Ten Commandment Tablets Removed From Schools

[JesFine]

On Monday

A crowd prevented workers from removing the 10 Commandments from a Tri-State school Monday morning.

The crowd of about 400 people gathered at Peebles High School in Adams County, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Monica Abler reported.

But they were gone by Monday evening

All four tablets were removed by Monday evening from Peebles, West Union, North Adams and Manchester high schools.

By the way, the tablets weighed 800 lbs each. Who picks up the tab for hauling those off?

 

[SquishyDave]

That's so whacky on so many levels.

For starters someone got upset by them being there, then a whole bunch of people get upset by them being removed.

It's no big deal either way, I am not suddenly going to become a xian just by walking past those things, and if they aren't there I am not gonna worry either.

I wonder though what would happen if someone put 360 Kg blocks of stone with some quotes from the Quran on them on public school grounds, how long would they last?

Free expression of religion huh?

 

[Bentspoon]

This is why atheists get angry at ......

This question was asked in another thread and I don't want to start it anew but this is one answer to that question.

"It's a little heartbreaking," protestor Terry Lewis said. "Our children and grandchildren have the right to read those commandments at any time they want."

Inane and stupid. Why do they always quote the inane and stupid at these protests. Could it be that that is all there is at a protest such as this.

How have these children's rights to read those commandments anytime they want been abrogated. What a load of crap. They can take a bible to school, they could wear it on their shirt, they could write them on their hands like crib notes. Does Terry Lewis really not know this. Or am I right in labelling her inane and stupid.

And another thing. We had a federal court ruling. I understand the concept of civil disobedience but that does not need to be invoked here. There were possibilities of appeal and I am sure they were mounted and the final decision by the lawmakers and interpreters of the law of our free nation decided. So what right do these yahoos have to block the court order.

How dare they talk of their rights while they systematically try to undermine the foundation of this country - that we all have rights.

SquishyDave said it best

Free expression of religion huh?

I would hate to play a game of chess with these religious wackos. Checkmate would be an infringement of their right to win a game.

WACKOS

and I will submit that more than 50% of these true believers could not even answer basic questions about their faith and the bible. It is my opinion.

Bentspoon

 

[ImpyTimpy]

The mind of a religous nut

That's the problem with religous nuts - they're always right and you're wrong because they are divinely inspired and you're not. No argument can withstand the divine inspiration these nuts are born with so you might as well give up trying to explain things...

By the way isn't that the definition of insanity?

 

[zakur]

This photo shows some of the protesters "protecting" the commandments before they were removed.

Marissa Estes, left, 15, Rebecca Mangus, center, 14, and Moriah Tolliver, 14,
protect the Ten Commandments monument in front of Manchester High School. (AP)

 

[triadboy]

If they would just erect the Code of Hammerabi everything would be alright. It's better then the 10 Commandments and there is no religious connotation.

 

[SquishyDave]

This photo shows some of the protesters "protecting" the commandments before they were removed.

I have never seen a more perfect picture of some teenagers killing time during lunch. How stupid are we supposed to be?

Oh well

 

[zakur]

A group of pastors pray around a Ten Commandments monument outside
Peebles High School Monday before it was removed under court order (AP).

I guess their prayers weren't answered.

Dave Daubenmire of Canal Winchester
prays on his knees outside Peebles High
School. Protesters lowered the flag in
the rear to half mast (AP).

Another prayer that wasn't answered. Also, the protesters' act of lowering the flag is in violation of the U.S. Flag Code (United States Code Title 36 Chapter 10), which states that the flag is to be flown at half staff in mourning for designated, principal government leaders and upon presidential or gubernatorial order.

And this just in — charges have been dropped against the protesters who were arrested. Twenty-one people were cited for trespassing. The sheriff's department says the school system declined to prosecute, so the citations have been dropped.

 

[Ladewig]

I agree with everything Bentspoon said.

If I were a school administrator, I would have tried to auction off the blocks - might as well have some money coming into the school.

 

[evildave]

Here's an even better link about it. It's from the supporters for the grave stones, er 'instructional monuments'.
http://www.4the10.net/saga_1.htm

Who originally bought them and gave them to the school district?
The Adams County Ministerial Association.

No conflict of interests possible there. They make a point of claiming it's for "instructional', not for 'religious' purposes.


How did the fuss get started?

An unmarried man from Peebles, with no children in the school system, writes several letters to the Superintendent of the district proposing the placement of monuments which he asserts represents his religious group, "The Center for Phallic Worship," of which he represents himself as the "Interim Director."

Sounds like a worthy cause to me. Clearly "Love Each Other" is a good message to have on it, too.

Interesting choice of words: "an unmarried man with no children". Seems to me unlikely that all of the "thousands of" protestors who fought to KEEP the rocks on school grounds were married and had children in that school.

My favorite quote:

APRIL 20, 1999

Fifteen students and one teacher are killed in a shooting spree by two students of Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. This tragedy, combined with other high school shootings since 1997, underscores the need for clear moral standards and guidelines in public schools.

The question is asked in a number of places, "Could these shootings have been prevented if the words 'Thou Shall Not Kill' were impressed daily on the minds and hearts of students?"

Yeah. Some tombstones with some old words etched in them would've made a big difference. Uh-huh. The mojo woulda protected 'em, I tell ya!

 

[uneasy]

It's no big deal either way, I am not suddenly going to become a xian just by walking past those things, and if they aren't there I am not gonna worry either.

I'm sort of with SquishyD here. If no one has a problem with the 10C there, leave them there, if someone has a problem with them, remove them. I would care less if they are there, but if someone wants them gone, I think people who fight to keep them are jerks. I think it's called "getting along".

 

[SquishyDave]

I'm sort of with SquishyD here. If no one has a problem with the 10C there, leave them there, if someone has a problem with them, remove them. I would care less if they are there, but if someone wants them gone, I think people who fight to keep them are jerks. I think it's called "getting along".

Exactly, getting along.

But it seems to me the tablets days were numbered anyway, because in the US people like to say they keep church and state separate, this was mixing church and state, the people who put them there must have realised this and should have been expecting this for some time.

There are no moral questions here as far as I can tell (non USA guy so let me know if I have misunderstood) the question is, "does this combine church and state, and is that against the law?" My understanding is the answer is YES, so they must go. No moral quandries, no evil men, just the law, and for once the law in a place where it is fairly black and white.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

A group of pastors pray around a Ten Commandments monument outside
Peebles High School Monday before it was removed under court order (AP).

I guess their prayers weren't answered.

Dave Daubenmire of Canal Winchester
prays on his knees outside Peebles High
School. Protesters lowered the flag in
the rear to half mast (AP).

Anyone else find anything ironic about these photos?

'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'

 

[JesFine]

From the FAQ on the link evildave posted:

Q: Don't the Ten Commandments promote or establish a religion, specifically Protestant Christianity, in violation of the First Amendment?

A: No. Citing Joel Thollander of Regent University's Robertson School of Law, "The Ten Commandments do not reference Jesus or a means of salvation. The only religion the Ten Commandments could be said to be supporting, standing alone, is Judaism." And perhaps even that is stretching some.

The Ten Commandments do embrace the tenets of Ethical Monotheism: The understanding that a supreme Being or Mind imposes on earthly governments inviolable and eternal ethical and moral standards.

Ethical Monotheism is an essential principle in virtually all legal philosophies. This understanding is rejected only by the most radical expressions of secularism.

To me, this sounds a lot like when creationists claim that their "theory" of creationism is science, not religion.

And my favorite:

Q: Whose idea was it to erect the monuments?

A: The idea originated from county-wide concern about the moral confusion expressed by the students in our middle schools and high schools. The students desired clear moral and ethical guidelines readily applicable in all of life's situations.

It was generally agreed that the Ten Commandments offer moral standards which have adequately shaped and guided human communities for thousands of years. With such an excellent model already available, it was deemed unnecessary to "reinvent the wheel." The morality espoused in the Ten Commandments is precisely the morality this community desires to give its successors.

Pretty good, huh? "The kids wanted to clear up their moral confusion, so being good community leaders, we obliged their needs in the only form we could think of -- 800 POUND MONUMENTS."

Amen.

 

[evildave]

Anyone else find anything ironic about these photos?

'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'

Bah! Don't you know the first things Christians say when you quote OT text?

"I'm a Christian, so that OT stuff doesn't apply to me!"

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Bah! Don't you know the first things Christians say when you quote OT text?

"I'm a Christian, so that OT stuff doesn't apply to me!"

Dave, you owe a new irony meter, mine just blew up... third one in three months.

 

[JesFine]

Bah! Don't you know the first things Christians say when you quote OT text?

"I'm a Christian, so that OT stuff doesn't apply to me!"

Wow, even the irony is ironic. Here is a closeup of the graven image those people are worshipping -- I'm sorry -- a closeup of the "monument" the "community" is "being morally and ethically guided by":

 

[EdipisReks]

i've had to watch this crap on the nightly news every night for the past week. i almost had to go to that high school. i'm glad i didn't.

 

[SteveW]

[

"I'm a Christian, so that OT stuff doesn't apply to me!" [/B][/QUOTE]

Actually, Christ did say "Follow His Father's Commandments" or something to that effect. The Xians regard that law the only OT law still in effect.

However, that being said, I find it strange that Xians, athiests, muslims, or anyone would object to mere words. Big frigging deal. I would rather my kid learn to not kill than have him grow up and support der fuerher Bush in killing Iraqis for oil.

 

[Buddy]

Steve,

These are not mere words. They represent the rules taken from a religious text and are therefore not permitted on school grounds. It implies that monotheism is the correct way to be, and that implication is discriminatory to atheists and to polytheists.