, do no harm to anything.
8. At all times be honest and truthful about your actions and motives.
9. Trust that all events and situations have meaning, if only for your own maturing.
10. Do not glorify your own existence, nor treat your concerns as more important than those of any other form of life.
You may not agree with those commandments. In another year, I may not agree with them either. But it’s an interesting exercise, to think about the principles that apply to harmonious life on this planet.
If you were setting up guidelines for future generations, what would you list?
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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
        To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Tom Watson wrote from the heart: “I can't even begin to imagine what Amanda Lindhout went through. I simply know that I would fail that test miserably.”

James Russell refused to listen to the CBC link: “I'm often at the edge of despair myself and don't want to further risk falling in. That said, I can't resist a certain fascination with evil: I have shelves of books on war, read spy and adventure stories and watch TV shows and movies all featuring horrible cruelty. It's no surprise that almost anyone can be broken. It's more a surprise how little it takes for most (The history of war is that a simple order from above, a lost promotion, a snub, may be enough to . doing the scientific research on how to strengthen our resistance to evil and where are the popularizers of their results?”

“I believe that there is both good and bad in each of us,” Isabel Gibson wrote “I'm not sure there is evil -- or the capacity for evil -- in everyone. [If there is] I don't know where it comes from -- some evolutionarily useful characteristic gone off the rails, carried to an extreme? A flaw in the wiring? A nasty childhood environment? Sustained trauma?
“And I, like you, hope that I'm right in assuming that evil does not lurk in my heart or the heart of anyone I love.”

Frank Martens contrasted Amanda Lindhout’s experience with that of the evacuees from the fire at Fort MacMurray: “It is unfortunate that Amanda's case did not receive more publicity and support. When one sees and hears of the Fort Mac residents’ evacuation and that they had to spend perhaps a week or two searching for accommodation, it seems petty, relative to what was and is happening to Amanda. Yet we have the Red Cross and numerous other organizations gathering funds to help out these relatively well-off individuals who lost their homes and some of their possessions, but never suffered the slightest physical pain.”

Cliff Boldt: “That story about Amanda was a very good reminder. I have forwarded it to a few friends and my pastor.”

Laurna Tallman wrote about her personal experience of “the evil that lurks in men’s hearts.” Her son Alex “was maimed by a massive cerebral stroke August 30 last year. This formerly extremely well-co-ordinated, strong, skilled, articulate man of 32 now walks like a drunken sailor even with a cane, speaks slowly and clumsily with frustrating memory gaps, and as yet has no use of his claw-like right hand. 
“Monday, those neighbours and another group down the block -- adults and everyone else -- saw Alex and his family returning in the evening from a school play in which their six-year-old daughter had a part. They mocked Alex's disability, made threats, suggested they were going to run a car over their cat, and were generally ugly.” 
“Jesus knew what evil lurked in the hearts of men, women, and children. So do we.”

John Shaffer B broadened the cause: “I ache with you. Your story rends my heart. And I feel it as the drone’s fly and unleash their Hellfire missiles; as our soldiers, and theirs, come home broken and shattered, or do not come home at all; as Paris and Brussels and other cities burn with terror; as disease and poverty ravish vast swaths of the world population; and as I live in an abundance that few in the world’s history have known.
“The agony of Amanda and of the much world’s population is real, so very real. If I open to the pain, I suffer an almost unbearable agony. And as I suffer, I can only guess at the suffering our global brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and children endure. And all I can at first do is to let go to the compassion waiting to be born.
“And if I open to the compassion, then, maybe, a true conversion will occur…and I will do something meaningful, some small thing in the face of this reality, to help those who suffer.”

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

I love Psalm 8. I love it in the traditional language of the KJV; I love it in the more modern translations; I love it in paraphrases that extol the wonders of the universe. But this occasion, I wanted to shift the focus to something more personal: 

1   Above all wonders of nature rises the miracle of friendship;
2   A mother and her baby bond for life; 
friends risk their lives for each other; 
even among thieves there is honor. 
3   Stars and nebulas are far away, 
but friends are near at hand. 
4   Friendship flowers unpredictably; 
the desert blossoms, the ice melts, the distance disappears.
5   Friendship has no parallel anywhere else in the world. 
Envy and jealousy dissolve; fear and suspicion evaporate. 

   This is how God meant the world to be. 
6   Nothing else compares with the wonder of friendship.
It is not possible with a pet,
7,8   Nor with the beasts of the field, the creatures of the forests, 
with the fish of the sea, or the birds of the air. 
9   Oh, Lord, our Lord, what a glorious gift you have given! 

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah – the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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