Bible Thumping Street People

Friday night, out on the town, we came across a young guy and a girl on the street. They were dressed nice, but casual and fairly clean cut. The guy had a sign that said something to the effect of "cash for commandments." He was paying cash to people that could name the 10 commandments.

Nobody could name them all! I was fairly surprised. Even the girl that this guy was with from the church couldn't name them all. I had the impression that she was recently "saved" and still learning.

For the record:
1 - Do not worship any other gods
2 - Do not make any idols
3 - Do not misuse the name of God
4 - Keep the Sabbath holy
5 - Honor your mother and father
6 - Do not Murder
7 - Do not commit adultery
8 - Do not steal
9 - Do not lie
10 - Do not covet

If you just take from five down, and forget religion for a moment, those are pretty good rules to live by. In any case, I asked the guy and the chick if they knew that the Constitution of the United States was founded on the guidelines of the Ten Commandments. They didn't.

So while we are standing there waiting on a few folks to grab some late night coffee the guy asks my friend, Young Blood, if he's ever lied, stole, etc. Of course, most of us have broken at least some of these commandments at some point in our lives. He admitted that he had.

So then the guy says "When you are standing before God to be judged and you are guilty don't you think he will punish you?" and then "What happens to people who are punished?" etc.

At this point I just couldn't take it anymore. I really, really, try to stay out of religious arguments because they are futile, but this cracker is fucking with my friend and it was pissing me off.

So I interrupt and ask the guy "Who are you to presume what God will do?"
and he is shocked. He doesn't know how to answer. I asked him if he thought he was better than God, or at least his equal. Again, the stammer. At this point the chick backs off out of the conversation and goes to sit on a bench. Finally he says the Bible tells him.

Ok, which version of the Bible? Huh? Which version of the Bible....and how do you interpret that? You realize it's fallible, don't you? Oh no! Can't be! It's the word of God. No, it's the word of MAN and man is fallible. You do realize that different versions exist due to political and social pressures of the church and crown back in the 15th century right?

This guy was not happy anymore. But I'll give him credit he was still going for it. So I finally countered on him....you believe because you have faith. What? Yeah, faith. That's really what it comes down to. You do have faith don't you? Yes. Good, because that's really ALL you have. Now the guy is totally confused.

He asks if murder is wrong. I explained to him it depends on your point of view. What? Sure, if you are Muslim and you are killing infidels it's perfectly acceptable. There isn't anything legally or morally wrong with it. We argue for a moment about how everything is relative to a viewpoint. So I try to drive it home by explaining that it's faith that drives him and religion. I'm not sure he got it.

The best part, a small crowd was gathering to listen to the argument. Now a few others finally say "he's right" and start in on the guy. It was amusing. I told the him thanks for the discussion and I really did like the cash for commandments gig. I left him with the other to discuss their thoughts.