How to Break the Ten Commandments, Part 2 of 2

Eric Butterworth delivered a number of Sunday lessons in 1976 on the commandments found in Exodus 20, the most popular Ten Commandments in contemporary literature.  Jimmy Carter was President when How to Break the Ten Commandments was published by Harper and Row.  When Unity Books republished it in 1988, Ronald Reagan was President.  The book carried the less dramatic title: Metamorality.  Butterworth’s purpose was to break through, loosen, or get past the ancient cautions to positive spiritual principles. The book explores the meaning of the commandments and calls on readers to explore living from a higher plane.  Butterworth reminds us that we are always near the spiritual solutions to our challenges (1).

The first four commandments refer to relations with the divine.  The first rule is having no other gods besides Yahweh.  Butterworth reminds us how Emerson challenged Americans to move from a religion of tradition to a religion of the heart.  Like other New Thought ministers, Butterworth believed that the consciousness of God is available within each of us (12).  God is your creativity, your passion, your love.  Following the first commandment wholeheartedly means following the other nine as well.  The second commandment admonishes to make no idols.  How do we allow ourselves to get past fixed attitudes and hardened ideas about God and actually interact with Spirit?  Butterworth suggests that the difficulty is also found in our “false attitudes” about our selves.  You and I are images, expressions of God. 

The third instruction cautions against the wrong use of the Lord’s name.  The book suggests eliminating all false and negative statements altogether.  Focus on the positive nature of the divine and eliminate “pessimistic proclamations (34).”  The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy.  Butterworth criticized the belief that the energy of God stopped or rested.  He advised reflecting on the creative life of Spirit at work in you (46).  Practice the nature of God in you. 

The final six commandments deal with human interactions.  Honoring parents is the fifth demand.  In the Gospels, Jesus seems to discount his own parents and honor God as his father.  Butterworth challenges that children honor parents by experiencing their own freedom and spiritual growth (54).  No murder or killing is the sixth commandment.  Butterworth wonders how the world would be different if we eliminated destruction of any kind: no eating meat, no killing insects, no capital punishment and no war (64).  As a society we make exceptions to the commandments all the time and we find the effects in our own lives (68).  Our generation is learning what other generations knew: war affects not just those directly involved, but our entire country. 

Butterworth realizes how views of sex have changed and reminds us that the Hebrew word for adultery simply means “abandoning of one’s principle (77).”  We can commit to lives of integrity in all our relationships.  Butterworth offers some social commentary regarding the commandment “You shall not steal.”  He points to the cultural respect for private property and how everyone loses in our justice system (85).  Criminals may be prosecuted at high costs to taxpayers, only to be freed without new attitudes and skills.  With the law against bearing false witness, Butterworth adds: don’t exaggerate and don’t contribute excessive criticism (96).  We are known by our attitude (103).”   Butterworth warns against the passion of materialism as he explores the rule against coveting your neighbor’s house or property.  Instead he calls on us to merge ourselves “with the Divine Flow. . . (110) understanding that everything comes through the Divine.” 

Butterworth tells his readers “. . . the weight of Judeo-Christian tradition notwithstanding, do not keep them.  Break the code and find the keys to personal power (118).”  Ask yourself tough questions about your values.  We are each called to the edge of our comfort zone and a higher way of living.

How to Break the Ten Commandments, Part 1 of 2

World's Largest Ten Commandments, North Carolina

This week in Cape Coral, Florida the news about the city council focused not on roads, economic development or the homeless in the community.  Instead news organizations reported on a proposal to erect a monument of the Ten Commandments.  Apparently residents urged Mayor John Sullivan to make the suggestion.  The Mayor explained that America’s core values are reflected in the Exodus laws and they need to be replicated in Cape Coral.  Aware of challenges across the country to similar efforts, most council members indicated that they will reject the proposal in a future vote. [1]  But the laws from an ancient Middle-Eastern culture have become icons in the United States.  Judges have defended and rejected monuments based on sources of funding, locations and the nature of accompanying memorials.  Some American churches celebrate the first Sunday in May as Ten Commandments Day.

Americans, as a whole, do not understand the Ten Commandments.  In 1977, Eric Butterworth wrote a book with the controversial title How to Break the Ten Commandments.  The book explores ideas about contemporary living with the commandments as wisdom.  But there are actually three, yes three, sets of Ten Commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures and they are DIFFERENT!  So which laws are to be followed?  What do these different ancient traditional rules mean to us today?  What about all 613 Jewish laws?  Are we to disregard the commandments from Exodus 34 about the feast of the unleavened bread or outlawing covenants with foreigners?  How do we rise above the preventions of Exodus 20, the most popular list in contemporary society, to principles and practices of universal love?

Richard Elliott Friedman, author of Who Wrote the Bible?, describes recent scholarship on biblical texts and authorship.  Today many academic scholars subscribe to the view that four authors wrote the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers.  The authors are distinguished in the text by their styles and points of view.  The J writer (950 BCE) used the word Jahweh or Yahweh for God and lived in the southern Kingdom of Judah.  The writer had little moral sense, but overwhelming loyalty to the tribe.  The E writer (850 BCE) used the word Elohim for God and lived in the Kingdom of Israel in the north.  This writer focused on magical or miraculous stories.  The D or Deuteronomical writer (600 BCE) wrote Deuteronomy and Numbers.  The P or Priestly writer (500 BCE) developed new religious rules.  Some scholars also suggest that this writer redacted, rewrote and arranged the Biblical stories in the order we find them.  The variant Ten Commandments reflect the different perspectives of these writers.

Consider two of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 34: “You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. . .” and “You shall not boil a kid (goat) in its mother’s milk.”  Both are likely from the J writer (950 BCE).  But, the words from seven out of ten laws in Exodus 34 are not found in the now popular version from Exodus 20.  Friedman proposes that Exodus 20 was written by the E writer (850 BCE) and edited by the P or Priestly writer (500 BCE).  This version appears to be more ethical and written from a different consciousness.  The priests further elaborated on these laws in the book of Leviticus.  The Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 are echoed in Deuteronomy 4, with minor differences (600 BCE).

It is said of Jesus that he encouraged people to follow the law as good Jews.  Butterworth suggests that Jesus also encouraged the “dissolving the crystallized form” of the law and moving to spiritual principles.  When challenged by critics to name the most important commandment, Jesus answered: "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandments.  On these two commandment hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:38-40).'" Next, I will write about Butterworth's exploration of the Ten Commandments and their role as solutions for contemporary life.

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[1]
http://www.news-press.com/article/20101116/NEWS0101/11160359/1003/ACC/Cape-Coral-council-wary-of-Ten-Commandments-proposal

Circles of Power

Native Americans and Africans routinely built round houses.  Circular houses and round barns remain unique in the United States, though the landscape is dotted with roundhouses once used to service locomotives and send them on their way.  The word circle (a noun) represents a simple closed curve consisting of all points at a fiven distance from a spot inside it called the center.  The word circle (a verb) means to enclose or surround.

The metaphor of the circle charmed Eric Butterworth, the writer.  All his books invite readers into his  circle of curiosity.  His book The Concentric Perspective: What's In it From Me? (1989), uses the image throughout.  Butterworth explores how our perspecives of our lives shape our lives.  He suggests that when we live from the "circumference of experience" we make decisions from our egos, apart from our intuition (47).  The center of the circle represents Spirit.  He calls on us to return to that spiritual center through prayer and meditation: "There is a mystical center in all; the whole of God is present at every point in space; God is the environment and the center in which I live, move and have being (2)."

The circumference of the circle is also the edge of the circle.  As I have written before, the edge may imply risk.  It may also suggest expansion and growth.  Circling may mean to enclosed, surround, or include.  Jesus critcized the Pharisees of his day for limiting their circle and excluding people form experiencing the Divine.   Jesus' understanding of the Divine allowed for a wider circle: the sick, the outcasts and people outside the Jewish faith, particularly the Samaritans.  Jesus' actions were anchored in God, the center of his being.

In The Concentric Perspective, Butterworth quotes the poem "Outwitted" by Edwin Markham (1852-1940): He drew a circle that shut me out--Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.But Love and I had the wit to win:We drew a circle that took him in!Markham taught at the California State Normal School (now San Jose State University).  His circle of admirers grew to an international status.  His poetry reflected idealism, mysticism and support for America's poor.  Markham and Butterworth realized that we may all, at times feel shut out of a circle; we may not be included in decisions that affect us.  Butterworth invites us to utlize the practice and action of love.  Anchor yourself in God, the center of your being.  Then imagine a circle that includes everyone who concerns you (58).  Bring them to mind and picture good in their lives.  Use the power of the circle!

The Edge of Faith

913 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
 (Original home of Unity Society of Practical
Christianity, now Unity Church Universal)

Many Unity folks describe Unity as “positive, practical, progressive Christianity.” Our teachings are based on Jesus’ message and the power of prayer.  We honor universal religious truths and respect each person’s choice of a spiritual path.[1] So, what does the edge of faith mean?  One way is to explore faith as in religion.  We may ask “What is Unity?  What will Unity become?  We may also explore faith as a spiritual ability.  What is my role?  How do I trust in a higher power or my higher self?”   

What does it mean to live on the edge?  What do you think of? Whether its a blade, a border, a cliff, or doubt – the edge means risk. When we look in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, we find warnings about the edge!  The priestly writers cautioned people not to reap to “the very edges” of a field, not “mar the edges” of their beards, and how the edge of garments should be prepared to avoid unraveling.  We also find courageous characters like Joshua and Moses, whether they wandered to the edge of their territory or reached the edge of the Red Sea and then walked through it!  The writers suggested living on the edge of their faith; stretching to trust is living closer to the Divine.  Positive connotations of the edge suggest advantage or mprovement.  You are on the “leading edge” or you’ve “got the edge!”  The Christian Scriptures demonstrate Jesus’ courage.  The author of the book of Luke tells the story of Jesus being rejected by a Samaritan village.  A few verses later we find the Parable of the Good Samaritan attributed to Jesus.  A lawyer tests Jesus about who his neighbor is.  Jesus responds not with the story of a man beaten and nearly dead.   The story demonstrates the edges Jesus challenged people to live.   Luke 10:33 reads: ^“But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him (NRSV).”  Jesus called on his listeners to care for others.  He healed people on the Sabbath, befriended outcasts and called on his listeners to reach out to those who were different from them.  He called on people to care, engage, to love!  Jesus chose to live on the edge of his faith.

Eric Butterworth called on his students to live on the edge of their faith.  In Discover the Power Within You, Butterworth explores Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”  Butterworth understands Peter as representing the quality or ability of faith.  Like a rock, he held steadfast.  The “inner life of man” is built on the quality of faith.  Butterworth describes how church officials constructed a hierarchy based on the idea that Peter was the first leader.  Historically, Peter may have died before the church in Rome even began. 

Current biblical scholarship suggests that the earliest churches were begun by Paul.  He asked his followers “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16).”  But, the whole story of Jesus referring to Simon by the name of Petra may be the creation of the writer of Matthew.  This Jewish writer envisioned a new group of people committed to spiritual experiences.  They were living on the edge of a culture of expectations about Judaism and pagan religion.  The earliest Greek word for church refers to people or what Butterworth calls the “called out ones.”  The early Christians lived on the edge of their faith.

When we examine the past, we “honor those who came before us.”  Our visions are filled with their visions.  Myrtle and Charles Fillmore, the founders of Unity, were courageous.  Think about it. They started a mystical Christian movement in one of the most conservative parts of the country.  They were Republicans in a city run by a corrupt Democratic machine.”  They chose to be vegetarians in a town known for its barbeque.  They ordained women as ministers and they started a Unity city before they had the money!  They chose to live on the edge of their faith!  We honor those who walked and talked on the edge!  The point is simply this, when we examine the edge of our faith, our faith expands.  I choose to live on the edge of my faith. 

[1] http://unity.org/aboutunity/whatWeBelieve/index.html