September 12, 2003
Our little piece of Alabama
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Those whacky Christians are at it again. A monument proposed by a priest and paid for by church fundraisers has been placed on public property in Polk County. In an attempt to further blur the line between government and religion, the monument designers claim that the representation of the ten commandments on the monument is just fine because the commandments are included only as part of a larger collection of “historical documents”.
``We feel its very defendable,'' said the Rev. Mickey Carter, who along with County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson proposed the rock 23 months ago. Carter spoke at a press conference following the unveiling ceremony. The event was attended by about 500 people and marked the second anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The ACLU has warned that Polk's rock could violate the Constitution's prohibition against government establishing a religion - often referred to as the separation of church and state doctrine.
"This rock has been designed with advice from several lawyers," said the Rev. Mickey Carter, who along with Polk County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson proposed the monument to the commission 22 months ago.
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... Seminole lawyer Rex Sparklin, who specializes in First Amendment law, told the county commission that the Polk monument will withstand judicial scrutiny because the Ten Commandments will be displayed with other historical documents. He has offered to represent the county for free if anyone challenges the monument.
"Here, the focus is not on any one particular document," Sparklin said. "It is an attempt to look at an array of historical documents that had an impact on American law."
Organizers have heeded Sparklin's advice that the Ten Commandments should not occupy the most prominent spot. The commandments are at the bottom left corner of one of the rock's four sides.
So, the religious tract is not in the most prominent spot, but is it the most prominent item on the monument due to it’s size, location, placement, etc?
(Mike) Pheneger (with the ACLU of Florida) said he doesn't know if placement of the Ten Commandments among other historical documents would get it past a court challenge.
"What they're trying to do is get the Ten Commandments in by bringing everything else but the kitchen sink," he said.
The $150,000 monument was paid for with private funds and approved by Polk County commissioners.
The 2-foot-high Ten Commandments engraving takes up just part of a side 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. It is surrounded by engravings from the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact and a quote from John Adams.
Engravings on the other three sides include the preamble of the Florida Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the code of the Roman emperor Justinian, the epilogue to the Hammurabi Code, the Federalist Papers and quotes from Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Jay, President John Quincy Adams and other American patriots.
Ask the guys who put this monument up, and they’ll swear that our founding fathers were ardent Christians who really wanted a theocracy, despite those silly restrictions against the government forming a religion.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the actual quotes form the monument itself, but here are the kinds of quotes they like to throw around as “proof” that our government should actually be Christian:
Thomas Jefferson
Alleged quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson from the Jefferson memorial in Washington, D.C. “God who gave us life gave us liberty and can the liberty of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis -- a conviction in the minds of people that they are the gift of God...”
Jefferson did say this, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of government support of religion. The quotation is taken from a famous letter in which he argues against slavery; Jefferson maintained that slavery violated a person's God-given freedom, although he also owned slaves.
James Madison
Alleged quote from James Madison: “We have staked the whole future of American civilization and political institutions on our capacity to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
This is another unverified quote spread by David Barton. According to Church & State magazine (July/August, 1996 article “Christian Nation,” Barton has issued a statement admitting that certain quotations attributed to prominent historical figures in his 1992 book “The Myth of Separation,” are either false or, at best, questionable, and he admits that this is one of the most controversial among them.
John Quincy Adams
Alleged quote from John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
This quote is taken from the first edition of David Barton's videotape, “Americas's Godly Heritage.” The original source for this quote is the book, “The Pulpit of the American Revolution 1860” by John Wingate Thornton. This particular quote attributed to John Quincy Adams is not documented with footnotes, nor is it even enclosed in quotation marks as all other quotes in the introduction to his book. Instead, it reads like Thornton's own conclusion about what John Quincy Adams believed. These words are not documented nor attached to a date, and have not been traced back to an original source. Elsewhere in this book, Adam's father, John Adams, is quoted properly with footnotes and quotation marks. In the absence of proper documentation, this quote should be considered questionable at best.
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