THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS - OOPS!
A Monastery’s
View
John Stone
For almost two
thousand years, Christians have consistently taken liberties and “played
around” with the Old Testament. All the while, the clergy, et al, claim they
were guided by the “holy ghost” or “inspiration” as modern evangelicals and
Mormons call it.
Someone recently
had a “Close
Encounter of the Xian Kind” and sent photos to prove it.
This Christian exhibit [see photograph below] purported to be “The Ten Commandments.” Yes, there were
two engraved stone “tablets” on public display in a church
yard. As usual the Christians still get it wrong.
Evidently, the Christian mindset thinks; “what’s so special about the
commandments ― 8, 9 or 10, give a commandment, take a commandment
― so what!” Take a look for yourself:
Photo taken
in May 2004.
Overlooking
these tablets was a big statue of Jesus with outstretched arms. (See below)
Let’s
see what our alert correspondent had to say; in Cassidy’s own words:
‘Unfortunately
those tablets are the real thing ... at the bottom of a large hill. At the top
of that hill is the church. The tablets are no more than 20 feet away
from a highway, Route 3 in
I was
recently driving east near Clifton, NJ (Passaic County) ― from the
Willowbrook Mall’s direction, it is on the right side of Route 3 ― right
after 46 and 3 split there is a big sign there for “The View,” which is a
restaurant. There is a Benedictine Monastery 1 called the Holy Face
[of Jesus]. You can access it from the east bound direction, and it’s right off
the highway. You can also reach it from
I
climbed the hill to the church and asked a few people what denomination it was.
I saw statues of the saints, so I figured it was Catholic, but I wanted to be
sure. I entered the chapel and felt a sick feeling when I saw all the statues
and pictures and stuff. So I left.
I was
all set to go back down the hill. There was a monk down at the bottom, where
the tablets and my car were. His name is Father Bernard, and he is called the
He
grabbed my arm like he was having a stroke and asked “where?” He said
“There are ten listed, what is wrong?”
I told
him about how the 9th and 10th commandments on his tablets are
really one in the Bible [not separately listed.]
He
then told me that he had actually never read the tablets. As he looked
over the tablets, he noticed the one missing. He said, “Yes, we’re missing one;
‘Thou shall not make idols of strange gods.’“
So his
interpretation was not perfect, but at least he realized the error. I hinted at
the big statue of Jesus while we discussed this and I said at one point, “Its
one thing to break a commandment, but to erase one is a wholly different
matter.”
The
impression I got was that since Jesus was God, [the Invisible Man in the
Sky] that it was all right for them to make an idol of him. I got this
impression because Bernard never seemed to understand what I was saying ― “that the Jesus statue was an
idol.” But nevertheless, Bernard [seemed] a sincere man,
from
I felt a sick feeling as soon as I looked around in the chapel. It was a creepy
place where people come and stare and pray to objects that cannot do anything
for them. It is very hard to accept this as reality. I really hope that Bernard
has a crisis of conscience.’
So, if
you feel that the Benedictine Monastery ― The Holy Face ― and
Father Bernard in particular, should learn what's what, please feel free to
write or call them. Maybe you could interest them in the Invisible Pink Unicorn, after all she created
the universe. Remember, "It is
only through faith that we can see Her divine Pinkness."
Footnote:
1. 1697
Route 3 in
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