A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lawn in front of Bloomfield City Hall.
Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said in his ruling in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that the monument amounts to government speech and has the "principal effect of endorsing religion."
Because of the context and history surrounding the granite monument, Parker said Bloomfield clearly violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
He gave a Sept. 10 deadline for its removal. The suit was filed in 2012 on behalf of two Bloomfield residents who practice the Wiccan religion.
Well at least the Wiccans will take the heat for this one instead of the Atheists.
The Bloomfield mayor claimed that he considered it a monument to an historical document. However I am not sure how the Ten Commandments could be considered part of New Mexico's history.
Not only that but of course the actual tablets themselves never existed which sort of undermines the idea that they have a place in reality based history.
If one were to follow that line of logic one could put up a statue representing the Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop's Fables, Humpty Dumpty from Mother Goose, or even Rapunzel from Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Kinda funny each law enacted on behalf of Christian Americans only is ruled unconstitutional. We definitely have a pattern here. How about a lot less bible and a whole lot more rational thought.
ReplyDeleteThe Ten Commandments have been posted in our courthouse here in our rural TN mountain county. Makes me furious, but if I intend to live her it is best to let sleeping dogs lie. I have already been called a witch and although I do respect that religion, I am not. Seems I may have my postmaster to thank for that since I have subscribed to some spiritual information and I am a Reiki master.
ReplyDeletePay no attention to them.
DeleteSlay them with your happiness.
Hike the gorgeous Appalachians.
Some of those trails are the best in the world.
Government promoting any religion is unamerican.
ReplyDeleteLindsey Graham Warns Of Terrorists 'Coming Here'
ReplyDeleteGee, Miss Lindsey, what do you call anti-abortion foes who bomb and torch legal clinics and also shoot and kill legal abortion providers? T.E.R.R.O.R.I.S.T.?
Lady Lindsey is quick to ignore the terrorists that have been imbedded here for hundreds of years. We know them as "preachers", "pastors", "religious zealots", "hucksters", et al.
DeleteAnd it is quite an effective tool. Too much religion can truly fuck up ones' mind.
Which is why we need to rid politics of religion!
DeleteOf course the ten commandments are part of NM history, the part where Spaniards use religion as an excuse to enslave the indigenous peoples.
ReplyDeleteHare is rabbit. Hair is what's on your head, arms, legs, etc.
ReplyDeleteOops typing got ahead of my brain.
DeleteThanks.
You know, there was a big Ten Commandments statue outside the courthouse where I live. They dealt with the issue by planting ivy at the base. It didn't take long for it to be completely covered in vines and they have left it that way.
ReplyDeleteBingo! Alaska was a progressive state until the pipeline construction started and lots of Texans and Okies came up here and brought their religion with them. Oil seems to attract a bunch of religious nut bags, for some reason. Perhaps it's because many of them are from the south where religion tends to dominate and be very conservative, don't know, but Alaska sure changed when they began flooding in in the mid 70's. There was a bumper sticker seen often in the 80's and even 90's that said "Happiness is watching a Texan leave Alaska with an Okie under each arm". Unfortunately they stayed, and that's why we have 75 churches in Wasilla/Palmer. With all those churches you'd think our population would be mannerly Christian folk, but guess again...these people raise hell all week and then ask for forgiveness on Sunday. Getting knocked up out of wedlock, drinking, shooting guns, raising hell, and doing drugs is how they spend their time. Small "c" christians with a major superiority complex. This area is rotten with them.
ReplyDeleteThe Ten Commandments were Laws. If, the religious fanatics on the right, insists on have it displayed, they should live by them. They do not. It is nothing more than an idol to them, and we all know what God said about idols.
ReplyDeleteThe "Historical Document" scam is the right wing's latest to try to circumvent the First Amendment. The Hobby Lobby CEO is working to get the Bible into public schools as an historical document, with some early successes.
ReplyDeleteBTW, am I the only one who thinks Hobby Lobby sounds suspiciously gay?
Just plop that sucker down on two pieces of granite, word side down, and make a bus stop bench for some elderly folks to rest their legs while waiting. Or make tomb markers for potter's field. I'm glad they're removing it, but why ruin good stone?
ReplyDelete"If one were to follow that line of logic one could put up a statue representing the Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop's Fables, Humpty Dumpty from Mother Goose, or even Rapunzel from Grimm's Fairy Tales."
ReplyDeleteGryphen, make a note of this date. This may be the ONLY time I have ever agreed with anything you said. JUST SAY NO FAIRY TALE MONUMENTS!! Hey, it's not like they put a statue of Hans CHRISTIAN Anderson's Little Mermaid in the middle of freakin' Copenhagen Harbor!
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OH SHIT!!!! Gryphen, I did it again!! Just a moment after hitting PUBLISH, I remembered that some time ago vandals erected just such a statute in a simultaneous attempt to embarrass the Danish government and delight small children! (A statute is a law, right? So erecting a statute of the 10 commandments eerily makes more sense - and sounds more dirty - than it rightly should....)
And now it's too late to edit it!!!
Anon 11 - and that's just the Palin's!
ReplyDelete