The Eighth Commandment:
Thou Shall Not Steal
April 11, 2010
The Reverend Anne Felton Hines
My best friend in high school taught me how to shoplift. We were in a shoe store one day, and as we stood waiting for the cashier, Susan whispered to me, “Open your bag!” Not being one to disobey orders, especially when spoken with such urgency, I opened my bag, and Susan dropped in a pair of beautiful slippers. At that moment the clerk came over and proceeded to ring up our purchases, and we walked out – the stolen goods in my bag.
I was stunned – not that my best friend would steal – her family was barely making it, and I’d already heard stories of her and her four siblings stealing food for special occasions, and even their Christmas trees every year. These slippers, she said, were her mother’s birthday gift.
No, I was stunned at the ease of the theft, and the lack of guilt I felt about it.
And so I tried it myself a few days later, at the Thrifty Drug Store near my house. For some reason I chose a pack of bath oil balls – I really don’t know why, since that wasn’t something I was prone to use. At any rate, I looked around, saw no one nearby, dropped them into my purse and left the store.
But by the time I arrived home, I was so wracked with guilt and fear that I was never able to use the product. I think I ended up throwing them away.
Because you see, I knew I didn’t need to steal like my friend Susan. While my family was far from rich, I never wondered if we’d have a feast on Thanksgiving, or a fully-decorated tree for Christmas. Any poverty I experienced was due solely to my own irresponsible spending.
I knew that for me to steal was wrong. It’s what my parents taught me; it’s what my teachers taught me; and it’s what my church taught me. “Thou shalt not steal” said the 8th Commandment handed down to the Israelites by God as they made their exodus from slavery to the Promised Land.
But I imagine that the writers of the Biblical story of the Exodus included this Commandment as one of the “top ten” because they knew how tempting theft could become to any of us, but especially to a group of people tasting freedom for the first time – some had neverknown it; but also facing hunger, fear, and at times, desperation.
The recorders of that story knew how imperative it was that people respect each other’s property, if they were to be successful in sustaining a community. So you see, they wouldn’t have let my friend Susan off the hook either.
When we steal what belongs to another, we allow ourselves to pretend that it won’t affect them, and that they are not connected to us in any way. The items I stole in my youth were pretty insignificant. But the act itself was not insignificant, because in that moment I forgot that I was affecting another human being – even if that human being was represented by a drug store chain (which did, incidentally, go out-of-business years later; I hope my theft was not the beginning of its demise!).
Much more significant because of their magnitude, of course, are the thefts that have been perpetrated on innocent people and the general public by corporate giants such as Enron, and the savings & loan scandals of the ‘80s, stock brokers like Bernie Madoff, and the risky bank practices that helped push us into our current recession.
Writing even before this latest economic crisis, journalist and author Chris Hedges accused “the accounting industry, stock analysts, regulatory agencies, investment bankers and heads of corporations,” of “robbing the public.”
And most of the time they’re able to get away with little, if any, legal or financial consequences to themselves. But they are also able to get away with it morally because they have already dismissed any spiritual connection that they have to their clients; they have forgotten that they are part of the human family, connected to us all. The people who have made their decisions to rob the public have already robbed themselves of any spiritual wholeness.
That’s why most Biblical scholars tell us that the 8th Commandment is about much more than only theft of another’s property. It really has to do with theft of another’s humanity, and indeed, the humanity of the thief as well.
Some scholars would say that to treat someone with rudeness, or in a demeaning way, is a violation of the 8th Commandment against stealing, because it robs the person of self-respect. Most of us here, I am sure, know how it feels to be treated rudely, or to be ridiculed or humiliated. It makes us feel small and worthless. Our sense of our “inherent worth and dignity” is robbed from us, even if only momentarily. It is a form of theft.
A wise sage in 11th century France named Rashi, asserted that the 8th Commandment was also a warning against “stealing someone’s freedom.” He was referring to the theft that occurs when people are made slaves, and certainly that is one of the most obvious forms of the theft of freedom.
But even after slavery was ended in this country, the freedom of women and people of color was stolen; indeed, we are still reminded of such theft in the actions of people like the governor of Virginia, who issued a proclamation last week designating April as “Confederate History Month” – as if the Confederacy should be celebrated! True, he later amended it to acknowledge the stain of slavery; but the shadow of racism still runs through his decision, and those who have defended his action.
Freedom continues to be stolen from gay, lesbian, bisexual and especially transgender Americans, every time they are ridiculed, or denied a job, or refused the joy of adopting a child. This congregation has worked hard to ensure that the freedom of gay and lesbian couples to marry will no longer be stolen from them – and for a while we thought we’d won in California. But it was taken back again, and we know that we still have a long road ahead to gain real freedom for all people in this country.
Depriving people of the freedoms guaranteed to most Americans is the sin of theft just as surely as is the theft of property; and the consequences to the victim are far more serious and long-lasting.
But Dr. Leonard Felder, in his book The Ten Challenges, points out that even in our personal relationships we may experience the theft of freedom. Being controlling of others, or possessive, or intrusive, deprives another of their freedom; and it deprives us of our freedom as well when we cause it.
When we think that we know what is right for another person, and spend our energy trying to convince them of our “wisdom,” not only are we robbing them of their freedom and dignity, but we rob ourselves of the serenity that comes with letting go.
When we are jealous or possessive of another, not only are we robbing them of their independence, but we are robbing ourselves of the peace that trust brings, and the faith that allows us to fully love another.
Indeed, breaking the 8th Commandment always hurts us – in some cases, more than the victim of our theft. A couple of years ago I received a letter from a UU colleague – someone I had never met or even heard of – who confessed to me that he had plagiarized one of my sermons; he had stolen my “intellectual property.” Apparently I wasn’t the only one who fell victim to his actions, and it had finally caught up with him. He’d been reported to our Ministerial Fellowship Committee, who put him on suspension, and mandated that he inform everyone from whom he’d stolen, and ask for our forgiveness.
I of course forgave him; in fact, I felt horribly sorry for him. What compelled him to do such a thing? How much lack of faith in himself did his plagiarism represent? How much self-loathing must he have carried afterwards? How did it feel to receive praise from people, knowing that they were unknowingly praising someone else? My heart went out to this man, who was surely suffering far more than I.
Of course, there are some forms of theft that are devastating to the victim, because they prey on the victim’s powerlessness, and steal from them their faith and trust. Perhaps nowhere is this more real than in the cases of sexual molestation of children, particularly by clergy. In the Catholic Church, where this appears to be the most prevalent, the perpetrators are the very people believed to have the closest relationship with God; what must that say to a child who is sexually abused by one of them? What does that do to their trust of God?
Maya Angelou, who was molested throughout her childhood by a family member, writes that “Rape on the body of a young person introduces cynicism; and there’s nothing quite so tragic as young cynicism….” These children who have fallen victim to pedophile priests have had their innocence stolen – their sense of wonder and delight replaced by fear and mistrust, and most likely a belief in their own worthlessness. It is a tragic crime, made more tragic by the Church’s unwillingness to take it seriously.
And finally, Dr. Felder reminds us that while the 8th Commandment admonishes us not to steal, other sections of both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures teach that we have “a moral obligation to ensure that others aren’t forced to steal in order to feed and clothe themselves or their family.”
The book of Leviticus – which lays out much of Jewish law – says that the person who owns crops should never reap those crops “to the edges of the field,” or pick up any fallen fruit; that, says the writer, should be left “for the poor and the stranger.”
Apparently Islamic teachings also suggest that “by not giving to the poor,” we break “the flow of how money and divine gifts are to be distributed.”
This moral obligation to make sure that no one feels forced to steal in order to survive, is what I had been taught as a Christian, and was why I was willing to overlook my friend Susan’s theft – even of slippers from a shoe store. Her father had committed suicide years earlier, and left the family with nothing. Susan’s mother was left with five children and no job, and supported the family primarily on social security and other available government subsidies. I don’t know if she knew her children were stealing; being a devout Catholic, I doubt she would have condoned it. Nevertheless, I found it perfectly understandable, and only wished I could do something to make it unnecessary.
But I did not have that excuse; I knew that stealing was a clear breaking of a Commandment. When I stole, not only was I taking someone else’s property, but I was diminishing my own integrity.
And ultimately, Felder points out, the 8th Commandment is about “living with integrity.” The Latin for “integrity” – “integritas” – means “to be whole or complete” – to be “integrated.”
If we look at the Hebrew and Arabic words for “wholeness,” we discover “shalom” and “salaam” – the words that also speak of peace – peace between people and peace within oneself.
The Commandment, “Thou shall not steal,” calls us, then, to honesty, and compassion, and justice, and the wisdom that brings us Wholeness, not only within ourselves, but in our relationships and in our world; a Wholeness that allows us to truly love, and to know that we are loved; and that is always Holy.
May that Holiness abide with us always, and with all who dwell upon this earth.
Amen.
© 2010 Rev Anne Felton Hines. All rights reserved.
