Free Republic

The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted an appeal from a religion that you probably never heard of until it hit the news yesterday. Summum is rooted in gnostic Christianity (or, at least modern understandings of gnosticism) and ancient Egyptian religion (or, at least contemporary understandings of ancient Egyptian religion). It was founded in 1975 and has its headquarters in (of all places) Utah. You can get more information at the official Summum web site. The case before the Supreme Court is based on the fact that the small town in Utah has a large, stone monument in the city park...

The way Summum tells it, when Moses first came down from Mount Sinai, he didn't have the Ten Commandments in his hand: He was holding the Seven Aphorisms. The Aphorisms are the guiding principles of Summum, a religious organization that operates from a pyramid in Salt Lake City and practices mummification. They are so important to Summum that the group's founder, Summum "Corky" Ra, asked that they be displayed in a public park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, near a Ten Commandments monument. The city said no, triggering a court fight that today wound up before the Supreme Court. The justices...

In its relentless drive to secularize our society, The New York Times continues to distort the First Amendment. An editorial in today’s paper notes that the Supreme Court is hearing arguments involving Pleasant Grove City, Utah, which has a Ten Commandments monument in a public park but refuses to allow a cult called Summum to erect its own memorial. Because the City “elevated one religion, traditional Christianity, over another, Summum,” it violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against an Establishment of Religion, The Times maintains. “The founders regarded this sort of religious preference as so odious that they included a specific...