June 28, 2017

"A man yelled 'Freedom!' as he crashed his vehicle into Arkansas' new Ten Commandments monument early Wednesday..."

"... nearly three years after he was arrested in the destruction of Oklahoma's monument at its state Capitol, authorities said."
In the video [on Michael Reed's Facebook page], the sky is dark and the Arkansas Capitol's dome is visible. Music is heard followed by a female voice, likely on the radio, saying, "Where do you go when you're faced with adversity and trials and challenges?" The driver is then heard growling, "Oh my goodness. Freedom!" before accelerating into the monument. The vehicle's speedometer is last shown at 21 mph (33 kph) and then a collision can be heard. Arkansas' monument fell from its plinth and broke into multiple pieces as it hit the ground. The debris had been cleaned up by midmorning Wednesday....

Arkansas' granite monument weighed 6,000 pounds (2,721 kilograms). It was installed Tuesday morning on the southwest lawn of the Capitol with little fanfare and no advance notice. A 2015 law required the state to allow the display near the Capitol, and a state panel last month gave final approval to its design and location.
By the way, in the Biblical story, Moses breaks the 10 Commandments tablets. Did you ever understand why? There are many explanations. Here are 4 explanations. 

110 comments:

tim in vermont said...

I guess "Allahu akbar" was taken.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Wasn't that while Mel Gibson was getting disemboweled?

Unknown said...

i'm having trouble opening the 'here' hyperlink. anyone else having this issue?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

It would be more appropriate to yell "Freedom!" as you crash your car into the statue of Lenin in Seattle.

Nobody seems interested in making that kind of statement.

rhhardin said...

Kerplunk goes the tablet.

Dated commercial.

Rick said...

anyone else having this issue?

Worked for me.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Which one of the 10 Commandments is an infringement on this guy's freedom? Does he want to be free to murder, bear false witness and covet his neighbor's wife?

Nobody's forcing anybody to honor their father and mother.

Bay Area Guy said...

"A man yelled "Freedom!" as he crashed his vehicle into Arkansas' new Ten Commandments monument early Wednesday,...."

I guess Bill Clinton was pretty stoked after Hillary finally agreed to the divorce.......

Yancey Ward said...

"Wasn't that while Mel Gibson was getting disemboweled?"

Only the final revision of the screenplay. Originally, the line was "That is going to leave a mark!"

Fernandinande said...

http://heavy.com/news/2017/06/michael-tate-reed-ten-commandments-facebook-live-video-arkansas-oklahoma-photos/

“This is Michael Reed, and I’m a firm believer that salvation is that we not only have faith in Jesus Christ but that we obey the commands of God…” he says in the above video, which was posted right around the time the monument was run over.

“But one thing I do not support is the violation of our Constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guarantees us separation of church and state because no one religion should the government represent."
...
In 2014, Reed was arrested by the Secret Service and accused of running over a six-foot-tall granite monument to the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

The Secret Service said then that the agency had arrested Reed “after he went to the Federal Court building, admitted to crashing his car into the statue and then made threatening statements against President Barack Obama,” according to KTUL.

“The suspect said Satan told him to do it, Secret Service officials said. He also reportedly said he would kill President Obama and spit on a photo of Obama. The suspect also allegedly admitted that he urinated on the Ten Commandments monument before running it over,” reported KOCO-TV.

In the letter to the Tulsa World, Reed wrote “that his psychotic breaks led to getting inspiration from a Dracula movie, thinking Michael Jackson’s spirit was in meat, believing he was the incarnation of an occult leader and attempting to contact Lucifer’s high priestess he called Gwyneth Paltrow.”

rhhardin said...

"If freedom has wings," taught Reb Idrash, "it also has eyes, a forehead, genitals. Each time it takes wing, it transfigures a bit of both the world and man in the excitement of its flowering."

And Reb Lima: "In the beginning, freedom was ten times engraved on the tables of the Law. But we so little deserved it that the Prophet broke them in his anger."

"Any coercion is a ferment of freedom," Reb Idrash taught further. "How can you hope to be free if you are not bound with all our blood to your God and to man?"

And Reb Lima: "Freedom awakens gradually as we become conscious of our ties, like the sleeper of his senses. Then, finally, our actions have a name."

A teaching which Reb Zale translated into this image: "You think it is the bird which is free. Wrong: it is the flower."

And Reb Elat into this motto: "Love your ties to their last splendor, and you will be free."

Jabes, Book of Questions

robother said...

"Lucifer’s high priestess he called Gwyneth Paltrow." Well, I suppose even a blind squirrel can stumble upon an acorn.

William said...

He's on to something with Gwyneth Paltrow, but the other remarks seem crazy. Sadly, this is not a first amendment absolutist but a nut job, and there are no useful moral lesions to be drawn. Nut jobs take all the fun out of being self righteous.

JohnAnnArbor said...

He needs a new hobby.

William said...

It would have been so cool if a shard from the concrete had broken off and killed him. Bonus irony points if it said Thou Shalt Not Kill. Zen points if it had been the one about false gods.

Fen said...

"separation of church and state

It doesn't say that, asshole.

No worries though. Just advise your family you prefer cremation. I've got a list and a murder of hungry crows.

bleh said...

Wait, this was the SECOND time he destroyed a Ten Commandments monument at a state Capitol? I read somewhere that he's been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. At what point do the authorities step in and involuntarily commit him? He also made threats against Obama in 2013 and was investigated by the Secret Service.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Leftists are annoyed that there might be some universal codes that aid in basic morals.

"Thou shall not kill." Except when you want to mow down the entire GOP congress with bullets, because Jon Hickenpooper lies about how many people will die if we repeal LiarCare.

issues... issues.ss

rhhardin said...

The significance of the crosshairs over Sodom and Gemorrah was not obvious at the time.

YoungHegelian said...

@William,

no useful moral lesions

If that was intentional, I salute you. I'll have to remember "moral lesions".

If unintentionally, it still's a hoot!

Ann Althouse said...

link fixed

thanks for the heads-up.

CJinPA said...

'Member the time when it was considered brave to stand up to the influence of religion on civic life? Then came Islam. And all the brave men and women sat down and shut up.

Joe said...

Why was the monument so weak?

The battle of Cars vs. Commandments is now 1-0.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Michael Jackson’s spirit was in meat"

Well that is nonsense. Jackson's spirit sometimes enters poultry. Buy a chicken, Jackson's spirit enters it, and all the dark meat slowly turns white.

clint said...

Joe said...
"Why was the monument so weak?"

Authenticity.

The originals were so weak that an old man broke them by tossing them on the ground.


What I want to know is whether deliberately driving into a monument at 21 mph is sufficient to prove he's a danger to himself...

Anonymous said...

I hear a song :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7lZHByBB84


(atheists ain't got no songs)

Fernandinande said...

BDNYC said...
At what point do the authorities step in and involuntarily commit him?


He was treated, cured and released after the first incident.

Dave from Minnesota said...

I read the Wash Post article on this...actually the comments. Recurring themes:

1) "You drive us to this with your........" Yes. We made you commit a violent act.

2) THEOCRACY. Yes, a mundane 10 Commandments monument on a corner of the state capital grounds is just like living in Saudi Arabia.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

It would be more appropriate to yell "Freedom!" as you crash your car into the statue of Lenin in Seattle.

Nobody seems interested in making that kind of statement.


Someone painted its hands red. That seems like a statement to me!

Fun OT fact: my grandparents were buried out of the funeral home across the street from that statue. It wasn't there then.

Earnest Prole said...

The perp is an iconoclast. Perhaps you need an iconoclasm tag.

Expat(ish) said...

He was driven to it?

No?

How about: he brakes for 10 commandments.

Still no?

-XC

Dave from Minnesota said...

BBNYC....he also destroyed one in Oklahoma. Also did threaten to murder President Obama.

J said...

Why did this person have a driver's license when he has proven to use subatomible to commit intentional illegal acts but a drunk driver has to jump through multiple hoops .Does the people in the court system really want him to destroy public monuments?

Fernandinande said...

Dave from Minnesota said...
I read the Wash Post article on this...actually the comments. Recurring themes:
1) "You drive us to this with your........" Yes. We made you commit a violent act.


Nobody said anything like that in the comments.

2) THEOCRACY. Yes, a mundane 10 Commandments monument on a corner of the state capital grounds is just like living in Saudi Arabia.

The word theocracy doesn't appear in the comments.

Why are you a liar, Dave from Minnesota?

n.n said...

Moses destroyed the tablets because the people were Pro-Choice. Ironically, he deemed them unworthy, and denied them, not life, but enlightenment. We have since progressed.

This man may have done it for the same reason... or because people have exchanged voluntary protocols for authoritarian protocols.

Etienne said...

Like ISIS, a lot of Legislatures force religion on the public. They are terrorists, and should be droned by the CIA.

If they ignore the Constitution, the only recourse is violence. You can't reason with terrorists.

Etienne said...

P.S. I'm a Catholic, and I don't want my church anywhere near the fucking capital. I don't want the fucking Jews, the fucking Hindu's, and the fucking Mormons there either.

Put me down for approve destruction, and he should be given a medal for defending the Constitution.

God bless!

Static Ping said...

The Moses link does not work for me.

My personal interpretation is either Moses was really angry or shocked to the point of disbelief. Probably both. In Exodus Moses is repeatedly unhappy with this tribe who keep complaining and doing stupid things despite the fact that they have personally witnessed multiple miracles and should know better. It must have been especially upsetting to him since Moses didn't want the job in the first place. In this particular case it was even worse since he had been literally communing with God for several days and the concept of worshiping an idol would have been the epitome of idiocy. You are less than a mile away from YHWH and you STILL DON'T BELIEVE!?!?!

As to our nutcase here, I am curious where he got the car. Is it his personal car? Did he buy one specifically to ruin it? Did he ride it like a rental? Road House has taught me to ponder these things.

gspencer said...

"I have these fift . . ., ten commandments."

tim in vermont said...

(atheists ain't got no songs)

Oh they do. I just heard one on "Outlaw Country" on Sirius, which pushes politics sometimes. It's called "Jesus Loves You."

Last refrain:

Jesus loves you more than I do
Just because He doesn't know you.
Not like I do


It's a song inspired by hatred and probably class snobbery, would be a large part of it, I would guess.

Big Mike said...

Wherever "Here" is, it doesn't work.

I do recommend that this clown's license to drive br revoked.

Ralph L said...

Jesus, I didn't remember this:
Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Put ye every man his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.' And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. (Exodus 32:26-28)

But we read a bowdlerized OT in HS.

mockturtle said...

Yes, Moses broke the Commandments tablets because he was really pissed off at the idolatrous and hedonistic behavior of his people. God did make him a new set, however, that were put into the Ark of the Covenant.

DKWalser said...

None of the four explanations are accurate. More than just the 10 Commandments were written on the tablets. God gave Moses the Law of the Gospel. When Moses came down from the mountain, he saw that the children of Israel were unable to live this law. Inspired by God, he smashed the tablets on which the law as written and returned to receive a lesser law, the Law of Moses, that was to prepare Israel for Christ, when they would receive the Law of the Gospel.

tcrosse said...

gspencer
"I have these fift . . ., ten commandments."


Well played.

n.n said...

Ralph L:

It may have inspired/triggered the left-wing atheists to abort hundreds of millions in the 20th century through wars and selective-child.

YoungHegelian said...

A terribly un-PC Jewish joke from my late Jewish father-in-law (May his name be used as a blessing) on how the Jews got the 10 commandments. In this joke he managed to insult the ethnicity of everyone in the car in one joke. I'm French; his second wife, Mexican American.

So, one day God is walking around looking to give mankind the commandments.

He comes across a Frenchman. "Hey Frenchman", God says, "ya want some commandments?"

"What's a commandment, God?" Says the Frenchman.

"Oh, like 'Thou shall not commit adultery'"

"Uhhhm, no thanks, God. I gotta go return a book to the library."

God walks along some more & he comes across a Mexican. He says to the Mexican "Hey, Mexican, want some commandments?"

"What are commandments, God?"

"Oh, things like 'Thou shalt not steal'".

"None for me, God, but thanks anyway." And the Mexican walks away.

God walks along some more, and he comes across a Jew. "Hey, Jew, ya want some commandments?"

"Well, how much do they cost?" asks the Jew.

"They're free!"

"In that case, I'll take ten!!!"

n.n said...

gspencer:

One by one they all fell down. We're down to zero and headed for negative territory.

Anonymous said...

So, do you think the Satanists will get their Beelzebub statue on the Courthouse lawn anytime soon?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Would it be blasphemy to suggest Moses needed a story for why he didn't have any tablets?

Fernandinande said...

YoungHegelian said...
..."In that case, I'll take ten!!!"


Didja hear about the new-age church in California?

They have three commandments and seven suggestions.

Dave from Minnesota said...

Fern, the Wash Post article from 5 hours ago only has 14 comments on it right now. Now sure where the rest went. There is a 2nd one posted 28 minutes ago.

Fen said...

Depends, is our Constitution based on any Satanic body of law?

Displaying the 10 commandments is a reference to Judeo-Christian influences in our justice system. It has nothing to do with "installing" a State Religion.

madAsHell said...

I'll bet he had a continuos loop of "Free Bird" playing on the car stereo.

tim in vermont said...

'll bet he had a continuos loop of "Free Bird" playing on the car stereo.

Who doesn't?

When I see Democrats posting their anti-religious crapola, I always wonder if they have any actual close black friends.

Fernandinande said...

Fen said...
Depends, is our Constitution based on any Satanic body of law?


It's not based on Christianity, either. I challenge you to find anything in the Constitution that comes from the Christian bible. Here it is.

Words not in the Constitution:
God, Christ, commandment, worship, kill/murder, adultery, sabbath, mother/father.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Just curious, has anyone ever seen Michael Reed and Sonya Sotomayor in the same room together?

Fernandinande said...

Dave from Minnesota said...
Fern, the Wash Post article from 5 hours ago only has 14 comments on it right now. Now sure where the rest went. There is a 2nd one posted 28 minutes ago.


Your lies are really lame because they're so easy to disprove.

When I discovered your first lies and made that post, there were 150 comments; it took about 20 seconds to expand them all and do a text search to verify that what you said was false.

The current 630 comments are here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/28/why-one-man-keeps-ramming-his-car-into-ten-commandments-statues-on-government-property/?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-in-the-news%3Apage%2Fin-the-news&utm_term=.ea927f30f89c#comments

Mike Sylwester said...

The story about Moses receiving the commandments from God is told in three versions in Exodus Chapter 24. The chapter describes three successive events; Moses climbed to the top of Mount Sinai three times.

Another way to understand the chapter, however, is that an original story was retold and retold for centuries, so that eventually there were three versions of the story. The author of Exodus assembled the three versions and combined them into one story of three successive climbings.

The most primitive of the three stories was this:

[quote]

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

[end quote]

This above translation says "the people may not come up with him", but does not specify that Moses climbed to a mountain summit. In Moses' previous meetings with God, Moses had come to a mountain foot, where he communicated through a burning bush.

I speculate that the primitive story was that -- as in the Sinai Desert -- Moses came to the mountain foot, and the elders had to stop and watch from a distance. Then Moses went around the side of the mountain to a place where the elders could not see him, and Moses communicated with God again through a burning bush. Then Moses came back around the mountain foot and told the elders God's commandments.

The intention of this most primitive story was to establish the moral authority of Moses.

[to be continued]

Unknown said...

Trumpski News Network: (from Quinnipiac Poll which always favors Trump) ... "Only 16% approve of GOP health plan. And Trump's core voter groups all tilt strongly against it"

Just too funny.

Fen said...

Fern, I said based on, not copied ftom.

And you are making my point. Our justice system is based on Judeo-Christian laws, like thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal.

Why does that bother you? Are you also outraged by Magna Carter influences? Why so threatened?

Etienne said...

Displaying the 10 commandments is a reference to "Judeo-Christian" influences in our justice system.

That won't work in our modern ""Abrahamic religion" New World Order. Abraham, after all, was the first Moslem.

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:12 PM]

In the second story, Joshua accompanies Moses, and the two climb to the mountain summit:

[quote]

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

[end quote]

Why was Joshua added to the second story?

The Hebrews who escaped from Egypt all died during the 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert. The only Hebrews who reached Canaan were the Hebrews who were born during the wandering in the desert. These younger, born-after-Egypt generations that entered Canaan were led by Joshua. By adding Joshua to the Mount Sinai story, one still living and prominent witness brought that story into Canaan, the new homeland.

Also, Joshua's moral authority to lead the nation was confirmed by his direct participation with Moses in receiving the commandments.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Fen said...

Depends, is our Constitution based on any Satanic body of law?

Our Constitution? No. Obamacare, on the other hand...

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:16 PM]

Also added to the second version of the story were the tablets of stone. (In the first story, Moses told the commandments orally.) These tablets were placed into the Ark of the Covenant, which was carried into Canaan.

Also added to this version of the story was the explicit, vivid climb to the mountain summit. A cloud descended from above to the mountain summit, where God wrote the commandments on stone tablets and gave them to Moses and Joshua.

Moses and Joshua were told to make an "ark" to carry the stone tablets. I think the concept here was as follows:

* God descended from the Firmament, through a gate, in a cloud, down to the mountain summit, where he met Moses and Joshua.

* This descent was symbolically like God's opening the Firmament's floodgates in order to cause the Flood in the Noah story.

* Instead of flooding the Earth, this opening of the Firmament's gate allowed God to descend in a cloud to the mountain summit.

* In both instances, God commanded the construction of an "ark".

* The first ark saved Noah's family and the animals from destruction.

* The second ark saved the stone tablets from destruction.

The perspective of this second version is to establish the moral authority of the Hebrew leadership, in particular Joshua, who entered Canaan. Joshua had accompanied Moses to the mountain summit. Joshua and his fellow leaders carried and possessed the stone tablets in the ark.

[to be continued]

Fen said...

"Just too damn funny"

Obviously a foreigner with no concept of the topic he is trying to troll. I support Trump and oppose the GOP plan. Because I want Obamacare REPEALED not replaced with ObamaCare Light.

I wonder if you are the dumbest troll I have ever met.

Jim at said...

But remember it's both sides who are acting out with violence. Scary!

Fen said...

Mike, thanks for the detail. Keep it coming.

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:19 PM]

In ancient times, many people perceived that high above the Earth was "a canopy of ice". The Hebrew word for this structure was raqia, which also is translated into English as "vault" or "dome". Through the Latin translation, we now have our English word "Firmament".

Since this canopy was light-blue and since flood-water seemed to fall from it, many people thought the canopy consisted of ice. Others thought the canopy consisted of a translucent, sky-blue mineral -- crystalline -- covered by a layer of water that God occasionally opened gates in the crystalline structure so that the water would fall and flood the Earth.

Usually, water falls from the clouds. On rare occasions when God wanted to flood the Earth, then He also 1) released water to fall from the Firmament and 2) sent water upwards from underground springs. The Noah story states explicitly that these two additional sources of water contributed to the Flood.

The Noah story says that "the floodgates of the sky were opened". Ancient readers understood that the Firmament's structure included "floodgates". God opened these gates, and water flooded down from the Firmament onto the Earth.

Modern readers do not recognize this concept in the Noah story. They read "the floodgates of the sky were opened" as a poetic metaphor, not as concrete physics.

[to be continued]

traditionalguy said...

Last I heard, around these parts since about 1620 or so, the message has been that God has forgiven the people who believe in Jesus' resurrection. I know that is reading ahead, but I wanted to know how the author could end it with Good News.

I guess nobody told this guy how God ended it.I would be mad too if all I had heard about was the miserable Law of Sin and Death given through Moses. No wonder the Muslims are all mad too.

But I thought the Colonists kept along with their KJV's, a separate copy of Leviticus and Deuteronomy which on hand as their Legal Treatise. Good thing the 5 Philosopher Kings straightened that out.

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:22 PM]

Shortly after the Genesis story of Noah and the flood, we read the story of Jacob's Ladder.

[quote]

Jacob ... had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the Earth, with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ... When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought ... ““How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven.”

[unquote]

Here again is the word "gate".

Again, modern readers do not recognize the concept that was obvious to ancient readers. Above the Earth is a Firmament, a hard structure that includes some gates. On some occasions, the gates are opened so that water can flood down. On other occasions, some gates are opened so that angels can ascend and descend via a mystical ladder.

On some occasions the angels descended at night in order to communicate God's messages to human beings who were sleeping and dreaming. This is what happened to Jacob on that particular night. Furthermore, Jacob even saw the angels ascending and descending the ladder and passing through a gate of the Firmament.

On the following morning, Jacob created a shrine -- he specially placed a commemorative rock -- to mark the exact place where he had slept and dreamed the vision. Subsequently, pilgrims visited this shrine, a devotion that protected them on their further journeys. Certainly the pilgrims spent a night or two sleeping at this place, hoping to experience a similar dream and to thus receive a communication brought by an angel from God above. This place was a specific, known place that many people visited.

We can suppose the place became a pilgrimage destination, and the locals earned money by showing the place, telling the story, selling meals and renting beds. Although the story is told in Genesis only briefly, the ancient readers -- who personally had visited the place or had heard about it from others who had visited it -- understood the brief story with a mental image that was detailed, vivid and elaborate.

At the time when the story of Jacob's Ladder originated, people did not think of angels as flying by means of wings. Rather, they thought of angels as ascending and descending via a ladder that reached to a gate of the Firmament. When angels appeared to non-sleeping people in the oldest stories -- for example, the three angels who appeared to Abraham and Sarah -- they appeared in normal human form, without wings. (The concept of winged angels developed later.)

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:27 PM]

In the third story about Moses at Mount Sinai, dozens of elders accompany Moses, and they all climb to the mountain summit and then up onto the Firmament.

[quote]

He [Moses] got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

[unquote]

This third story adds a large priesthood and elaborate priestly ceremonies. Altars and pillars are built. Sacrifices of animals are accomplished. The animals' blood is splashed on the altars. A religious book is read to the public.

Notice the development of writing through the three stories.

* In the first story, there were only God's oral statements to Moses.

* In the second story, commandments were carved onto stone tablets.

* In the third version, there is a written book.

[to be continued]

Mike Sylwester said...

[continued from 2:30 PM]

In the third story, dozens of elders accompany Moses up to a high place where there is "a pavement made of lapis lazuli (stone azure), as bright blue as the sky". There, a ritual meal was eaten with God. Ancient readers recognized immediately that this place was the Firmament.

The perspective of this third version is to establish the moral authority of the Hebrew priesthood, which conducted the religious rituals at the Jerusalem Temple. A large number of priests had accompanied Moses not merely to a mountain summit, but much further up onto the Firmament, a supernatural, divine place.

Although only elders had accompanied Moses in this ascension and although all the elders died before the Hebrews entered Canaan, this version specified that a group of young men participated in the religious ceremonies at the mountain foot. The ancient readers recognized that these young men were the Levite sons of the elders who ascended to the Firmament. These young men did enter Canaan, with living memories of witnessing that event, and they became the forefathers of the priests who centuries later ruled the Jerusalem Temple.

=========

Among the many unfinished projects in my life is a blog titled "The Bronze Serpent and the Origin of Christianity". Eventually my blog will include my explanation of the Mount Sinai story.

http://bronze-serpent-origin-christianity.blogspot.com/

However, I have been too busy writing my blog about the movie "Dirty Dancing" to spend time on that religious blog.

http://dirty-dancing-analysis.blogspot.com/

[end of series of comments]

Bob Loblaw said...

But one thing I do not support is the violation of our Constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guarantees us separation of church and state because no one religion should the government represent.

The constitution guarantees no such thing at the state level. There were states with official state religions for decades after its ratification.

Dave from Minnesota said...

But one thing I do not support is the violation of our Constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guarantees us separation of church and state because no one religion should the government represent.

Only two religions say we have to ban 10 commandments monuments like this. Atheism and radical Islam.

Carter Wood said...

It's Mel Brooks' 91st birthday today. From History of the World, Part I:

Moses: The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen...
[drops one of the tablets]
Moses: Oy! Ten! Ten commandments for all to obey!

Bob Loblaw said...

This all reminds me of The History of the World: Part 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48hr8HhDv0

Trumpit said...

Now that all ten commandments are broken, i.e., reduced to rubble, we should consider how many commandments Trump has broken. I would have said nine until recently. I didn't think he was guilty of murder until he tried to assassinate Kim Jong Un, & randomly lobbed 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria killing innocent people - an impotent act of waning masculinity. I mostly agree with the commandments, except for keeping the Sabbath holy, and the rest of the God garbage. That's purely holy moley baloney. And Trump didn't just covet other men's wives, he actually tried to screw them.

tcrosse said...

Now that all ten commandments are broken, i.e., reduced to rubble, we should consider how many commandments Trump has broken.

So we can cancel the Beatification.

Bruce Gee said...

Sort of apropos for this post, there is a joke I like to tell:

Moses comes down from the mountain carrying two flat stones if you know what I mean.
He says to the assembled multitude:
“I got some good news, and I some got bad news. The good news is: I managed to hold Him to just TEN.
The bad new is: adultery stays.

Bilwick said...

The guy in Arkansas was also heard to yell, "Where's yer commandments nowwwwww?"

traditionalguy said...

Reading ahead gets you to Paul's Revelations we call Reformed Protestant Christianity. It turns out Paul was like this guy. Hen also cursed the Law teachers and commands in Gal. 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has sat you free. Therefore do not submit again to slavery under a yoke of the Law.
Followed by an observation that if you keep the Law, then Christ will be of no use to you.

It turns out Paul preached sola fides in sola Gracia as set out in sola scriptura.

jimbino said...

This is like what Moses did when he came upon the Golden Calf.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

jimbino said...This is like what Moses did when he came upon the Golden Calf.

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

Ultimate badass move. "Drink the water where I dissolved the powder of the thing you were worshiping."

Freeman Hunt said...

If a person is going to commit an act of violence under a paranoid delusion, committing it against a large rock of no historical significance seems better than many alternatives.

Freeman Hunt said...

Following the smashing of the tablets is the best line of comedy in the Bible.

"Out came this calf."

Out it came. What can a guy do?

What difference, at this point, does it make?

Etienne said...

Only two religions say we have to ban 10 commandments monuments like this.

...and one Constitution.

Clyde said...

Since someone posted a lyric snippet above, here's the whole song at YouTube:

Old 97s - Jesus Loves You

Off their 2017 album Graveyard Whistling

Their debut album Too Far To Care from 1997 was awesome.

Clyde said...

And just because I like you guys (well, most of you), I'll throw this in:

Old 97s - Four Leaf Clover (with Exene Cervenka)

CWJ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paddy O said...

"If a person is going to commit an act of violence under a paranoid delusion, committing it against a large rock of no historical significance seems better than many alternatives."

This is the best argument I've heard for Ten Commandments monuments. Maybe we can get Russia to fund building these monuments all over the country.

robother said...

Trumpit: "we should consider how many commandments Trump has broken."

Every thread must devolve to Trump! Either you are a paid Soros troll, or you are as deranged as Mr. Reed. Sad!

Carter Wood said...

Stan Rogers' "The Mary Ellen Carter" is often cited as a song of atheist inspiration. This documentary excerpt is fine.

Rise again, rise again!
Though your heart it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend
Then like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!


The Mary Ellen Carter being a ship that the feckless owners let sink and the narrator being part of a crew of friends who recovered it.

mockturtle said...

Freeman Hunt writes: Following the smashing of the tablets is the best line of comedy in the Bible.

"Out came this calf."

Out it came. What can a guy do?


Yep, that was pretty lame. ;-) But I always wondered why Aaron wasn't held accountable.

Anonymous said...

"Blogger William said...
It would have been so cool if a shard from the concrete had broken off and killed him. Bonus irony points if it said Thou Shalt Not Kill. Zen points if it had been the one about false gods."



You beat me to it.

Michael K said...

"I didn't think he was guilty of murder until he tried to assassinate "

Earth to trumpit, Senator Dick Durban (D IL bankrupt) is refusing to release e-mails from shooter at GOP Congressmen.

I wonder why ?

Could this be it ?

mockturtle said...

It's Mel Brooks' 91st birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Mel! May you live to 100. :-)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thou shall not have any other tablet... other than my Amazon... which you can find via my portal for no additional cost.

Ralph L said...

However, I have been too busy writing my blog about the movie "Dirty Dancing" to spend time on that religious blog.

Priorities, man.

Mike Sylwester said...

Until today, I never thought about the question of why God broke the stone tablets. Now that I have thought about it, I offer my explanation.

The Hebrews developed a series of three stories about Moses at Mount Sinai. The intervals between the developments of the three stories were very long -- maybe centuries.

* In the first story, God communicated the commandments orally.

* A long time (centuries?) passes, and then a second story is developed.

* In the second story, God communicates the commandments on stone tablets.

* A long time (centuries?) passes, and then a third story is developed.

* In the third story, God communicates the commandments in a book.

During the interval between the second story and the third story, there was a problem with the second story. When someone asked, "what happened to the stone tablets?", there was not a satisfactory answer.

The standard answer might have been that the stone tablets were placed into the Ark of the Covenant, and that's where they still were. Since the Temple still had not been built, the Ark of the Covenant still was in the Tabernacle. So, the stone tablets were in the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the Tabernacle.

I speculate that there was a problem: the high priests knew that the Ark of the Covenant contained nothing but rocks. For a while, the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines. When the Hebrews recaptured it, a Hebrew priest perhaps looked inside and found nothing but rocks there. The Philistines could be blamed plausibly for replacing the stone tablets with rocks, but still there was a problem.

Furthermore, the Tabernacle was just a tent. The Ark of the Covenant could be stolen again by enemies, who could reveal publicly that the Ark of the Covenant contained nothing but rocks.

Therefore, the Hebrew priests changed the second story so that God himself broke the stone tablets into rocks.

Ultimately the Hebrew priests developed the third story, which told that God really gave the commandments to Moses as a book -- The Book of the Covenant.

Mike Sylwester said...

I will tell my explanation in a different way.

The second story -- the story with the stone tablets -- is associated with Joshua, who led the Hebrew invasion into Canaan. At that time, the Hebrews carried with them their tribal totem -- the Ark of the Covenant.

According to the tribal story of that time, Joshua had accompanied Moses up Mount Sinai and had brought down the stone tablets on which God had written His commandments. Joshua put the stone tablets into his Ark of the Covenant, which was a wooden box carried to two long poles.

The Hebrew army carried the Ark of the Covenant around with them, and whenever the army stopped, it set up a tent -- the Tabernacle -- inside which the Ark of the Covenant was kept. Everyone was told that God's stone tablets were inside the Ark of the Covenant, which was either being carried by the poles or was being kept in the Tabernacle.

In on battle, however, the Hebrew army was defeated by the Philistines, who captured the Ark of the Covenant. Eventually the Hebrew army recaptured the Ark of the Covenant, but probably the Philistines had opened it while they possessed it. When the Hebrew army recaptured the Ark of the Covenant, which had been opened by the Philistines, various Hebrews saw that it contained only rocks.

That was a problem for the Hebrew priests. The possible solutions included the following:

* The priests could preach that the Philistines now had the stone tablets, but that might mean that God's chosen people now were the Philistines.

* The priests could adjust their story slightly and preach that God himself had broken the stone tablets into rocks, which the Joshua nevertheless had placed inside the Ark of the Covenant as a treasured proof that the Hebrews were God's chosen people.

I am guessing is that the second solution was chosen and developed.

Gahrie said...

I hope the asshole gets a long sentence, and is popular with the "girls".

tim in vermont said...

You ever notice that there's one guy who stays at the punch bowl long after it's empty and everybody else has gone home chuckling to himself about some jape he imagined was especially cutting?

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

Fen said...
And you are making my point. Our justice system is based on Judeo-Christian laws, like thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal.


None of that is in the Constitution, and those concepts are part of nearly every religion.

Why does that bother you? Are you also outraged by Magna Carter influences? Why so threatened?

You're an ignorant, dishonest little gnome, aren't you?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

More speech!

Fen said...

"You're a dishonest ignorant gnome"

Goblin, not Gnome. Although I'm sure we all look alike to you.

Our rule of law is nothing more than a codification of Judeo-Christian values. It's a simple fact, and it still does not mean Christianity is or should be the State religion. So I don't understand why you are so hostile to the concept.
'
Regardless, I no longer teach this class for free. If you want allow your bias to cloud your reason, fine by me.

Fen said...

Thanks for all that, Mike. I've always held that Religion is man's interpretation of God, and men are imperfect creatures.

So I found speculation about the priests motivations very interesting. I often wonder if Christianity simply co-opted the Jewish religion. And co-opted again by former Roman officials to create the Catholic Church. The history can be read as a power play.

Anonymous said...

Fen is my twin brother. He's missed his nightly dose of medication for several days now. I apologize for his behavior. We, his family, have tried to convince him to admit himself, as he is once again veering into hyper-mania. He has delusions of being smarter, faster and more powerful than mere normal people. He can't be held responsible, please excuse him.

Rusty said...

Was booze involved?

Fenne. Just tell him you love him, fer chrisakes.