Editorial: Ten Commandments should be kept in church, not school
For years, the Bill of Rights has protected students from enduring religious dogma in public school classrooms. Thanks to a simple amendment -Êa separation of church and state -Êzealots have been prohibited from teaching the Bible and preaching the gospel in public arenas.
But a Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives voted recently to shirk their law-abiding responsibilities and allow schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Legal battles have been fought over this type of issue for years. Some elementary school teacher in Mississippi decides it's okay to teach from the Old Testament and suddenly, every parent in the school goes ballistic and the lawyers get involved
Usually, the teacher is instructed to stop. They quit or abide.
Now, a greater authority has gotten involved, and it's may be hard to stop considering that it was this same group that nearly brought down the President of the United States of America.
House Speaker Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) led 287 of his colleagues to approve a bill that essentially negates the wishes of America's founding fathers and disrespects our religious freedom.
"One of the commandments is 'Thou shalt not kill'...that's a good message," Hastert told the Associated Press.
What a simplistic assessment of a much broader problem.
While there's nothing wrong with warning students that murder is a horrible crime against humanity, it's a travesty if public officials say it's a crime against God.
Why would the House choose to essentially stomp on the Constitution?
It could be a response to the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Members of Congress could feel that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris might have decided against mowing down their classmates if the term "Thou shalt not kill" was plastered on their school walls.
Maybe they decided that President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky sets a bad example for impressionable youth. Hearing stories of graphic sex in the Oval Office, children might think it's okay to commit adultery.
Or maybe the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other members of the religious right finally infiltrated Congress. Maybe anti-Semites and gay-hating preachers like Pat Robertson impressed their beliefs on representatives whose only goal is to get re-elected.
Either way, the damage is done.
Granted, thanks to the Supreme Court, the Ten Commandments will probably never hang in our classrooms.
And certainly, many intelligent school administrators would never post the Ten Commandments anywhere near their campuses.
But the House's passing that bill shows a growing insensitivity in this country.
It unveils a submerged disregard for other religions aside from their own. It demonstrates that many of our leaders don't care about free speech, much less the freedom to turn one's back on God.
It imposes the "Word of God" on high school students who might be questioning the existence of a higher power. And if that higher authority happens to come from religions other than Judeo-Christian, it appears they're out of luck.
Perhaps most insulting, it shows a blatant disregard for the beliefs of their constituents.
Whatever the story, allowing Falwell and other zealots to influence our legislation is disgraceful. It's now up to the Supreme Court to step in and stop the government from crucifying the Constitution.
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