The Fifth Commandment

In the Catholic and Lutheran system of numbering the 10 Commandments the fifth is “Thou shalt not kill”. I recently co-led a great discussion on this commandment at my church. My co-leader began by saying “No, we are not off the hook. If we really take this commandment seriously we will discover that all of us have broken it.”

From there the conversation quickly got very personal and reflective. First comment: “Actually, a better translation of this commandment is “Thou shalt not commit murder and I certainly never committed murder, that is, I have not taken another person’s life.”

“Well, said a third, “I am sure I have taken another’s life. I dropped bombs over Viet Nam and I am sure people were killed, even though I tried to steel myself into not imaging that.”

The military chaplain chimes in,” Now I have Marines coming to me asking about their moral culpability if they press a computer button and a drone launches a missile which kills someone on another continent.” From there the conversation quickly went to the centuries-old religious teachings about “just war” and the criteria which we apply to killing in a just war that not only allows for but actually demands that a loyal citizen kill others.

 The conversation went into an entirely different direction when a class member reflected, ” Forty years ago my Dr. told me very firmly, ‘You are pregnant. You have a very visible and fragile aneurysm in your brain. It is my great fear that should you carry this fetus to term and give birth there is extreme danger to your life.’  I chose to abort that fetus. It still bothers me, especially when I am accused of murder.”

An older gentleman shared this insight “I learned a new version of a limerick I had learned as a child. The new version is ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones; but words can really hurt me.’ Isn’t that another form of killing?”

All of this before we even began looking at what Luther says this commandment demands, namely that we help and befriend our neighbor in every bodily need.

So we agreed that we couldn’t get off the hook. We asked for forgiveness and for strength to protect and enhance human life, our own and that of every other person on this planet.