Continuing my quest to find some part of the Bible worthy of basing a rational moral system on, I turn now to the Fifth Commandment.

#5 – “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

Some might say that the rarely quoted second half of this famous Commandment indicates that God was speaking only to the Hebrews to whom He was giving the Promised Land. Others might say no, God was speaking to all of us living on the planet He gave us for our home. I sympathize with the first view, but shalt not press it. Suffice it to say that once again, things are at least a bit murkier than many seem to think.

The first part of this Commandment seems clear enough, as far as it goes: “Honour thy father and thy mother.” My dictionary says that this use of the word “honour” means “To hold in respect; esteem.” Not much to argue with there.

So why does it rub me the wrong way anyway?

Is it because I think honour, respect, and esteem must be earned rather than commanded? Partly. God’s command here is part of an unfortunate pattern in the Bible – a pattern which includes the commands that we love God (as if love can rationally or in practice ever be commanded!); that prophets and others sent by God be believed and obeyed without question, delay, or doubt; that slaves obey their masters even when their masters are wrong or violent; and that everyone obey the authorities because (according to Paul) no one rises to power without God’s blessing. Time after time dissent is met not with reasoned debate but anger, ridicule, threats, violence, destruction, and hellfire. However noble God’s goals may or may not be, the means He employs are the means of a fascist and a bully. Commanding us to honour our parents - period – fits right in.

Does “Honour thy father and thy mother” bother me because it also seems to place a higher value on blood relations than objective merit? Partly. God could have said “Honour all good people,” after all. But according to the Bible, He didn’t. Instead, He demands that we honour the people who just happen to be our parents – apparently, no matter how good or bad they might be. If our parents happen to be Mr. And Mrs. Attila the Hun, slaughterers of thousands, God apparently would be angry with us if we showed them any less respect than we would show Mr. And Mrs. Abraham Lincoln had they been our parents instead. The bottom line is that God seems to be promoting tribalism rather than genuine morality, and that’s deeply troubling because it seems to provide no way for children to transcend the conflicts of prior generations such as divide Jews and Arabs (and others like the Serbs and the Albanians) to this day. And exactly what a child born to one set of parents yet adopted by another set is to do when those parents are at odds is anybody’s guess….

I think the main reason that “Honour thy father and thy mother” bothers me, though, is because it seems to commit the logical sin that I call misemphasis. In my experience – and every day in my newspaper – parents are far more likely to deny their children the love and respect they deserve than the other way around. Almanacs tell me that at least 500,000 kids are criminally neglected in America every year – yet God apparently has nothing to say about that. Instead, God’s sympathies seem to be entirely with those parents who neglect and otherwise abuse these kids. He tells the Hebrews He’ll use wild beasts to kill their children if they disobey (Lev. 26:22). He tells them to kill any child who curses a parent (Lev. 20:9). He killed every first-born child in Egypt without qualm. To punish David, he kills the baby of Bathsheba (2 Sam. 12:13-18). Time and time again, God ordered the Hebrews to kill the children of their enemies. Psalm 137 seems to positively revel in the murder of little children. Hosea 13:16 and Isaiah 13:16-18 provide particularly gruesome accounts of “holy” child murder – and even the slaughter of pregnant women. And of course Proverbs 13:24 says that “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” I’ve been unable to find any modern child psychologist who would agree.

The question becomes: Is it likelier that an ignorant ancient people living in a violent, patriarchal society invented a God in their own imperfect image or that an actual, perfect God came up with such an abhorrent system of “morality”?

I personally cannot see how an absolute command to “Honour thy parents” has any place in a rational moral system. In a perfect world, yes – parents ought to be honoured. But in a perfect world, everyone would be honourable. In this world of all kinds of people, judgments and actions require much more awareness, discrimination, and fine tuning.

I think nearly every person can see this once they think about it.

Why can’t the God of the Bible?

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(Note: I’m using the King James version of the Bible as my reference in this series of entries. It uses “honour” – the British spelling of “honor.” I’ve followed suit solely for the sake of consistency.)

Continue to the Sixth Commandment…

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