TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR BIGOTS
BY
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS
December 16, 2017
I recently republished three essays I penned in 2013 about Judge Roy Moore’s purported worship of a stone fetish in Alabama, a huge granite block upon which the Decalogue is inscribed. My criticism was about his deeds before the whole world, and not something he was accused of doing secretly. He raised himself above man’s law in that case, citing God, and that is what we call “bigotry,” after the practice of pious people of yore given to saying “By God.” My argument was that it is the ethical rules metaphorically engraved on the heart, remembered and thought upon that should be sacred, and not a block of stone upon which words are inscribed. It occurred to me that Moses himself, mindful of how people worshiped a golden calf, would take a sledgehammer to that stone fetish in Alabama, for it was not the principle they held dear, but some perishable thing of this world, just as primitive people worshiped stones and mountains, not understanding that those things too were bound to pass according to natural law. As for the biblical commandments now received as numbering ten and in a certain order, they are readily available to everyone and are frequently referred to, yet few people can remember them, so I recommended that everyone keep a copy on their person for daily reading and consideration until they can cite them by heart and explain why they have the order they do. I was pleased that a bigot was disposed to object to my essays against idolatry, for he taught me ten rules that bigots might used when bigotry is criticized. This is the first draft of Ten Commandments for Bigots. The rules are unnumbered as of yet, and the reader is invited to improve on the composition:
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF BIGOTRY
Act as if you are God Almighty.
Above all be a self-righteous bigot because “By God” proves you right.
Have faith in bigoted politicians.
Call bigoted politicians Constitutional scholars as proof that their opinions are correct.
Do not bother to read the critiques you object to.
Consider all criticism of bigotry as blasphemous.
Adjudge critics ignorant a priori.
Do not dispute critical propositions except to parrot hackneyed phrases such as, “claptrap liberalism.”
Idolize a government building to prove yourself righteous.
Cite an inscription as supreme authority because engraved in stone.
Immediately erase, delete or destroy (even in stone) any written criticism.
Ron