Ten media commandments

Richard Austin Thompson, a retired Presbyterian Church pastor, has taken up the cause of media literacy and put it in a theological context.

As a Volunteer-in-Mission as Media Literacy Resources Coordinator for the Office of Communication of the General Assembly Council, PC (USA), Thompson has created Ten Media Commandments to accompany each of the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament.

They seem a stretch at times, but here they are juxtaposed.

Judge for yourselves:

ONE: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

1. Thou shalt have no media power higher than God.

TWO: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

2. Thou shalt worship no electronic image.

THREE: “You shall not take the name of the Lord. your God, in vain.”

3. Thou shalt not view programs that trivialize God.

FOUR: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

4. Thou shalt take sabbaths from TV viewing.

FIVE: “Honor your father and your mother.”

5. Thou shalt view programs that honor families.

SIX: “You shall not murder.”

6. Thou shalt not view programs depicting gratuitous violence.

SEVEN: “You shall not commit adultery.”

7. Thou shalt not view programs depicting promiscuous sex.

EIGHT: “You shall not steal.”

8. Thou shalt not view programs disrespectful of persons/property.

NINE: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

9. Thou shalt subject broadcast claims to a truth test.

TEN: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

10. Thou shalt not covet what thou seest on TV commercials.