Dixie (County, Fla.) unveils the Ten Commandments

Gainesville Sun ^ | Nov. 28, 2006 | Gainesville Sun

[varina davis]

Dixie courthouse unveils the Ten Commandments (headline)

Http://www.gainesville.com

[varina davis]

Wasn't sure if I should post the entire story. Very good read about some brave souls in this small, rural Old Florida community on the central gulf coast.

[sageb1]

Where is the article? I couldn't find it.

[FLOutdoorsman]

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/LOCAL/211280341&SearchID=7326453473385

CROSS CITY - Dozens of county residents took a few extra minutes on the way home from church Sunday or on the way to work Monday morning to drive past the Dixie County courthouse to see for themselves if what they had heard was true.

It was.
A six-ton block of granite bearing the Ten Commandments had been installed atop the courthouse steps. Inscribed at the base was the admonition to "Love God and keep his commandments."

"There are no negatives there to live by," said Skipper Jones, former owner and publisher of the county's weekly newspaper. Jones served as spokesman Monday for Joe Anderson Jr., one of the leaders of the effort to have the monument constructed and situated at no cost to the county.

"Mr. Anderson was involved with others and took a very active role in seeing this was accomplished because he feels this is something the country needs to get back to," Jones said.

The concept of a Ten Commandments monument was endorsed by county commissioners, according to the minutes of the Jan. 19 regular board meeting.

Former Commissioner John Driggers broached the subject on behalf of an unnamed county resident, asking whether the board was "bold enough" to allow the monument to be placed at the courthouse. After then-county attorney Joey Lander told the board he would defend any lawsuits stemming from the decision for free, commissioners voted in favor of allowing the project to proceed.

Although Lander has resigned as county attorney, he told The Sun on Monday afternoon that he would uphold his offer.

"I will gladly represent them for free but I wouldn't want to challenge someone to file a lawsuit," Lander said. "If the commissioners were willing to make the bold statement, I am willing to do my part to represent the county in their bid to keep them (the commandments) there."

A number of lawsuits regarding the display of the Ten Commandments have been filed over the past half century, including some that have made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A year ago the nation's top court ruled that a similar monument could legally remain on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin.

The Texas monument was erected in 1961 and is one of 38 similar items on the property. The nation's top justices voted 5-4 in favor of leaving the Ten Commandments monument in place in Texas, with the majority noting that "the Ten Commandments have an undeniable historical meaning. . . . Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the (First Amendment)."

In another high-profile case, Alabama's judicial ethics panel voted unanimously in 2003 to remove Chief Justice Roy Moore from office for installing and then refusing to remove a 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state's Supreme Court building. The monument was ultimately removed from the state building.

Brandon Hensler, director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said, "There are certainly values in the Ten Commandments that are enshrined in the law and should be upheld, like 'Thou shalt not murder.' "

But he continued, "If there are residents of Dixie County who understand our country's constitutional values and that it is the role of churches - not of government - to urge people to love God and keep his commandments, we would be interested in speaking with them."

County Coordinator Arthur Bellot said he had not heard any negative comments, "but I have had several positive comments."

Among the county businessmen involved in the project was Ben Barber, owner of Dixie Monument, who spent two weeks engraving the monument.

"This was made from American black granite with white variegation that was quarried in Pennsylvania in May," Barber said. "Then it went to Georgia for shaping and polishing before it got to me for engraving. A block of granite that big - 12,000 pounds - costs about $20,000."

Karen Voyles can be reached at 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com

[sageb1]

Thank you.

"I will gladly represent them for free but I wouldn't want to challenge someone to file a lawsuit," Lander said. "If the commissioners were willing to make the bold statement, I am willing to do my part to represent the county in their bid to keep them (the commandments) there."

There's a hero for ya.

[Bonaparte]

Brandon Hensler, director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said, "There are certainly values in the Ten Commandments that are enshrined in the law and should be upheld, like 'Thou shalt not murder.'"

But he continued, "If there are residents of Dixie County who understand our country's constitutional values and that it is the role of churches - not of government - to urge people to love God and keep his commandments, we would be interested in speaking with them."
___________________________________________________________

To Mr. Hensler, I would say...

Congress has always opened its sessions with prayer and, indeed, has chaplains.

The federal government has declared national days of prayer.

Numerous presidents and other elected federal and state office holders publicly refer to God and prayer on a frequent basis.

The Ten Commandments are emblazoned on the wall of our Supreme Court.

I am holding in my hand a freshly minted quarter upon which is written, "In God We Trust."

Mr. Hensler, where are your lawsuits against these?

[ClaireSolt]

I hope this catches on, though it might be better to drop one on the ACLU's heads.

[Bonaparte]

Hehe.

Here's some thoughts on the Ten Commandments from Eagle Forum.

No matter who you may be, you will worship and serve somebody or something. Christians and Jews worship and serve God as best they can, recognizing that they are accountable to someone higher. Secular humanists worship and serve themselves and do not consider themselves accountable to God. To abolish from the public square recognition of God's authority is to underwrite secular humanism by denying God His rightful place of honor.

[Melinda in TN]

The next thing the ACLU will be trying to do will be to change the name of the county from Dixie. They will claim the name is racist of something.

[Irisshlass]

I like your response. By denying God they are actually forming their own religion, forcing it upon us which the founding fathers were against.

[varina davis]

I think Dixie Countians might have a lot to say about that!

[Melinda in TN]

I hope so! :-)

[Free Vulcan]

I would respond to the ACLU that their legal interpretations are their opinion and that they are neither the courts or a fourth branch of govt.

I would then wait for them to come to the county to threaten a lawsuit or extort payment in lieu of a lawsuit, and sue them under RICO.

[PeterFinn]

Agreed. Although I'd prefer to see a daisy cutter dropped on the collective ACLU.

[Bonaparte]

That's it exactly.

Everybody has faith in something.

Even a cynic has faith in cynicism.

By denying God, secularists have shifted their faith to man.

Given the universality of faith, God can only be banned from public life by replacing Him with something else. And in America and many other western countries, that "something else" is humanism.

By fleshing out their faith in man with a dogma, a priesthood, seminaries, temples and a mission, secular humanists have formalized their faith into a religion. Humanism even has its saints, eg. John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Margaret Sanger and a host of others.

The Dogma:

Humanist Manifesto, 1933
Humanist Manifesto II, 1973

The Priesthood:

Bertrand Russell, Isaac Asimov, Peter Singer, Betty Friedan, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Robert Ingersoll, Stephen Gould, Aldous Huxley, Jean-Paul Sartre and others too numerous to list.

The Seminaries

Principally the public school system right up through graduate schools, but also including many private institutions such as the ivy league schools.

"The battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: A religion of humanity -- utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to carry humanist values into wherever they teach. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism. -- John J. Dunphy, The Humanist, 1983

The Temples:

These include the secular humanist think tanks, foundations, academies, associations and other groups and organizations devoted to the advancement of the secular humanist doctrine and agenda.

The Mission:

Spreading the "bad news" that God is dead, secular humanism is quite possibly the most active and widespread proselytizing effort on earth. It has seaped into practically all areas of modern life and is assisted in its mission by industries and institutions ranging from the the school system to government to publishing to entertainment to broadcasting to art to politics to science. It pursues its mission with every bit as much zeal as Islam does.

Secular humanism is a religion in every way. It even has its religious symbols.

[Bonaparte]

That's it exactly.

Everybody has faith in something.

Even a cynic has faith in cynicism.

By denying God, secularists have shifted their faith to man.

Given the universality of faith, God can only be banned from public life by replacing Him with something else. And in America and many other western countries, that "something else" is humanism.

By fleshing out their faith in man with a dogma, a priesthood, seminaries, temples and a mission, secular humanists have formalized their faith into a religion. Humanism even has its saints, eg. John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Margaret Sanger and a host of others.

The Dogma:

Humanist Manifesto, 1933
Humanist Manifesto II, 1973

The Priesthood:

Bertrand Russell, Isaac Asimov, Peter Singer, Betty Friedan, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Robert Ingersoll, Stephen Gould, Aldous Huxley, Jean-Paul Sartre and others too numerous to list.

The Seminaries

Principally the public school system right up through graduate schools, but also including many private institutions such as the ivy league schools.

"The battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: A religion of humanity -- utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to carry humanist values into wherever they teach. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism. -- John J. Dunphy, The Humanist, 1983

The Temples:

These include the secular humanist think tanks, foundations, academies, associations and other groups and organizations devoted to the advancement of the secular humanist doctrine and agenda.

The Mission:

Spreading the "bad news" that God is dead, secular humanism is quite possibly the most active and widespread proselytizing effort on earth. It has seaped into practically all areas of modern life and is assisted in its mission by industries and institutions ranging from the the school system to government to publishing to entertainment to broadcasting to art to politics to science. It pursues its mission with every bit as much zeal as Islam does.

Secular humanism is a religion in every way. It even has its religious symbols.

[Irisshlass]

Thank-you for your informative post. :)

[Bonaparte]

I forgot to add that if you read the humanist manifestos, practically every central tenet of their faith is right there --

abortion

naturalistic explanation for origins of life and the universe

the primacy of "feelings" as a moral guide

legitimation of sexual perversion

pure democracy

social engineering

"from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

re-distribution of wealth and guaranteed annual income

one-world government and the abolition of national borders and national defense

"diversity"

relativism

environmentalism

All in all, it's a religion encompassing the most complete dystopian vision imaginable, its adherents unperturbed by its numerous contradictions, such as preaching the inviolability of human dignity while depriving others of their earnings and property.

[Irisshlass]

We have just about all of that right now..

[Bonaparte]

Yes, that and more.

[stainlessbanner]

God bless Dixie....County!