Throwing Moses under the Bus

A High School English Teacher Looks at the Ten Commandments

John Cabascango

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781532695650
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Just thinking about terms like morals, law, and commandments seems dull, maybe even mean-spirited. Still, a quick look at social media, the endless news cycle, and magazines in the grocery checkout line show that we love to hear about failure, recovery, and who has crossed the latest moral boundary. At the same time, the argument over whose boundaries matter or whether they matter doesn't ever end. In fact, all these stories and concerns start somewhere in high school and keep going. Who can tell me what to do? Why do I have to do things this way? I can't wait to be free from all these rules. In Throwing Moses Under the Bus, teacher/author John Cabascango examines the ancient rules and stories that show us why these stone-tablet rules still matter in a digital age. Using examples from twenty-one years of teaching, novels, movies, and the American high school hallway, you are invited to see why boundaries matter to people who want to live freely.

Chapter One

First Things

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Therefore you shall have no other gods before me.

—Exod. 20:2–3

Fraulein Maria once said, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” That being said the context of the Commandments is quite obviously the Exodus, people freed from slavery. Egypt is where they’ve come from, and the commands are why they owe God their loyalty, even their worship. However, what was Egypt? Very simply, without writing a tome on Egyptian history, Egypt was the global superpower of the day. Egypt was the wealthiest, most powerful, and most technologically advanced civilization of its time—specifically, hundreds of years’ worth of power and wealth. As is the nature of wealthy ancient powers, much of the work was done by slaves. Of course, that sort of abuse of power and wealth has faded as our technological advances and wealth have made us more benevolent. OK, OK, that critique is a bit too obvious. However, the condition remains and is part of the first command. If God is the deliverer and slavery is what they were delivered from, then that’s why the Commandments are given. True, the inference is that the laws given are for free people, but this is as simple as the prohibition against having other gods. In fact, in a twenty-three English translation parallel, there is no functional difference in the words other than bondage versus slavery. In verse three, the difference is not sharp, but the verse has been translated as “no other gods but me,” “no other gods before me,” and “no other gods besides me”.1 The second obvious conclusion is that there were many gods. Don’t put them before me is more of a commitment to monogamy in worship than an argument over the reality or unreality of the other gods. So, the immediate connection is that leaving Egypt meant leaving other gods and following the Commandments means having just one God, or at least one above others. The second possibility seems the most practical, as the ancient world was filled with deities and hierarchy. An ultimatum of this nature fulfills an almost marriage vow type of condition. It also seems reasonable to connect the plurality of worship with material wealth, since Egypt was the wealthier and more powerful of the two cultures mentioned in the opening verses. So, if the new condition of freedom comes with conditions, then freedom isn’t free (to borrow a well-used cliché). The newly freed people are given a choice of allegiance before they are given choices in general. This is more problematic for the average person than it might originally seem because such a demand is a swapping of masters and could be seen as simply switching slave positions. Well, instead of trying to nuance my way through that statement, I think it is more honest to simply state that the text is a swapping of masters with the promise of freedom: many masters are swapped with one. Freedom isn’t our adolescent desire to simply do what we want but is a choice to submit to that which makes us free. It’s probably not hard to see the usual adolescent response to such a claim. That seems unfair! If I’m free, why should I have so many rules? Don’t you trust me? That sort of immediate challenge leads to many complaints throughout the Exodus narrative, most of which are accompanied by descriptions of melons and other treats the ancient Hebrews had while they were in slavery. It is important to remember here that Biblical freedom isn’t opposed to treats or other pleasures, but these pleasures are not dangled out in front of us as some sort of tasty carrot. The bluntness of focus is simple: you were a slave, and now you’re not. To better understand this command and our adolescent responses, it is best to introduce and explain two familiar characters. First is the high-school overachiever and the rebel without a cause. Many times, it is easier to start with the negative, so why fight it? Meet Pete the Pothead, the kid whose reading level is actually pretty high and who has had multiple teachers brand him with the worst of labels “potential.” It isn’t so much that Pete doesn’t have potential, but that the more you repeat the word, the more it works as a curse, hammering home missed opportunities and lack of discipline. The truth is Pete could be a good student and can debunk most honor roll students in class debates, but Pete doesn’t buy anything regarding incentives or arguments and as a result prefers the bathroom, nearby park, or wherever is most convenient to escape to feel better with whatever weed he can acquire. Pete sees the big picture regarding the logical fallacies and lousy promises presented by adults as incentives. He also sees the thin veneer of achievement masquerading as concern from his high-achieving peers. If Pete were in ancient Egypt, he could have been several characters: the cynical slave who works hard enough not to get whipped or the mid-ranking soldier or courtier who sees the intrigue of Pharaoh’s more ambitious servants and officers but avoids catastrophe by maintaining loyalties as convenient to his station. He would observe and be able to name all the gods and would probably believe in none of them. Herein lies one of the great myths of the public-school system and many other large redemptive organizations. Yes, I said “redemptive” because that is its purpose—if not always, its measured, quantified end. But I digress. The first great myth to discuss is that many options bring about good choices. So, what does that have to do with the first commandment and our intelligent, albeit unmotivated, weed imbiber. Simply put, when many good options are unrealistically presented as more than they are, some people, like Pete, will see through the smoke screen and stop believing. These options for good when, unrealistically and constantly, elevated above what they truly are, can become false promises. In the ancient world, false promises were referred to as false prophecies, and the objects held up as offering false redemption were referred to by the ancient Hebrews as false gods. So maybe Pete is smart, maybe even smarter than many of the students around him. However, does his intelligence automatically bring back a dad who left and never came back years ago? Will his “potential” cure his mother of anxiety that makes her seem distant even as she seems likeable at the first interview? Probably not, and all the promises he receives from well-meaning teachers and counselors can be boiled down to money from a better job that is expected to be acquired as a result of getting an education. The ancient Egyptians had a lot more stuff than the ancient Hebrews. This was true before, during, and after slavery and didn’t escape those who would have turned back to slavery because of the leeks and melons. Hey, it’s in the text, and it meant more to them than to us (or at least those of us who don’t like leeks). To a kid like Pete, or the adult he will become, caring about things in an exclusive manner is only valuable if he gets something out of it. The marijuana might go away and come back as an antidepressant, or the sluggishness might even be replaced by a drive for succeeding financially. One thing is certain: feeling better quickly can become feeling numb if feeling better doesn’t last, as it seldom does in a world of too many options. Too many redemptive options don’t have to lead to self-medicated cynicism; it could lead to overachievement.

This brings us to Patricia, the overachiever. She is not only a cynic but also buys into all the options. She is the head of multiple clubs, captain of one or two teams, volunteers in the community in ways no one would question and may even hold down a job. If you haven’t guessed yet, her grades are solid, pushing her forward to what most systems would promise success and happiness. If Patricia were an ancient Egyptian, she would no doubt never miss an offering and would have all ceremonies timed on her sundial and mythological calendar of cosmic rewards. Patricia may at once have been social with or even friends with Pete, but she doesn’t run in the same circles as he does. She runs circles around anyone who slows down, with or without chemical assistance. Patricia might be a member of the local church youth group, no doubt in good standing there, as well as in anything else she is involved in. As for stress, Patricia knows it and occasionally succumbs to it, with tears of fear and anguish over not being able to do everything well. The ancient Egyptians had all sorts of gods who required multiple sacrifices. The keyword is “sacrifice,” and that is not painless. In fact, most of the time something dies in the process. Whereas Pete died inside somewhere along the way, Patricia dies and rises over and over again hoping to appease a host of local and national deities whose favor she desires to win. The irony of both these kids is that one will succeed financially and socially more than the other, but neither can focus well. Pete, in a smoke-filled haze and its aftermath, can’t bring things into focus, and Patricia can’t sit still long enough to focus even if her goals can be clearly stated and achieved.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), formerly called attention deficit disorder (ADD), has become part of the American adolescent experience regarding diagnosis and medication. Now, I’m not a doctor or a neuroscientist, but the issues of Pete and Patricia are at least loosely connected to how we deal culturally and individually with lack of attention. In a brief and informative article, Amanda Morin lists what she refers to as things kids with ADHD may not be able to do:

• Know when to focus on small details and when to focus on the bigger picture

• Filter out unimportant sights, sounds, or information

• Pay attention without getting distracted

• Hold a train of thought when interrupted

• Follow through on a task without needing to hear directions several times

• Concentrate on one activity at a time

• Follow spoken directions

• Process information quickly

• Keep up in conversation

Both of the student types formerly mentioned may have some of these traits without actually being formally diagnosed as ADHD. However, the cynicism of Pete and the socially acceptable neurosis of Patricia are part of larger cultural issues of distraction. Problems of filtering, prioritizing, and general singularity in conversation, direction, and attention are something we have not mastered despite significant technological and medical advances. It isn’t hard to imagine a polytheistic world of sacrifices and festivals that would drive the neurotic to keep a frightful list, push the cynic to greater lows, and keep everyone else in an obedient herd. The singularity of the first commandment is a prioritizing that couldn’t exist in Egypt unless perhaps you found yourself under a local deity and only had to keep track of the other gods in seasonal form or during significant festivals.

In another related article, titled “Ten Reasons Your Child Can’t Focus That Aren’t ADD,” the following are listed: lack of practice, doesn’t understand the material, isn’t being challenged enough, is distracted by external stimuli, has a lack of motivation, has mismatched learning style, is not getting proper sleep or nutrition, has disorganization problems, has school anxiety, or has learning difficulties.2

So, since I’m not looking at this medically, I will admit that it does exist, and to look at our attention issues regarding the first commandment, I’ll leave the debate over how to treat medical attention deficits to medical experts. The symptoms of what students struggle with do, however, fit into this ancient puzzle. For example, distraction, anxiety over focus, and various levels of paranoia or depression over performance and anxiety have striking parallels with the first commandment’s contrast to the polytheistic pantheon of Egyptian worship. All the Egyptian gods were not equal, and it doesn’t take a lot of research to find as to which deities were regional and which were national. The plagues preceding the Exodus give a solid context to the wording, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Egypt was far more powerful than ancient Israel and considerably wealthier. As a result, they did have slaves and quite a few of them. They also had gods for every natural need and a detailed belief system for life after death. Each of the plagues clashed with the gods the Egyptians worshipped and offered sacrifices to for life and fertility. In the ancient world, life and fertility covered just about all issues. So, it’s not an accident that so many of the gods were connected to the Nile since that’s what the Egyptians depended on. However, it is striking that despite the needs of Egypt fitting into two categories, they still had multiple gods in each category. And even though most teenagers and adults would look at Egyptian mythology in the way we use the word “myth,” (i.e., a story that is interesting and superstitious), it is telling that so many of our “needs” fit into just a few categories. So many overachieving students b...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: First Things
• Chapter 2: God Makers
• Chapter 3: What Did You Say?
• Chapter 4: Working Ourselves to Death
• Chapter 5: Mom, Dad and the You, You Can’t See
• Chapter 6: The Most Obvious Commandment, Sort Of . . .
• Chapter 7: The Other Commandment Everyone Knows and Tells Stories About
• Chapter 8: The Commandment We Quibble Over the Most
• Chapter 9: The Easiest Commandment to Break?
• Chapter 10: When It All Comes Together
• Chapter 11: Moving Forward, Wrapping Up
• Afterword