My sister, Jamie Kuiken, has kindly taken up my request for others to join in this conversation. Please go to #5 to see her addition.
There is a move today throughout the USA to mandate the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and other public spaces which violates the freedom of religion provisions of our constitution. But, if the Commandments are to be posted, then let them be posted with addenda.
Because I am Lutheran and Martin Luther provided explanations of the Commandments in his Catechisms, I almost always think of them as something that comes with commentary. Timothy Wengert[1] points out that the explanations were not intended to be the final statement on the catechism. Instead, Luther intended his comments to be a conversation partner for those who studied the Ten Commandments. In the spirit of continuing the conversation, I include addenda later in this piece to encourage your response and invite you to join me in considering how the Ten Commandments relate to 2025 and life in the United States. My reference for this conversation is A Contemporary Translation of Luther’s Small Catechism: Study Edition, by Martin Luther, trans. Timothy Wengert, Augsburg/Fortress 1994.
Before writing my addenda, I considered the legal precedent of the Code of Hammurabi from the late 18th century BCE. It was already recognized in the Old Babylonian Empire (Persia, now Iran) before Moses brought the divinely given Ten Commandments to the nascent wilderness community in the Sinai Desert.
The prologue of the Code declares that these laws are set down to “prevent the strong from oppressing the weak”[2]. Just as The Commandments echo the laws of Hammurabi, God gives them not only for the good order of God’s people but to “prevent the strong from oppressing the weak”. Luther, in the Large Catechism, also realized that the poor and the oppressed had a special place in the commandments.[3] In striving to follow the Ten Commandments today, we endeavor to maintain good order in our society and seek to fulfill the maxim that “a great nation is known by its care for the weak and most vulnerable.”
This social contract to protect the weak and the vulnerable from the oppression of the powerful and the wealthy—principles our founding fathers fully appreciated—is at the core of governance. The US constitution provides for three co-equal branches—legislative, executive, and judicial. The checks and balances the three branches provide are to ensure these protections. Or at least that was the intent. Instead, the distinctive powers of each of these branches of government are currently blurred. The language and action of the day is focused on executive power and greed and ignore preventing oppression of the weak. The intent may even be purposely oppressing the weak.
1. You shall have no other gods.
What is this? (What does this mean?)
We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. When God’s love and justice for the world
challenges worldly and national powers, we are to choose God over those powers and
act in accord with God’s love and mercy for the marginalized of the world over satisfying
the personal financial and power concerns of government and business leaders.
2. You shall not make wrongful use
of the name of the Lord your God.
What is this? (What does this mean?)
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not curse, swear,
practice magic, lie, or deceive using God’s name, but instead use that very
name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. Using God’s name to swear to protect and defend
the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, while planning
to subvert its authority for the purpose of diverting monies and power to the
privileged, not only violates and blasphemes the trust of the people but
constitutes a blasphemy against God. Two recent examples, out of many, include:
1) revoking birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th
Amendment, and
2) dismantling policies and programs enacted by the legislative
branch.
These actions in turn devastate much of the social fabric
that U.S. citizens, including those who are citizens through birthright, and
our global neighbors depend on like Medicaid, SNAP, USAID, and the Department
of Education.
3. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise God’s
Word or preaching, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn
it.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. We are to use God’s name in prayer, praise, and
thanksgiving for God’s activity in our lives. Christian symbols, including
Sabbath, the cross, and being chosen, should not be used for power and greed but
should instead serve God and our neighbor. For instance, Sabbath, whenever
observed, if used as an ostentatious
act of piety, allows political figures, when they hear a bishop of the Church proclaim
God’s love and mercy for God’s people, to condemn God’s messenger of faith,
hope, and love. This reaction does not keep the time holy but shifts the focus
away from God and God’s intentions for God’s people and places the center of
attention on human concerns of power and the egocentric agenda of the person of
the day. It both repudiates God’s words and obstructs learning and hearing gladly
the tidings of great joy.
4. Honor your father and your
mother.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither despise nor
anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey,
love, and respect them.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. Certainly, for good order in the family and
society, someone needs to be in charge. We recognize that authority as father
and mother and others in authority who would guard and protect us, but, as
Luther states in the Large Catechism, this authority does not excuse
selfishness and tyranny.[4] Parental authority in
the family is then to reflect God’s authority over creation—an authority that
is ready to establish healthy boundaries and willing always to forgive
humanity’s violations of that authority, even to dying on the cross.
5. You shall not murder.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor
harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of
life’s needs.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. Our country has perpetrated genocide on the Native
American people and stolen their land.
We have allowed and perpetrated the placement of people into chattel slavery which stole their lives and labor, worked many to death, denied them personhood and citizenship, and obstructed their access to education and reduced their ability to accumulate wealth equity in our nation.
When we send refugees back to countries where there will be certain death and when we cut budgets that endanger health and lives, the suffering and death that result is murder.6. You shall not commit adultery.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we lead pure and decent
lives in word and deed, and each of us loves and honors his or her spouse.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. Loving and honoring one’s spouse through being
faithful to her or him “as long as we both shall live” is a part of the vows that
most of us promise before God in our marriages. Yet, news coverage shares
stories of many of the wealthy and powerful oftentimes treating this idea of
fidelity as an archaic, plebian concept.
More than that, Scripture repeatedly claims worshipping
other Gods as adultery (e.g., Jeremiah 31). In the same way, swearing a loyalty
oath to any person who demands that you act contrary to God’s plan of
proclaiming good news to the poor, liberation to the captive, restoration of
sight to the blind, release to the oppressed, and announcing the day of God’s
favor (Luke 4, Isaiah 61) is also committing adultery.
Between the issues of marital infidelity which is a violation
of vows and the lack of reverence shown to God in the lust for wealth and
power, why do we trust any promises made by our philandering government leaders?
What power and authority are we willing to cede to the chief executive officer
of our country? Have we failed to recognize our first commitment is to fear,
love, and trust in God?
7. You shall not steal.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our
neighbors’ money or property nor use shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, to
obtain it for ourselves, but instead help them to improve and protect their
property and income.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. The Bible demonstrates that if we have more than we
need and then do not share the abundance of treasure with neighbors who are destitute,
then we are stealing from the neighbor. This is the lesson of the man who built
bigger barns (Luke 12) and the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16). When a
government intentionally cuts programs for the weak, the poor, and the
vulnerable in order to give greater tax benefits to the wealthiest and more
powerful, it is stealing, not only financially.
When the government ignores the needs of “those who have
their backs against the wall: the poor, the dispossessed, and the disinherited”
(echoing the words of Howard Thurman), instead of proclaiming good news, our
government is building a bigger wall of exclusion. Against this bigger wall,
the government allows those who are rich and powerful to arrange the people they
disregard to await the firing squad. In this way, all that they have, even their
life, liberty, happiness, and dignity, can be stolen.
8. You shall not bear false
witness against your neighbor.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies
about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations.
Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret
everything they do in the best possible light.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. In today’s world I find it difficult to put a
positive construct on the comments of our present national administration. Their
words are repeatedly disparaging and deceitful. At best, they are half-truths
spoken to purposely mislead the hearer. At worst, they portray problems we face,
as a nation, as caused by DEI policies, intentionally being racist (targeting minorities),
ableist (disparaging people living with disabilities), sexist (legislating
against women and transgendered people), and classist (defunding needed
programs for the poor people). These statements are hateful and dehumanizing
because they are false and should be publicly named and confronted.
For example, people living with disabilities and minorities were
not responsible for the horrific aircraft crash in Washington D.C. Blind people
regularly use the word “seeing”, as seeing fraud. The fact is, there are many
minority people and people living with disabilities who are not only qualified
but over-qualified for many jobs they hold or apply for. They are hardworking
and ready to work. They only need the opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable.
Competency can only be demonstrated through employment. Instead of demeaning people
living with disabilities, people of color and those for whom English is a
second language, and people who are not of the male gender by publicly
humiliating them and falsely challenging their work and value to our
government, we should recognize the value of the talents and gifts of all people.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s
house.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not try to trick
our neighbors out of their inheritance or property or try to get it for
ourselves by claiming to have a legal right to it and the like, but instead be
of help and service to them in keeping what is theirs.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. Our leaders want what we do not have. They covet
and choose to illegally and even violently take what belongs to others. Martin
Luther King, Jr. often claimed that the three evils of the world are poverty,
racism, and violence. He further named violence as including colonialism,
segregation, and militarism.
Our government chooses to continue to take land from those
who lived here first. Because of national and personal greed, it manipulates
land policies to allow the rich and powerful to obtain the riches of the land
without honoring the land or its people.
Our present administration lusts after many foreign lands viewing
them as something we should possess rather than countries inhabited by self-determining
people. We look for ways to be able to call Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Gaza
ours, and for Canada to become our fifty-first state. We attempt to coerce Ukraine
to give us its rare metals without proper compensation. We are willing to trick
or deceive our neighbors and make false legal claims to what we want to have as
we attempt to plunder, conquer, and pillage.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or
male or female slave, or ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your
neighbor.
What is this? What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not entice,
force, or steal away from our neighbors their spouses, workers, or livestock,
but instead, urge them to stay and remain loyal to our neighbors.
Addendum:
We place God above all things because God calls, names, and
claims us as God’s children. What a different place we would be in today if we did
all that we could to help other nations keep their people safe. That, of
course, was why USAID was formed, but we know what happened there.
Our covetous behavior now advances a policy of new
colonialism, theft of land, people, and their gross national product (wealth).
This coveting leads to the greed that steals land, heritage, and livelihood.
This coveting will remove an entire people from their land in order to create a
grand resort which will be coveted by nations around the world. We have elected
leaders who covet being coveted.
What then does God say about all of these commandments?
God says the following: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous
God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and fourth
generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth
generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
What is this? What does this mean? Answer:
God threatens to punish all who break these commandments.
Therefore we are to fear his wrath and not disobey these commandments. However,
God promises grace and every good thing to all those who keep these
commandments. Therefore we are to love and trust him and gladly act according
to his commands.
Addendum:
We know that violence begets violence. We know that once life threatening circumstances enter family systems, it can take years to find our way back to healthy, loving and trusting relationships. Therefore, in these closing words, we are given the opportunity to envision a different world than the one we live in. With these commandments we are given the opportunity to regard them as both personal guides and as a fence that “prevents the strong from oppressing the weak.” Will we keep silent and let the violence of colonialism, segregation, and militarism rule and destroy us as a nation? Or will we seek the grace of God, that is, God’s undeserved love, mercy, and forgiveness, as we look for ways to serve, support, and defend our neighbors. Yes, in these commandments God gives us the choice.
Note: Luther uses a common form of the Decalogue that does not
always correspond to the texts of either Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5 in the
Luther Bible. As a result, some later editions, including the Nuremberg
editions of 1531 and 1558, correct the text here and elsewhere according to the
biblical text.
[2]
Durant, W. Our Oriental Heritage. Simon & Schuster, 1997.
[3]
The Book of Concord. Edited by Robert
Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. See especially LC,
Ten Commandments, 246–47, in BC, 419.
[4] Ibid. See especially Luther’s comments in LC, Ten Commandments, 167–78, in BC, 409–10.
