No Other Gods

Product Description

An insightful and fresh perspective of the Ten Commandments reveals how this ancient text is the underpinning for social justice, equality, and the foundation of society.An insightful and fresh perspective of the Ten Commandments reveals how this ancient text is the underpinning for social justice, equality, and the foundation of society.
An insightful and fresh perspective of the Ten Commandments reveals how this ancient text is the underpinning for social justice, equality, and the foundation of society.

Each commandment is expanded beyond interpersonal morality to encompass the global economy and our hyper-connected age. Stealing, for example, is recast as the difference between the fair trade price of a commodity and what we pay. Keeping the Sabbath is recast as resistance to consumer culture, having enough.

The Ten Commandments are a resource for everyone, from the spiritual-but-not-religious to the deeply observant, who wants to resist injustice, heal our earth, and find personal dignity amid the free-for-alls of modern life.

We don't have to invent a bunch of new practices to meaningfully integrate our spirituality and politics. There is already a perfectly good set of ten of them, with as much progressive firepower as any of us can handle, that has existed for some 3000 years.

Introduction: The Ten Commandments Are Practices of Liberation

The First Commandment: You Shall Have No Other Gods Besides Me

Dethrone the Modern Deities of Political, Social, and Corporate Power

The Second Commandment: Do Not Make for Yourself a Sculpted Image; Do Not Bow to Them, Do Not Serve Them

Accept No Substitutes for God's Power of Liberation

The Third Commandment: Do Not Take the Name of God in Vain

Defend the Goodness of God; Take Responsibility for Resistance and Change

The Fourth Commandment: Observe the Sabbath Day and Keep it Holy

Squander One Day Every Week

The Fifth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Your Mother

Stay Accountable to Where You Came From

The Sixth Commandment: Do Not Kill

Renounce Human and Ecological Violence

The Seventh Commandment: Do Not Commit Adultery

Stay In for the Long Run, Reject Throw-Away Culture

The Eighth Commandment: Do Not Steal

Pay What Stuff Really Costs in Fair Wages and the Planet's Resources

The Ninth Commandment: Do Not Testify Against Your Neighbor As a Lying Witness

Speak and Demand Truth in Every Sphere - Home, Corporations, Government

The Tenth Commandment: Do Not Covet

Practice Your Liberation--You Have Enough, You Are Enough