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No Rude Gestures

Entry 558, on 2007-06-20 at 19:04:19 (Rating 3, Religion)

I noticed an interesting item on the BBC news site today. It related to guidelines issued from the Vatican relating to driving. These have been referred to as the "10 driving commandments". They primarily encourage drivers to respect speed limits, refrain from drinking before driving, and to avoid cursing.

Well that's a new one I hadn't heard of before: avoid cursing. I guess religions have to throw a few odd ones in like that - its a bit like the original 10 commandments I blogged about a few days ago where followers are told "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning."

Apparently Catholics are also urged to make the sign of the cross before starting a journey. Well as long as they put their seat belt on during that maneuver it might help I suppose. More practically they are asked to render assistance to accident victims. Wow, I wouldn't have thought of that without the help of the Vatican. Thanks guys!

Its good that the church is trying to make a practical contribution to peoples' wellbeing, but you've got to wonder why they left it so long. It would be interesting to subject this intervention to an efficacy study, like we do with other campaigns of this sort. Maybe the church can actually make a practical, positive contribution to society by concentrating on real aspects of modern life like this.

But if all else fails at least we'll have less Catholics making rude gestures and swearing while they are driving, so that's got to be a big step forward in itself!

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