This time, I’m not going to talk about how a state just passed an unconstitutional law that requires placing the 10 commandments in every classroom. Rather than talk about all the problems with this, including that they must now also display the 7 Rubricks of Baphomet or whatever, let’s talk about the good things that could come out of this.
First, God explicitly mentions the existence of other Gods, and only asks that you worship him more than the others. I think a good question a child might ask is “Why is God mentioning other Gods? What Gods is he talking about?” Five of the ten commandments are just about how to worship this particular God. Don’t do what the other Gods ask you to do, do what I ask you to do, it seems to be saying.
Next, how about teaching a seven year old what adultery is? “Mommy, what is adultery and is that why Daddy doesn’t live with us?” A conversation I’m sure parents can’t wait to have as early as possible. And then explain to them why it’s wrong but people still seem to do it all the time. And then ask why is that the church seems to go after LGBT much harder than adulterers, especially since LGBT isn’t even mentioned anywhere in the commandments.
Of course, you can’t forget about the explicit approval of slavery or that a world could even exist that didn’t include slaves. “Daddy, why does it talk about having slaves but we don’t have slaves anymore?”
I know the parents will love to talk about the fifth commandment, “honor they father and mother”, and of course the kill, steal, and lie ones will also be popular, the “thou shalt not covet” one will be hard to explain, since that word is completely unused in modern language and I would guess it might even be difficult to explain to a kid what that means.
I do recall it being the first place that I read the word “ass” as a child though, growing up, and I’m pretty sure I asked what that word meant when I was a kid. If only I would be so lucky as the translation that was used in the classrooms had both “manservant” and “ass” in it.