American Wahabbis and the Ten Commandments

By William Thatcher Dowell, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 8, 2005.

The increasing reliance upon fanatical religious populations to maintain political power – in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and even the U.S. – is about just that: political power.

For anyone who actually reads the Bible, there is a certain irony in the current debate over installing the Ten Commandments in public buildings. As everyone knows, the second commandment in the King James edition of the Bible states quite clearly: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth." It is doubtful that the prohibition on "graven images" was really concerned with images like the engraving of George Washington on the dollar bill. Rather it cautions against endowing a physical object, be it a "golden calf" or a two-ton slab of granite, with spiritual power.

In short, it is the spirit of the commandments, not their physical representation in stone or even on a parchment behind a glass frame, which is important. In trying to publicize the commandments, the self-styled Christian right has essentially forgotten what they are really about. It has also overlooked the fact that there are several different versions of them. The King James Bible lists three: Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 34: 12-26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Catholic Bibles and the Jewish Torah also offer variants.

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The current debate, of course, has little to do with genuine religion. What it is really about is an effort to assert a cultural point of view. It is part of a reaction against social change, an American counter-reformation of sorts against the way our society has been evolving, and ultimately against the negative fallout that is inevitable when change comes too rapidly. The people pushing to blur the boundaries between church and state are many of the same who so fervently back the National Rifle Association and want to crack down on immigration. They feel that they are the ones losing out, much as, in the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalists fear they are losing out – and their reactions are remarkably similar. In the Arab Middle East and Iran, the response is an insistence on the establishment of Islamic law as the basis for political life; while in Israel, an increasingly reactionary interpretation of Jewish law which, taken to orthodox extremes, rejects marriages by reform Jewish rabbis in America, has settled over public life.

In a strange way, George Bush may now find himself in the same kind of trap that ensnared Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. To gain political support, Saud mobilized the fanatical, ultra-religious Wahabbi movement – the same movement which is spiritually at the core of al Qaeda. Once the bargain was done, the Saudi Royal Family repeatedly found itself held political hostage to an extremist, barely controllable movement populated by radical ideologues. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has found himself in a similar situation, drawing political power from the swing votes of the ultra-orthodox right-wing religious and fanatical settler's movement, and then finding his options limited by their obstinacy to change. President Bush has spent the last several months cajoling evangelicals and trying to pay off the political bill for their support.


More:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21441/

unfortunatly I can't remember where I had found it, but the reglious right has a whole argument, in fact I think it's doctrine, that justifies why these actions do not violate the prohabition on graven images.

That's the great thing about religon and its doctrine and dogma. Since it isn't rational or makes any sense in the first place, one can justify pretty much anything.

I think the fundies are scared by sociocultural change (which seems to speed up more than anything) and have a fear that they might be wrong. If they can put up 10 Comm, then they will be right and everyone would have to agree with them. If they have Wiccan Rede, 4 Noble Truths, Yin-Yang, or nothing (for atheists) then they will get angry as it will remind them that they could be wrong.

Of course, they can turn their heads and not look at it.

We all should fear where this society is going, Christian or not. "Sociocultural change" is not an apt description of the degeneration of this society. However, posting the 10 commandments and school prayer will not change a thing. Bible belt states have the highest divorce rate, and the children of Christians around here are just as rotton and immoral as the others. There are many positive changes with regard to society, but also very negative changes. There is less shame in "sin" these days and too much "tolerance" (and too many excuses) for bad behavior.
I pray for some moderation. Why can't there be moderation?

M

I'm tired of hearing about society degenerating. Where is the proof?

People live longer healthier lives.

Slavery is illegal in almost every corner of the Earth.

Discrimination, although still around, lessens with each generation.

Bridges are continuously built across racial, religious, and other cultural divides.

It seems to me that this is a glass is half empty/glass if half full situation.

P.S. There can never be too much tolerance. Tolerance is not a synonym for excusing bad (harmful) behavior.