On The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-22

Just south of Washington D.C you will find a church that George Washington built . Begun in 1767 and completed in 1774, Pohick Episcopal Church  is located between the estates of George Washington and George Mason, just outside the gates of Fort Belvoir in Virginia. One of the things that I found interesting when I first visited the church was the posting of the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles Creed, and the Ten Commandments just above the communion table. Later, as I visited other Anglican churches, I found that that this was not at all unusual. 

Pohick Episcopal Church, Lorton Virginia, Author’s Photograph

The Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles Creed, and the Ten Commandments all played a prominent role in the life and worship of the churches of the Protestant Reformation, and of the Church of England in particular. The Church of England required parents to teach each of them to their baptized children. 

In the church’s Book of Common Prayer, the communion service always began with a reading of the Ten Commandments. The leader would read each commandment separately, after which the congregation would say, “Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” 

What did John Wesley, who remained an Anglican priest until the day he died, think of this? He thought it was terrific. When Wesley prepared a book of worship for the Methodists in America, he included this practice. Wesley expected the Ten Commandments to be read and – most importantly – prayed in Christian worship. 

Have you ever thought about praying the Ten Commandments?

The Exploitation of the Christian Ecumenical Movement by North Korea

On May 15, 2023, the U.S. State Department released its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, including a report on North Korea. If you are a TLDR type of person, here’s the bottom line. It’s bad. It’s very, very bad. 

Anti-religious indoctrination, surveillance, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, forced labor, forced disappearance, and execution are standard tools of the regime. Punishment extends to the families of violators. The social environment is oppressive, with people encouraged to turn in anyone who shows any signs of religious practice. 

Christianity, Buddhism, Shamanism, and Neo-Confucianism all have roots in North Korea, but none are allowed to practice openly or freely. Christians are special targets of regime hostility, according to the State Department report. Open Doors describes North Korea as a “brutally hostile place for Christians to live.”

The report contains numerous quotations from several human rights organizations, including the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU), an NGO dedicated to reunification of the peninsula. It is possible to be pro-peace and pro-unification and still recognize the Kim regime for what it is.

Ironically, the Christian ecumenical movement not only turns a blind eye to North Korean religious oppression, it actively cooperates with this evil. More on that at the end, but first let’s set the stage. 

Two Korean War Demonstrations

There were two demonstrations on July 27 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, one in Washington and one in Pyongyang. Both served North Korea’s interests.

Five Contexts of Ethical Influence

Ethics training should address 5 contexts: own actions; influencing subordinates; influencing peers; influencing seniors; influencing outsiders (e.g., allied soldiers). It now focuses almost solely on the first two. The latter three are much more challenging contexts.

Tweet @combat_ethics April 11, 2022

Dr. Peter Kilner

Why Sex Matters

Whenever the church affirms its (nearly) universal commitment to its historic understanding of sex and marriage, there comes the familiar cry, “Why is the church obsessed with sex?” Given the place that sex has in western culture, that accusation is as amusing as it is tiresome. In six and a half decades of the Christian life, I have rarely heard sex mentioned except in passing. Perhaps we actually need to be clearer so that Christians can understand how we stand apart from the world. The world’s view of sex is destructive, not only of eternal ends but of human community in this age. When challenged, the church can neither acquiesce to the world’s sexual idolatry nor remain silent. Sex matters.