US Court upholds 10 Commandments on public land

[k9gold-scout]

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2635130120080327

[TheScout]

Right decision. Wrong reason. The federal courts shound have declined to even hear this case.

 

The 10th Amendment does say:

 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

 

Obviously this includes the right to put up any monument one wishes. The federal government has better things to do.

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

This was one of the monuments put up to promote the movie "The Ten Commandments," so apparently public property can now be used to promote religious movies. I can't wait for "Allah Akbar" to be made and demands for equal movie promotion hit the courts.

 

Plus, of course, all those flying spaghetti monster monuments:

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=55995(This message has been edited by Merlyn_LeRoy)

[Trevorum]

 

That is just noodly.

 

[evmori]

And who does it harm? No one!

[GernBlansten]

Isn't this that activist 9th Circuit Court?

[SSScout]

How many commandments?

 

http://www.downes.ca/post/113

 

Or is it eleven?

 

Or 613?(This message has been edited by SSScout)

[Gold Winger]

This was one of the monuments put up to promote the movie "The Ten Commandments,"

 

Huh? Some civic group ran around promoting a movie? The movie was released in 1956, the monument went up in 1959. Sounds like a bad marketing department to me, promoting a movie three years after its release.

 

Do you have a citation? Of course you do.

[Gold Winger]

"But the 9th Circuit panel said it did not agree, especially because no complaints were received for more than 30 years after the monument was erected."

 

I like this. Basically it says, "it's been there, just leave it alone."

 

"How many commandments?"

 

Most of those are interpretations or extensions of the primary ten. Kind of like how we have laws that say, "Teens can't carry concealed guns" but they have to pass a new law that says "teens can't carry concealed guns at school" and then one that says "not only are teens not allowed to carry guns at school but they aren't allowed to shoot people either, especially at school."

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Actually, Judaism identifies 613 separate commandments in the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy).

These aren't extrapolations on the "big 10" from Mt Sinai; many have to do with temple rituals, some are dietary, others are more civil/legal.

 

I believe the 1st injunction in the Torah that's regarded as a commandment is "Be fruitful and multiply". But I doubt you'll see a monument put up that says, "Put down that pork chop & go be fruitful".

 

NC

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Yes, of course I have a cite Gold Winger; most of the 10 commandment monuments were put up by the fraternal order of eagles, and this is almost certainly one of them.

http://www.foe.com/events/ten-commandments.aspx

[Trevorum]

Well, technically, the FoE markers weren't erected to promote the movie. Rather, they sort of rode on the coattails of the movie's success. Back in the 50s and 60s, few people were objecting to this type of mish-mash of religion and government. It was a different era. Eventually, people started speaking up. One of the chief objections to the BoE markers (other than being on publically owned property) was the florid artwok that mixed together national symbols (flags, eagles, etc) with religious ones (Star of David, Chi-Rho) as contect for the 10, as if there was no real difference. That was the problem - the appearance of official endorsement of the Judeo Christian religion by the Government.

 

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ten_Commandments_Monument.jpg

 

 

[le Voyageur]

Another nail in the coffin for secularism.

 

The big question..... Who's religion will dominate as the offical State religion.

[TheScout]

It seems quite clear that if you were to have a state religion it would be Christianity . . .

[Gold Winger]

(This message has been edited by a staff member.)