Another establishment clause debate

[manifold]

OKLAHOMA CITY - The debate about displaying the Ten Commandments in the state's capitol continued Thursday, after a member of the state House presented a bill that would allow for the biblical monument to be erected in state capitol.


Representative Mike Ritze (R-District 80) told members of the House General Government Committee that a three-by-six-foot Ten Commandments display similar to the one at the Texas Capitol would inspire those who see it.

Critics argue those who do not share similar religious beliefs may be insulted or disagree with Ritze's perspective of the monument.

"I think they're being overlooked and I don't think that's the proper thing that the state of Oklahoma should be doing by putting a monument out that basically endorses a certain segment of society to the exclusion of others," Representative Wallace Collins (D-District 45) said.

Ritze counters the argument by saying the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't see it that way, ruling five votes to four votes in the 2005 Van Orton case, that the Texas monument did not violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause.

Oklahoma ACLU officials said they believe a similar monument in Oklahoma would violate the Constitutional rights of Oklahomans.

"We have to keep in mind that same day the Supreme Court decided Van Orton, they decided McReary, which states a Ten Commandments monument that was in a state Capitol in Kentucky was unconstitutional," said Tamya Cox of the ACLU. "This is more like McReary than Van Orton."

Ultimately, committee members cast eight votes to three votes in favor, meaning the bill will move on to the full House.

NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com | Ten Commandments Bill Passes Through Committee

I can never decide who the bigger assholes are in these conflicts, the douchebags who insist on brandishing Christianity or the douchebags that give a shit about the brandishing. It all seems pretty silly to me.

 

[strollingbones]

do you think these people are playing this out for the folks back home..knowing it will be simply overturned but they will look good for giving their "support"...you know when you get credit for looking good but aint done shit? kinda strikes me as that...

i will never understand the conflict between christians....in my experience..there is more infighting amid christains than anyone else....i wonder how the baptist would feel if catholics wanted to put cruxifics here and there....i could see it where you would have the 10 comm. plus the virgin mary etc and so on...it would get to be a bit much. i do not care what people do on their own private land...go for it...i live close to an area where a man has gone through and put up crosses....on the hills...


Elizabethton, TN - Christian crosses

he apparently has permission of the land owners....i really dont see why everyone cant be civil...i live in a somewhere religiously diverse area...in the fact that we seem to have it all....mormons...mennonites...serpent handlers...baptists..methodist...catholics...jews...
muslims..its amazing for a rural area...the churches are full on sunday morning and the bars packed on saturday night...

perhaps a wee bit more tolerance all the way around...is the way to deal with it

 

[Shogun]

It's time to graffiti the OK state capital with any religious whim any one of us may have. I dunno about you but my lord is a giant gaping vagina and an image of such on the courthouse property would only INSPIRE people to have faith in the spectral clitoris of my personal faith. Call Jerry Stiller and tell him to bring his festivus pole. I'm sure the FSM will already be there with his noodly appendage.

 

[garyd]

State laws of oklahoma prevent public displays of nudity.

 

[rayboyusmc]

do you think these people are playing this out for the folks back home..knowing it will be simply overturned but they will look good for giving their "support"...you know when you get credit for looking good but aint done shit? kinda strikes me as that...

What, you can even suggest that politicians would pull a Schiavo for votes?

I hate it when the ban pubic nudity. It's the best kind.