First Commandment

"I am the Lord, your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me"

Most people know this commandment as it is the first. But how many follow it? In today's world, it seems that fewer and fewer people follow this commandment. However true that is, it is not anything new. People of all monotheistic faiths throughout history have also struggled with this. Famously, directly after Moses received the Ten Commandments, he returned to the Israelites and discovered them worshiping a golden calf. This was not the first time people turned to worldly things or other gods instead of the "one true God", nor would it be the last. There are two main categories that violations of this commandment can be separated into. 1) worshiping other, false, gods before God. 2) putting worldly things before God. 

Teenagers have a history or questioning authority and rebelling against their upbringing. In 2013 this is no different. While obviously not all teens fit this stereotype, many do. Many don't attend church, practice their faith, and some don't believe in God at all. Some of this is because believing in God isn't cool or going to mass isn't cool. Again this isn't true for all teens. I can count on one hand the number of teenagers I know that go to church on a regular basis. Even smaller than that is the number that actually want to go. But I do have some friends that take their faith very seriously, actually enjoy it, and appreciate and practice the theological virtues of faith, hope and love on a religious basis.

I also have many friends that are atheist or agnostic. They don't follow the first commandment by an active choice. They choose to deny the existence of God or higher power, or that it can never be proven that there is a God. It is a choice that it is their right to make (whether you believe it is a God-given right or not is up to you). They don't worship a false god, nor do they worship any god yet this is considered against the first commandment. The other 9 commandments are derived from this first commandment and by that logic many people believe that those that don't follow the first commandment cannot follow any of the commandments by extension. I think this is simply untrue. You can believe in God, be in church every Sunday and still be an awful person just as you can practice no religion, deny the existence of God and be a wonderful person that still leads a good, moral life.

Many more people are guilty of breaking the First Commandment in the second sense. Putting worldly things before God in their lives. This practice is a form of idolatry. People often put many things ahead of God:

Money

Sports

Winning

Fame

Entertainment 

The list goes on and on. These are all forms of modern day idols. People may not bow down to them and pray to them but they are far too often placed before God in their lives. These worldly things become far too important in peoples lives than they should. People also place celebrities on the same pedestal. Giving them much more power over their lives than God because they are here on earth. People that don't believe in God often site that there is no proof, we can't see it. Even those that do believe in God turn to worldly things for the immediate gratification they get form them because they are here on Earth but "the only true happiness can come from God"

Following the First Commandment has gone by the wayside for many people. It is important to follow it, for most people. Many break the commandment without realizing it and without recognizing it as an actual sin. I consider myself a fallen Catholic. My beef isn't with God, it is with the Catholic Church's practices in the world today. But I still feel I can have a relationship with God, follow the First Commandment, and be a generally good human being without being affiliated with any particular religion. There are those that may consider this to be heresy but I don't consider it to be. If it is okay for others to practice religions that aren't Catholic or Christian, why shouldn't it be okay for someone to be independent of a particular faith but still follow the Commandments? I believe in God and I try to follow the First Commandment but I don't think you have to be a part of the Catholic Church, or any established religion for that matter, to do so.