Recently, I heard a sermon in which a priest pointed out that in the Ten Commandments there are no footnotes.

The pope said that the greatest sin in the last century is the denial of sin. There is no footnote to the Fifth Commandment that says “Thou shalt not steal unless you know you are participating in a riot or unless you know that someone was killed in Minneapolis, in which case it is OK to break in, loot and burn cars and stores.”

The Ten Commandments break down to two: love God and love your neighbor as yourself, which excludes plundering and looting, because the stuff belongs to someone else.

Commandment Five — thou shalt not kill — means you shalt not beat a police officer or anyone else or run them over with your car. It means that thou shalt not put everybody else at risk by creating social chaos endangering other people. It means we do not have the right to enable looting and burning. A “peaceful” protestor who enables non-peaceful protestors to run rampant is complicit in the crimes that were committed. Rights of peaceful protestors end when by their actions they enable crimes against other people.

— Margaret Smetana
Pinehurst