BY KAREN WEBB

Oh, well, the rightwing has put another copy of the Ten Commandments in rock at the Oklahoma State Capital with a misspelled word. They had one in eastern Oklahoma with adultery misspelled and now this one has Sabbath misspelled.

By far the one of the Ten that is the most abused at the Capitol is the one referring to bearing false witness.

There are so many other Biblical passages that they don’t seem to want to post. I think right out there in front of the entrance to the Republican side of the Capitol – either state or federal – would be a good place for Matthew 25:41b-46:

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They also will answer, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'”

There are shorter ones:

Proverbs 14:21 – He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth; but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.

Proverbs 14:31 – Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

The scripture least likely to appear in any GOP publication or on any wall and certainly not in stone: Matthew 5:21-24.

“Jesus said unto him, ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go and see what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’”

I am certainly not a Bible scholar, but a semester of each testament was required at the college I went to. To me this scripture meant you had better not be wealthy when you die and since you don’t really know when you will die you need to start now to do what they used to tell us to do at church when the “prosperity gospel” was unheard of: “You need to out give God.”

When he gives you more than you need, you need to share that and he will give you more. He gives it to you for a reason, or that is what I was taught.

Jesus is starving, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison because the least of his haven’t had a raise in decades or health care and you have abused everything given to you and robbed others.

– Karen Webb lives in Moore, OK and is an occasional contributor to The Oklahoma Observer