13 February 2013

Is it wrong to discriminate?

"Why do your "10 Commandments" have nothing to say about rape, child abuse or discrimination?" asked a friend on Twitter.

I was able to answer her about the "rape" and "child abuse" parts more easily ... but the "discrimination" part set me thinking.  Perhaps our moral code today is not exactly what the Ten Commandments say.  If that is so, then is the Ten Commandments obsolete?  Or is our moral code immoral?  Or wrong?  What do you think?

About "discrimination", though - I don't think it is necessarily wrong to discriminate.  After all, to "discriminate" means to treat people differently because of their age, gender, skin colour, etc.  I think we need to do that, and let children be children, men be men, women be women, etc.  I think of discrimination as negative only when it puts the discriminated person or party down; as in not having employment opportunity or access to the voting system, or something like that.  What do you think?

Then, as I thought about it further, I came to also realise that there are rules that we follow that are not exactly dealt with in the Ten Commandments also.  Eg. cheating in exams, littering, keeping to speed limits while driving, etc.  The Ten Commandments may hint at these issues, but it does not specifically address them.

Then, there are also laws that many people do not keep.  Like keeping the Sabbath, not having carved images to worship, honouring God's name.

Does that man the Ten Commandments is wrong?  Or are people wrong instead?  Besides the religious Jews, who sees the Ten Commandments as relevant today?

What if we keep only one of the Ten Commandments and ignore the other nine?

What do you think our moral code should be?  Where is God in your answer?

3 comments:

  1. A person who has decided that he can choose what is right or wrong is deemed to be a wicked person in the eyes of God.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our society values tolerance so much that we cannot correct our children anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christian schools are arguing that they should have the right to prefer hiring Christian school teachers; ie. that it is not discrimination to do so.

    ReplyDelete