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The Ten Commandments: The Donald's vs. God's (Sunday Homily)

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Mike Rivage-Seul
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Readings for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: SIR 15: 15-20; PS 119: 1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; I Cor 2: 6-10; MT 5: 17-37.


The emphasis in today's liturgy of the word is on the wonders of God's law. "Keep the commandments; no one has a license to sin," the first reading from Sirach intones. "Walk blamelessly in God's law; observe its decrees; delight in its wonder," sings the psalmist in today's responsorial. And then in the Gospel reading Jesus presents himself as the defender of even the least of the commandments. Break the least, he says, and you'll be least in God's Kingdom.


On hearing all of this, I couldn't but squirm on behalf of Christian Trump supporters who respect what they consider God's Word. After all, The Donald seems to live by his own rules. And those guidelines don't seem to have much to do with the Bible's Ten and the delight, joy, and fulfillment today's readings suggest infallibly result from observance of the Decalogue. Or as comedian, Bill Maher put it during the campaign season, "It's hard to bring up the Ten Commandments when your candidate has spent most his life breaking all of them."


On the other hand, Richard Dawkins, a sworn enemy of Christianity has formulated his own Ten Commandments. Ironically, Dawkins' rules are more in harmony with today's delight-full estimation of God's Law. In fact, they seem more worthy of Christian support than the one's Mr. Trump apparently lives by.

So just for fun, in the light of today's readings, let's contrast the two sets of commandments, and see what we can learn. It might be that Dawkins' natural law commandments are more promising in terms of Nature's delight, joy and peace than what we hear implicitly proclaimed by casino king Donald Trump and his Christian followers.

Begin with Mr. Trump. Here's how humorist Neel Ingram compared the Bible's Ten Commandments with what seems to be their Trumpian counterparts. (Ingram hosts a website called Chewing The Fat With God). Using Trump's own words, Ingram writes:

Commandment 1: You shall have no other gods before Me.

Commandment 1 (Trump Edition): I won the popular vote" I'm really smart. I have the best words. Best words. Believe me.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Commandment 2: You shall not make for yourself a carved image of Me.

Commandment 2 (Trump Edition): You shall not publish unflattering photos. Giant portraits are okay if they're of Me. For Me.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Commandment 3: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Commandment 3 (Trump Edition): You shall not mock me, the ratings machine, Donald J. Trump, or I will declare you boring and unfunny. Bigly.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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Mike Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. Retired in 2014, he taught at Berea College in Kentucky for 40 years where he directed Berea's Peace and Social Justice Studies Program. His latest book is (more...)
 

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