Judge Moore Ain't Removing Ten Commandments (FOX NEWS)

[Dallas]

You gotta love this guy....

[usadave]

You can post the Ten Commandments anywhere except on government property.

This statement is incorrect. There is nothing that precludes a sovereign state from displaying the Ten Commandments on state government property unless that state's constitution expressly prohibits it. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only makes a reference to what Congress (federal government) can or can't do in regard to establishment of religion.

[ApesForEvolution]

I heard Colin Powell is on his way with a crew...

[AFPhys]

what would happen if someone stopped me and asked which ones I had broken

with replies:...

Easy! Tell 'em that your human, but this is to remind you of what is right.

You say that your broke them all! As we all have.

Exactly right, and Dittos. I would not say proudly that I've broken them all, but admit I have failed in my duty to God... but I am getting better. Thank-you Lord for your forgiveness, for sending your Son, and for your grace in helping me do better.

[Dave S]

Well, where do you think these guys got their ideas from, andy_card? Answer: from the classical and Judeo-Christian traditions of which these men were brilliant exponents, as were the Framers themselves.

Its amazing that so many otherwise intelligent people believe that western civilization began in One AD.

[FreeTally]

Only that nowhere does it state in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution that Americans shall be free from religion.

Let me ask again, maybe more bluntly: What do you mean by "free from religion"?

[andy_card]

Answer: from the classical and Judeo-Christian traditions of which these men were brilliant exponents, as were the Framers themselves.

I disagree. But even assuming you were correct, which you aren't, what does that have to do with the Ten Commandments? The Ten Commandments could hardly have played less a role in the writing of the Constitution.

[E Rocc]

"The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind."
--Thomas Jefferson to Moses Robinson, 1801. ME 10:237

You do understand that those "rags" include much of the Bible (particularly Revelations) and pretty much all of the trappings added to Christianity since Paul of Tarsus, correct?

Jefferson did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God. This quote makes that rather clear:

But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer [Jesus] of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State.
-Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Samuel Kercheval, 1810

-Eric

[ApesForEvolution]

Amen

[ApesForEvolution]

...a crew of isamotrash holding fresh visas...

[E Rocc]

Why do you ignore all the case law I posted?

Anything prior to the Bill of Rights at a Federal level or prior to the Fourteenth Amendment at a state level is not relevant. Neither is anything that can be countered by a later Supreme Court case.

-Eric

[Diamond]

I read the article in its entirety, which btw could serve as an ACLU tract.

The authors admit in the first paragraph that, " ...it's reasonable to assume that the Christian Sabbath is in view here...".

If you disagree with the authors, then what is the origin of this curious phrase in the Constitution, "Sundays excepted". And just for the record, I'm not talking about an ecclesiastical National establishishment of a Sabbath, so don't go off on that.

Cordially,

[Kerberos]

"Tell me how the Buddha's teachings influenced the founding of our country, How many of our founding fathers were Buddhist? "

First tell me how the historical significance of a document has any bearing on freedom of religion. And what is the historical significance of the ten commandants, are they located in the Constitution somewhere? Would they not be more historically significant to the Middle East.

[stands2reason]

Now, I happen to be a Buddhist and I think that in addition to having the Ten Commandments on display at the courthouse we should also have the Four Noble Truths on display as well, at taxpayer expense of course.

Now you wouldn't have a problem with that would you?

To tell the truth, I would think you would have the problem with it. The public display of the Ten Commandments upsets you (causes your suffering) so much that to feel better you would NEED to have the Four Noble Truths displayed? As a Buddhist, don't you find something strange about that?

[bvw]

New Jersey was Dutch and English, not Quaker -- Presbry, Episcopal, Dutch Reformed. Yes there were some Quakers -- mostly in the south, they were a minority.

[E Rocc]

If you disagree with the authors, then what is the origin of this curious phrase in the Constitution, "Sundays excepted".

It gave the President the option of not working on a Sunday. It did not forbid him from doing so.

-Eric

[Diamond]

Which isn't suprising, since one wrote it.

Since he happily plagarized the preamble from Scottish Presbyterians.

Cordially,

[Diamond]

What is the origin of the phrase?

Cordially,

[andy_card]

See #351. I hope it's prompt enough for you.

The practice of taking Sunday off, while religious perhaps in origin, was completely secular by the 18th century. They had one-day weekends, rather than two. That's no different than referring only to weekdays in official correspondence. Far from a promotion of religion, its simply the acknowledgement that folks don't work then. If that's the best you can do, your argument rests on awfully thin ice.

[Roscoe]

There's a big difference between the SCOTUS, the US House of Reps and the Alabama State Judicial Building.

Yep. Alabama ain't Congress.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.