Interesting Conversation

This week I was working at my summer job- a summer camp for kids to learn about running and managing a business, paying bills, getting a paycheck, and keeping a check book. This week was so much better than the June week I worked with many children who just did not want to be there. This week, the kids really wanted to be there and were having a great time.

So, on Tuesday, once I got the kids who were going to work with me in City Hall, we spent the day getting to know one another. Three out of the four go wo privat schools and one goes to public. They are from all different backgrounds and religions, including Jewish, Catholic, and Methodist. At the end of the day while we were waiting for parents to pick the kids up, my group got into a theological conversation about the religions. They were discussing how Judiasm split and there begam two religions... Jewish and Christian. They discussed how the religions are similar and how they aer different. They also talked about the yamakas and their importance as well as the 10 Commandments. They even named them:

Jewish Ten Commandments:
Worship no other gods.
Do not worship idols.
Do not misuse the name of the Lord.
Keep the Sabbath holy.
Honor your father and mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not give false testimony
Do not covet.

Christian Ten Commandments:
You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or 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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

It was a great conversation and I really enjoyed listening to it. It was really nice to see cjildren talk about what they believe in and to open to learn about other religions and respect them. For instance, respecting the children who can only eat Kosher food items.

Great converation!!