One of the great gifts to civilization is a codification of ten ancient rules commonly known today as The Ten Commandments. They can be found in the Bible in Exodus 20:2-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-17. The Commandments can also be ordered from Walmart for $9.99 – free shipping included – and delivered directly to our respective doors. Sure beats the inconvenience of hauling around stone tablets.
I suspect that most folks, if they think of these Ten Commandments at all, think of them as a personal behavior code for religious people; namely Jews and Christians. But the commandments – most often first encountered in sporadic, elementary-aged, Sunday School lessons – are so much more.
The ancient code is a constitutional framework setting foundational perimeters within which a government or social system of people sharing a common core can function. A legal system, for instance, cannot function if there is no regard for truth-telling or penalty for “bearing false witness.” (The Ninth Commandment). Our chaotic times of “alternative facts,” a sense of false and destructive equivalency between evidence and baseless conspiracy allegations proves this ancient truth.
In recent weeks particularly, I have been so grateful for another world-changing dimension of the foundational framework of the ancient code of Ten Commandments. It is number 6 in the list and is this: “Honor your father and mother that you might live long in the land.”
This commandment is far more than an admonition to be respectful of our dad and mom. The case might be made that the commandment includes such thinking. But again, there is so very much more. Indeed, this commandment goes far beyond any cultural understanding of marriage and nuclear family relationships.
This ancient Word bears the timeless truth that a nation cannot be long sustained without a deep regard for its history; a regard which begs us to LEARN from that history. No matter how successful or painful the history, valuing – meaning giving weight to – the elders and their record is essential for progress. Honoring parents is ancient shorthand for building social security. If we do not build society by such honoring (again, giving weight to or paying attention to) then we are destined to create a tether-less present and a wild, shoot-from-the-hip future of nomadic chaos.
I have been particularly grateful for the context of this commandment these past weeks.
In both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions the message from both parties was, depending on the outcome of the election, that America may very well cease to be America. Each party said of the other that we are in deep trouble and on the road to becoming something else as a country.
I have found the Sixth Commandment encouraging because by looking at our history I am instructed that for as bad as things now are in our divided, violent land, they have been far worse. We survived it and continued the struggle to become a more perfect union.
Giving weight to the past and being instructed by it confirms, for instance, that there was a time in this country when voter suppression methods included legalized murder and the open rebellion against the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. There was a time when the President, Andrew Johnson, was a fervent, outspoken, white nationalist. He gave support to the growth of the Ku Klux Klan and refused – claiming States Rights – to intervene with federal authority and troops to stop horrendous police and mob violence against black citizens. His lack of action encouraged terrorist, vigilante groups who burned businesses, churches, and bombed homes. (Grant. Ron Chernow, Penguin Books. Pages 545 – 613).
If we came through all that and continued the process of becoming a more perfect union despite it all and nevertheless, then I find encouragement that we will do so again. Give weight to the past. Do not repeat it. Learn from it. Live long in the land. Be encouraged. Do not be overcome by present evil.
Reflecting on the past offers, for me, powerful evidence that a greater hand than we can possibly imagine is at work guiding this land for greater good and justice. If this nation was just the result of party politics and leadership, we would have been lost a long time ago.
There is a great hand at work in us. No matter the present trial we are experiencing, that hand guides, strengthens and pushes our better selves and our better angels. This is why a government of the people, by the people and for the people will not perish from the earth.
HONOR YOUR FATHERS AND MOTHERS (GIVE WEIGHT TO AND RECOGNIZE THOSE THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE) SO THAT WE MIGHT LIVE LONG IN THE LAND.
I am encouraged.