“It’s preposterous for Christians to adopt portions of the law of Moses as our guide for living. We’re presuming that God grades on a curve. But the law is completely incompatible with our attempt to “do our best.” Law is a pass-or-fail system.
“And one strike means you’re out.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 52
“In the United States, some Christians fight for the Ten Commandments to be posted on our public buildings. We say that we don’t want our society to lose its Christian roots.
“But Christianity was never rooted in the law, not even in the Ten Commandments.
“The commandments aren’t intended to supervise Christians. They don’t curb sinful desires. In fact, the law causes more sinning”—The Naked Gospel, page 53
<idle musing>
The various attempts to “return” to some utopian past by posting the Ten Commandments has always struck me as misguided. The idea that somehow knowing them will keep you from doing the forbidden things is one of the main reasons.
I know from my own life that if something is forbidden, it is somehow more desirable. Mark Twain talked about that in Tom Sawyer; when Tom was a member of a youth organization that forbid swearing, he wanted nothing more than to swear. He finally quit, but then the desire to swear disappeared.
</idle musing>
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