Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
On the surface this seems like a pretty good command doesn't it? I mean who doesn't think honoring ones parents is a good thing? However, upon closer examination this commandment is of little real value.
First off, it is quite vague, what exactly does it mean to honor ones parents? What actions qualify as honoring them and which don't? You would think that a command which includes a threat of a shorter life span for disobedience would be more specific about the details.
Secondly what about parents who don't deserve honor? Some parents are abusive, or bad, or criminals. Recently Damon Fowler was kicked out of his own house for standing up for church state separation in his high school graduation. He was effectively disowned by his parents for this. Many parents are not worthy of honor, do we honor them anyway?
If you're father is a thief do you help him steal....wait that violates another commandment doesn't it? Is it possible for god to create a set of 10 rules which don't contradict themselves?
Not only is the command a rather useless one upon close examination, politically it is no where to be found in our laws. It doesn't directly contradict anything in our laws unlike all of the earlier commandments, but nothing in our laws command children to honor their parents.
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