Written by Don Byrd
A federal judge in Virginia heard arguments yesterday over Ten Commandment displays in Giles County schools. A lawsuit argues the religious display amounts to an official promotion of religion in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. It is sacred text, after all, with several of the Commandments exclusively focused on religion. In sending the parties to mediation, the judge proposed a very interesting solution:
Judge Michael Urbanski has indicated that he will order the case into mediation, in large part because of the financial cost to the school board if the matter were to be litigated.
He said he would want the two sides to look at whether the first four commandments, which are more explicitly religious, could be removed from the display, leaving the other six, more secular, commandments.
“I just wonder if there isn’t a reasonable compromise,” Urbanski said.
Proponents of Ten Commandment posting argue the historical legal significance of the document, claiming that keeps the government’s display from being a purely religious one. Now we see one of the potential outcomes of their argument: a court’s suggestion that we take an editing knife to them. And they say those of us who oppose government-sponsored Ten Commandment displays are the ones secularizing America?
The Ten Commandments are sacred text of great religious significance. We should keep it that way. The best way to do that isn’t to post them in government buildings; it’s to resist the temptation to do so.
