The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Barrow County, Georgia, removed a framed picture of The Ten Commandments from a hallway in their County Courthouse yesterday.
An anonymous donor gave the Ten Commandments to the county in 2002, and officials put it up in the courthouse. The next year, the ACLU and another anonymous person sued the county in federal court.
Here's my question: why are these Ten Commandments being placed and taken down in anonymity? And why on earth did this matter have to be taken immediately to court? This isn't a massive stone monolith that was commissioned by the county for thousands of dollars. It's a little framed picture:
For something this small, couldn't the anonymous Barrow County resident write a letter or sign a petition first? Why does he remain anonymous? Granted, he probably wouldn't be popular in little Christian Barrow County anymore. But that's Barrow's problem. This is an American citizen and, moreover, a resident of Barrow County, who has a right to voice a valid concern. In fact, the issue could have been brought in front of the residents of Barrow, all of them, and a county problem could have been solved by the people of the county. But the ACLU gets involved, and it becomes another fleeting piece of national news, and strangers like me start commenting on it. I think what I'm trying to say is that immediately the issue is seized by first, the ACLU, and second, this non-profit group callled Ten Commandments Georgia who hired a $200,000 attorney for the county, and already the issue is in the hands of special interest groups instead of the actual people of Barrow County. Eventually the issue is divided up between two large organizations acting on behalf of the polar extremes of the issue.
As a result, there fails to be anything heard from people thoughtfully thinking about the problem of Separation of Church and State. A NY Times article from last week, I forget who wrote it, called the amendment's intent more of a neutrality than a separation. Scouring the country for every little instance of a cross in a classroom usually stirs up nothing more than some angry people on both sides claiming that the other is pushing one way of life on another's. And despite the political atmosphere, we still aren't living in a Christian theocracy. The President and his party might be mobilizing the evangelical Christian right in the country, but that is a political tactic and by no means a policy of the state. In the grander scheme of things, I would say that our country's doing pretty O.K. on religious toleration.
However, I submit the fact that I've never found myself in the religious minority and encountered daily reminders of being an outsider.
However, I do like mayonnaise on hamburgers, I saw A.I. twice in theatres, and I have, in the past, purchased a John Denver album.
An anonymous donor gave the Ten Commandments to the county in 2002, and officials put it up in the courthouse. The next year, the ACLU and another anonymous person sued the county in federal court.
Here's my question: why are these Ten Commandments being placed and taken down in anonymity? And why on earth did this matter have to be taken immediately to court? This isn't a massive stone monolith that was commissioned by the county for thousands of dollars. It's a little framed picture:
For something this small, couldn't the anonymous Barrow County resident write a letter or sign a petition first? Why does he remain anonymous? Granted, he probably wouldn't be popular in little Christian Barrow County anymore. But that's Barrow's problem. This is an American citizen and, moreover, a resident of Barrow County, who has a right to voice a valid concern. In fact, the issue could have been brought in front of the residents of Barrow, all of them, and a county problem could have been solved by the people of the county. But the ACLU gets involved, and it becomes another fleeting piece of national news, and strangers like me start commenting on it. I think what I'm trying to say is that immediately the issue is seized by first, the ACLU, and second, this non-profit group callled Ten Commandments Georgia who hired a $200,000 attorney for the county, and already the issue is in the hands of special interest groups instead of the actual people of Barrow County. Eventually the issue is divided up between two large organizations acting on behalf of the polar extremes of the issue.
As a result, there fails to be anything heard from people thoughtfully thinking about the problem of Separation of Church and State. A NY Times article from last week, I forget who wrote it, called the amendment's intent more of a neutrality than a separation. Scouring the country for every little instance of a cross in a classroom usually stirs up nothing more than some angry people on both sides claiming that the other is pushing one way of life on another's. And despite the political atmosphere, we still aren't living in a Christian theocracy. The President and his party might be mobilizing the evangelical Christian right in the country, but that is a political tactic and by no means a policy of the state. In the grander scheme of things, I would say that our country's doing pretty O.K. on religious toleration.
However, I submit the fact that I've never found myself in the religious minority and encountered daily reminders of being an outsider.
However, I do like mayonnaise on hamburgers, I saw A.I. twice in theatres, and I have, in the past, purchased a John Denver album.
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