First Two Commandments

Let’s get real. And honest down to the core. Let’s look at the first two commandments. As of this week, the Ten Commandments are required by law to be posted on every schoolroom wall in the state of Louisiana. Other Southern states will likely follow suit, in an effort to see who can be the most conservative.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

A first grader will ask, “What is an idol?” A fifth grader will ask, “What is a graven image?” A teacher will have to explain. She will likely go to the dictionary. There can be no physical representation of God. No idols of humans, animals, or heavenly bodies. No graven images. A graven image is an object carved or hewn, made, or fundamentally, anything worshipped other than God—any object or any person placed above God.

Is it not ironic that the very leaders who voted in the posting of the Ten Commandments in the schools of Louisiana are the very ones who support—believe in, trust in, followers of—a physical representation of God? An idol? Call him the Chosen one? A Graven Image.

They seem to have given up their lifelong teachings about God and Jesus and the Bible and put their faith in this idol, following the idol’s teachings and behaviors of self-first, name-calling, lying, bullying, slander, being disgruntled all the time, blaming, having a mean spirit, hate, revenge, retribution, no accountability, a tearing down instead of a building up, thinking everyone is against him, and everything is rigged. For these things now appear to be a prominent new religion in America.

The followers of this new faith cannot readily discern, seem to believe right is wrong and wrong is right.

You think I’m wrong? LISTEN. Listen to the words that come out of his mouth. Listen to his preaching at rallies. JUST LISTEN. To the Graven Image—the one whose words are believed, repeated, and acted out over the words of the God of the Bible. When you put another god’s words and ways over the words and ways of your own god, is that not worshipping an idol, a graven image?

The Graven Image—the idol who has changed religion in America. Match his words to the words mentioned previously; match them to words in the Bible. Start with the fruits of the spirit, the Beatitudes, I Corinthians 13. What do you find? Be honest to the deep-down where the spirit meets the bone.

It’s worth thinking about, if we can re-discover our self, love, and that old-time religion in the end. If we can learn to connect the dots from the Bible to our beliefs and behavior.

In the meantime, we are going to post rules in our schools for our children that many of us break with every breath. Is that not … hypocrisy?

The Bill Peach Franklin Book Festival

August 16, 1998, I drove to quaint downtown Franklin, Tennessee, and met Bill Peach on the corner of Fourth and Main. He signed the 30th of 3000 books—Random Thoughts Left & Right—and handed it to me outside Pigg and Peach, his men’s clothing store. In his working years, Bill was always at that corner, talking to people, selling suits, selling books. In his retirement years, he ventured a half-block south of Main to Merridee’s Breadbasket, sat at a table with his books spread out before him, and talked to people. He lived what he loved—books, politics, religion, philosophy, and Franklin. He became known as the Main Street Philosopher, a title given to him by Tom T. Hall. It was also the title of his last book, which I had the honor of editing. We lost Bill in December, 2023.

Bill and I had both been published in Our Voices, the annual Williamson County Literary Reviews of the mid-1990s. That’s how I met him. It was the beginning of my writing career, the continuing of his. I learned quickly to respect and admire the person he was, the writer he was.

I studied how he could write his opinions (which were left of midline) and make a statement some people wouldn’t have ordinarily claimed to believe, but they agreed with him because he was logical and right, as in correct, in his wording and stance, and they didn’t even know they were agreeing with the left position. I thought it was brilliant. I watched him do it again and again. I couldn’t do that. I still can’t. I understood, though, what he was doing. I understood him. He was conservative, and he was liberal. Yes, you can be both. I was. I am. I identified with him. He had the best religious and spiritual values; he had the best family values; he believed in treating all people equally; he believed in reason, in a logical “good and right,” even though it went against the grain of the South.

He wrote: “I told a group of students that they should not write what’s in their heads. That’s boring to any reader. They should write what’s in their hearts. Then they should rewrite with their heads, over and over again until it was exactly the way they wanted it to be.”

He also wrote: “I try not to write in anger. Anger shows blatantly, and is usually ineffective and superficial because of personal bias which prompted the anger in the first place. It seems to take about ten days for anger to assuage enough to produce rational literature. You cannot let the emotion go away, only the anger. The passion is essential to convey the message. Writing, like other art forms, must be enriched by the passion of the artist or it cannot touch the emotions of the reader, the viewer, or the listener.”

Bill was Chairman of the Board when I joined the Williamson County Council for the Written Word, the county’s literary organization. I worked with Bill for 25 years in the Council, Barnes and Noble writers’ nights, and our current Authors Circle of Middle Tennessee—encouraging, educating, and empowering writers. I saw his love for words, books, and writing, and learned early on to admire and respect the writer he was, the person he was.

One thing I observed about Bill:  As long as things went smoothly and people were doing their jobs and moving forward with their mission, Bill was content to sit back, blend in, have a supportive role. But the minute things went off track and off purpose, he stepped up, took the lead, and spearheaded dialogue and good change. For example, when the Council for the Written Word shut down, against his liking and understanding of its significance, he stepped up and started Authors Circle. Because he wanted opportunities for local authors to market their books. Wanted a place to talk about writing and publishing. Wanted a way to celebrate the written word.

And so here we are, at the 4^th consecutive Franklin Book Festival, now named for Bill Peach. Bill led the first three.

I like the new title given to Bill by Authors Circle member Jim Nesbitt: Shepherd of Authors.