Episcopalians do know the Ten Commandments, and it's disheartening to read accusations on Episcopal Café that we do not.

Speaking only for myself, I *might* be able to recount all 10 (on my fingers!), if pressed at this moment. If you have data that most (?) Episcopalians can do better than that, Josh, that would be great (and do share).

JC Fisher

What if, in other words, we were to smash the tablets ourselves, forgetting what they look like for a minute and chasing down their deeper insights, finding in them a direction for modern life, something we can breathe and internalize and challenge and approach with our whole being rather than just our limited religiosity?

I think that you have a good insight here, and not one that might just apply to the ten commandments but to our entire scriptural tradition. So frequently I feel "caught" between the positions of biblical literalist/fundamentalists and authoritarians (such as the RC Church) on one side and the angry/irritable atheists on the other side who would consign our sacred texts to the trash heap of the past. So often, what I find between these poles is a sort of post-modern "despair" that jumps to the "conclusion" that debate is ultimately pointless, a sort of modern Ecclesiastes "vanity of vanities."
I have been wondering recently if we do not need to "rediscover" the delights of debate/discussion on "settled" religious matters. There is, for example, a certain "freshness" in the "Contra this-or-that" works of the early church fathers where religious questions were not all looked at as a kind of "been there done that" issue but were active and alive- a world, for example, when debate about the inner workings of the Trinity was not old and hardened and imprisoned in millennia of councils and anathemas, but was fresh and new and exciting. 'Bible study" has become almost a "dirty word" for persons in modern non-conservative circles and a sort of modern-day malleus maleficarum in the hands of the conservatives. I fear that we have lost the "joy" and "insight" that comes from the discussion itself, the kind of satisfaction in an intricate or clever or novel argument or idea, even if it ultimately leads nowhere. We have been rediscovering, in the modern church, new/old ways of prayer and being community and engagement with the world. I would love to see religious "study" rediscovered as a valid and legitimate spiritual path as well and be less concerned with getting some "point" at the end of it with which to bash or anathematize our opponents. I wonder how many of us have recently felt our "hearts burn within us" as we "opened the scriptures" with a fresh eye?

I fear that we have lost the "joy" and "insight" that comes from the discussion itself,>/i>
This sort of discussion is going on in most EfM groups - face to face and online. It is refreshing and people discover the joy and insight into their personal and the church's beliefs.

Ah, yes. I finally memorized the Commandments when teaching the Sunday School version (sung to the Flintstones theme):

"Learn the Ten Commandments.
They're the rules that are from God above.
Learn the Ten Commandments.
They're the rules that are the rules of Love.

God's first.
Don't have idols.
Do not swear.
Keep the Sabbath.
Show your folks you care.
Don't kill,
commit adultery*,
steal,
lie,
or covet what belongs to
your friend and neighbor.

These are the rules of God."

For the very youngest, "commit adultery" could be taught as "break your promise".

"For the very youngest, "commit adultery" could be taught as "break your promise"."
Careful.....if someone who is sexually abusing a young person and makes them promise not to tell, you put God on the side of the abuser. So it need to be "not break your promise you made to GOD in the presence of God and God's people -- like baptism and the promises we renew each we participate in another baptism." That's something that a child can understand but avoids problems.

"For the very youngest, "commit adultery" could be taught as "break your promise"."
Careful.....if someone who is sexually abusing a young person and makes them promise not to tell, you put God on the side of the abuser. So it need to be "not break your promise you made to GOD in the presence of God and God's people -- like baptism and the promises we renew each we participate in another baptism." That's something that a child can understand but avoids problems.

Linda Grenz, thank you. Good catch.

I've never actually had a class young enough to use anything other than "commit adultery" in this song - I was thinking of adultery as adults breaking their promises to each other. But you're right about the risks, so I'll stick with "commit adultery" and use explanations afterwards if the kids don't understand.