Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.This is the fifth biblical commandment. God tells us we should honor our parents because it will benefit each of us in the long run.
~ King James version ~
Respect those who have trod the paths before you, but rely on no one else.
~ possible Taoist alternative ~
While it shows wisdom to accept guidance from those who have come before, we must be very careful as to whom we accept guidance from. We shouldn't accept it from anyone just because someone else thinks we should. In the end, finding our way to Tao is an individual experience.
If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.
this is the one commandment that i agree most with. honor and respect are due our parents and those who came before us. (if not biological parents, the people who raised you and/or set a good example for you. some people's bio parents are assholes.) what i dislike about it is the way christians use this commandment to advocate absolute obedience to parents (something i totally disagree with!) and anyone else in authority. to me, "honor" means something totally different than "obey"!
ReplyDeleteThat's a very GOOD point!
ReplyDelete