The editor of the Diocese of Toronto\u2019s paper, Stuart Mann, thinks that the Ten Commandments are too judgemental: they are not there to keep us on the \u201cstraight and narrow\u201d but are there to make us \u201cfree.\u2019<\/p>\n
The problem is, if God is not \u201cjudgemental\u201d, if he doesn\u2019t pass judgement on evil and sin, then there was no reason for Jesus to take our punishment by dying a horrible death on the cross. There is no reason to believe that we need Jesus in order to be saved, no reason to call ourselves Christians and no reason to attend a Christian church.<\/p>\n
If a church teaches this, then people will stop attending and the church will die. And that is what is happening to the Anglican Church of Canada.<\/p>\n
From here<\/a> (page 5):<\/p>\n \u201cYou shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.<\/p>\n You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.<\/p>\n Honour your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.<\/p>\n You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.<\/p>\n You shall not covet your neighbour\u2019s house, your neighbour\u2019s wife or anything that belongs to your neighbour.\u201d<\/p>\n When I was younger, I would have recoiled at such a passage. It seems so harsh and judgemental, like a parent scolding a child. But I\u2019m beginning to look at it in a different way. Rather than keeping his people on the straight and narrow, perhaps God is telling them how to be free.<\/p>\n When you add up all the complications that arise from some of the things God is warning us about\u2014greed, envy, false gods, lust, lying\u2014 is it any wonder people are stressed out these days? Even if we kept half of God\u2019s commandments, we would lead simpler\u2014and happier\u2014 lives. It would free us up to think and dream and enjoy each other\u2019s company\u2014in short, to be closer to God.<\/p>\n The 10 commandments have been much maligned and ridiculed over the years, but there is great wisdom in them. Can we keep some of those commandments?<\/p>\n I think we can. You could probably cross a few off the list right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The editor of the Diocese of Toronto\u2019s paper, Stuart Mann, thinks that the Ten Commandments are too judgemental: they are not there to keep us on the \u201cstraight and narrow\u201d but are there to make us \u201cfree.\u2019 The problem is, … Continue reading