The New Ten Commandments
Real lives
Here are four stories which show how real moral dilemmas influenced how people chose commandments that are relevant to our age
Treat others as you would like to be treated
Stephen Korsa-Acquahwas just 18 when he graduated to armed robbery. His gang operated nationwide, hitting banks, security vans and building societies. On 6 April 1983, Stephen had just stolen £35,000 from a Bristol bank and was looking for a getaway car when he ran into police constable Billy Burns.
Billy was unarmed. Stephen shot him through the face. Billy survived, saved by his teeth, which slowed the bullet. Stephen was captured and sent down for 25 years.
The following year, Billy and his wife sent Stephen a Christmas card in prison. He and his family are Christians and felt that they would become bitter and twisted if they couldn't forgive Stephen for what he had done,.
Several years after that, Stephen wrote a long letter to Billy, who eventually came to visit him in prison. Stephen was physically shaking when they met. It was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.
Billy and Stephen became friends. Today they run a project for young people called Inside Out. They explain to kids that the criminal world is not glamorous.
Stephen feels that the commandment, 'Treat others as you would like to be treated', is the best way to live your life. 'People should treat each other with respect and dignity,' he says.
Protect your family
Jonathan (4) and Sophie Wegner (3) were fighting in the back of the family car when the crash happened. The car hit a patch of black ice and skidded; horrifically, a fence post came through the windscreen like a spear. Jonathan threw himself across his sister and saved her life, but suffered brain damage himself. Since then, Sophie has saved Jonathan by spending hours with him, encouraging him to walk and talk.
'I wanted the old Johnny back,' she says. 'So I got all his toys and lined them up, and said that if he didn't talk now, he wasn't getting them – and they were his favourites as well!' Their mother was astonished when she heard Johnny shout out, 'No! Mine!'
Jonathan, now 15, has made such good progress that he is in the same class in mainstream school as Sophie. Both of them agree that 'Look after your family' is their most important commandment. 'Make the most of the time you have with them,' says Sophie.
Never be violent
Reggae musician Pato Banton's two sons were just 13 and 14 years old when they were involved in a drive-by shooting. They were leaving a children's party at a club in Birmingham at the same time as two girls. Pato describes what happened: 'Parked in the road was a car, with a guy inside it who was a target. Some people came by with a shotgun, fired at the guy and missed, but sprayed all four kids. They were rushed to hospital, but thank God, they survived.'
Pato was on tour in the US at the time. He had already worked with the Aborigine community in Australia and with young people in Soweto, South Africa. Now he realised he needed to spend time in his own community. He took time out of his career, qualified as a lecturer, set up the Music Technology School in Birmingham, and started teaching young people music and music therapy.
'I've seen a lot of kids involved in crime and gang violence,' he says. 'Some of them have done teacher training, and are now training a new generation of young people to invest in music, rather than going down an illegal and violent route.'
Protect the vulnerable
It was in Belsen that Helen Bamber, then 20 years old, first encountered the victims of torture. She volunteered to go into the concentration camp after the final collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945 and stayed for two years, helping the survivors of the Holocaust.
'The people there wanted to tell you their stories. They would push their fingers into your flesh to make sure they were heard,' she says. 'My first big lesson there was to receive what they were giving you and to say, "I am your witness".'
Ever since, Helen has worked to provide physical and psychological care for people who have survived torture. In the 1980s she founded the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In 2003 alone, over 3,400 men, women and children came to the foundation for help.
Is there anything which transcends the commandment to protect the vulnerable? No, says Helen. 'Our responsibility as a society and as citizens to the dispossessed is absolutely essential if we are to build a compassionate society.'
