Displaying the Ten Commandments:

I just saw that the Giles County 10 Commandment case is back in the headlines.  It will likely surprise no one to hear that the case is being driven as a result of a suit brought by well less than a handful, maybe one student and a parent ( here).

The Giles County display includes a number of historic documents

I am thoroughly convinced that our schools and other public institutions would be far better places if the there was a greater awareness of and adherence to the Decalogue.  Yet as I think of the horrendous persecution inflicted on Christians in some lands dominated by Islam, I certainly want my nation to respect the faith of nonChristians.  The rights of minorities--even minorities of two--need to be respected.  

I'm not saying the display at Narrows High School--a school, by the way, my pastoral associate attended--constitutes discrimination, or coercion.  I'm not sure that any of our founding documents guarantees the right to never see anything that makes one uncomfortable.  Since the two complainants in this case have remained anonymous, I don't know, but if they are like others who have similarly complained in other cases, their problem is "I am an atheist.  Seeing this display makes me feel that I am not a welcome part of this public--as in, "paid for by my tax money."--institution."  Do atheists demand the right to practice atheism, or the right to not practice theism?  (Here is one atheist's viewpoint on the dispute in Giles.)  Either way they have that right, and I endorse it.  I'm open to being convinced, but I don't see that this display violates either right.

I won't be filing an amicus curiae in this case.  Instead I'm advocating for a far more effective and, as far as I know, totally legal, display.  I'm advocating that we live out the principles of the Ten Commandments in our everyday life.  Start with #1.  Live in such a way that it clearly shows that there is one God and that He is my Lord.

Stay tuned.

 

It's STTA.

Ultimately the law shows out profound need.  When you see that look here to see the soul-u-tion.