I had occasion recently to re-visit a song I heard for the first time a few years ago, performed live in a college theater auditorium. The setting was relatively intimate for a “big name” concert, and I remember well the generally raucous and festive mood of the concert. Until this song started. As soon as the first words were vocalized, there was an immediate and intense hush over the entire auditorium. It was absolutely silent for the duration of the song, except for the muffled sobs of those who heard it – and that silence lasted an unimaginably long time after the song ended.
Colin Raye used “The Eleventh Commandment” as his theme song to raise money for and awareness of child abuse. I will provide a link (please view it before reading the words), followed by the lyrics, but this song captures perfectly for me the soul-searing condemnation of the most awful statement attributed directly to Jesus:
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (Luke 17:2)
The Eleventh Commandment – Colin Raye
(Again, please view the video before moving on in the post.)
The following are the lyrics:
She hears his heavy breathing in the dark –
His footsteps coming closer down the hall.
She’s so ashamed she’s daddy´s secret love.
She wants to die; she wants to cry,
But he can’t get enough.
The bruises on his face will go away;
Mom keeps him home from school ’til they fade.
She’s sorry he was born – and tells him so.
He takes it in; he hangs his chin;
He ducks another blow.
Did God overlook it –
What ought have been written?
The 11th Commandment:
Honor thy children.
He cries for hours – cries and never stops.
He shakes so hard his little cradle rocks.
He’ll never have the chance to be brand new.
He’ll never walk; he’ll never talk;
He’s addicted, too.
Did God overlook it –
What ought have been written?
The 11th Commandment:
Honor thy children.
Thou shall not kill;
Thou shall not steal;
Thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Thou shall not cause thy children pain.
God does not overlook it –
What ought have been written.
The 11th Commandment:
Honor thy children.
Honor thy children.
Please, if you know of this type of abuse happening to any child, do something about it. Please.
Comments 4
As if abusers cared about commandments. I mean they do care about them as long as it may serve their purpose.
this kind of song is good money raiser but that’s all. This is why I usually don’t care for them unless they are of excellent quality.
I would like to mention something I saw on TV once that is very different from the usual story we hear about abuse.
It was a documentary about abused spouses and this man (I whish there was some kind of medal for him) was shown packing is stuff and explaining his child that he was going away for a little while because he was not nice to mommy and needed to be helped in a hospital. He was going to a program that was supposed to help abusive husband.I hope that he did get help.
He had not been sentenced by a judge to do it. He was doing it on his own.
It was the only time in my life that in my country I have heard of a man doing it on his own.
Amy Grant also co-authored and recorded some years ago a very powerful song (“Ask Me”) about child sexual abuse that deals with the aftermath and the religious implications. The song always brings me to tears because I have a few very close friends who were sexually abused as young girls, and I know how real this struggle is. ..bruce..
I’ve been on the board of directors of a child advocacy center and served on the board of a rape crisis center. The Supreme Court got it wrong on the latest case.
I can’t say much else.
Clearly there are different levels of abuse but they are all bad. I had a bishop call me in once and read me the riot act because I wasn’t spanking my son enough. His behavior was unruly at church. I have tried spanking but I have learned that all it does is make the kids work harder at not getting caught. They associate the spanking with what happened right before the spanking which was getting caught. I doubt anyone who spank their kids can claim they never hit hard enough to leave marks or that they ney swung in anger. My boys learned that when you were mad you could hit. So I had to grow up and stopped my bishop and I had to have a number of chats before he accepted that I was not going down that road any longer.
Why do young adults have to prove to the church or temple that they are worthy of being mormon? Why cant we be mormon because our beliefs are similar? It seems like we put on a fake face to prove to everyone in the church that we are loving our life and we have no problems, when in fact everyone does but being mormon makes us feel like we shouldn’t have ANY problems. Why are we told to prey for all the other religions and hope the find the truth(mormonism). why cant they believe what they think is right. What if they are right?
My older sister was an anti mormon through high school and she was a strong woman. when she got involved with a guy who was mormon she tried to make it work. She changed so much and isn’t even the same person. she had a full scholarship to any local university and she ended up not going. She ended up marrying him at the age of 20. he was 32 with a 12 year old son. (something she would never had done before the mormon religion.) All she does is cook, clean, and take care of the child. She acts as if she has no problems and everything is perfect. the mormon religion destroyed her life and she doesn’t even realize it. she is limited herself to so many great things in life. I personally know 3 other girls who are mormon, who were raped by their brothers and fathers. They try so hard to hide the fact that they have any problems what so ever. all three of those girls are suicidal and 2 of them succeeded. the one survivor still to this day hides her deep scratch marks all the way down her arms and her family doesn’t let her hang out with anyone. her religion destroyed her life. what do you have to say to that?