If you were to create an 11th commandment, what would it be? The Methodist church in the United Kingdom, along with a popular satirical British Web site, www.shipoffools.com, asked visitors to send their best answers by text message and received 2,000 responses.
Five contestants won camera phones for suggesting:
- Thou shalt not worship false pop idols;
- Thou shalt not kill in the name of any god;
- Thou shalt not confuse text with love;
- Thou shalt not consume thine own body weight in fudge, and
- Thou shalt not be negative.
“We were thrilled to receive so many 11th commandments from people having ‘Moses moments,'” said Simon Jenkins, Ship of Fools editor. The competition was promoted on drink mats and postcards distributed to pubs, cafes, cinemas and other public places.
“The response to this competition, including the media interest from right round the world, shows that people are definitely interested in talking about values and spiritual issues, even on a night out,” said Rev. Jonathan Kerry, head of worship and learning at the Methodist church. “The challenge to the church is to join the conversation where people are, not waiting for them to come to us. We need to recover a sense of fun, and be more ready to listen than to judge.”
