Friend of the court brief
No, I highly doubt anyone from the Supreme Court will be reading this. However, like some of my other postings, I felt it necessary to let my feelings be heard. Sometimes people ask "Where will this end?" For me, it ends here.
I'm a fairly liberal person. Actually by San Francisco standards I'm pretty conservative. I do actually admire the ministers outside the Supreme Court, fighting for their beliefs. I just think they're a little alarmist.
One of the worries is that "Where will this end?" If we ban the Ten Commandments in federal buildings today, one day won't we just ban religion altogether?
As for "Where will this end?" the Supreme Court has actually already spoken. In the Supreme Court building, there's a facade of several figures, including Moses holding the famed tablets. But also includes Confucious, Hammurabi and some secular figures. The Court already decided in 1989 it to be constitutional as it did not endorse a religion.
There's several constitutional problems of the issue of the Ten Commandments. One, it's purely a religious icon. There's nothing secular about it. Even more damning (okay, bad choice of words, but in a constitutional sense), the words are verbatim out of the bible, a text specific to a certain religion. In this case the constitution is clear. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The Ten Commandments are specific to a certain religion, therefore respect an establishment of religion.
At the same time, I fully understand why people are upset about this. The constitution bans their religion in federal areas. It doesn't ban religion, but it does ban theirs. I would actually argue if it contained the Ten Commandments alongside writing of other texts, religious and/or secular, it would be perfectly fine. Let everyone feel welcome at the table.
And I'm actually not against the use of the word "God", such as in the Pledge of Allegance, or swearing "so help me God". The idea of God is universal to most all religions, not just a particular "establishment." And our nation was founded on religious freedom, and our use of the word "God" embodies those beliefs. But our nation was also founded on many different religions. I personally feel that people of all religions should feel welcome in America, and I believe our Founding Fathers felt that way as well.
But to specifically condone a specific religion is unconstitutional. If someone feels offended about this, then they get a taste of how God-fearing but non-Christian people feel living in a Christian America.
I'm a fairly liberal person. Actually by San Francisco standards I'm pretty conservative. I do actually admire the ministers outside the Supreme Court, fighting for their beliefs. I just think they're a little alarmist.
One of the worries is that "Where will this end?" If we ban the Ten Commandments in federal buildings today, one day won't we just ban religion altogether?
As for "Where will this end?" the Supreme Court has actually already spoken. In the Supreme Court building, there's a facade of several figures, including Moses holding the famed tablets. But also includes Confucious, Hammurabi and some secular figures. The Court already decided in 1989 it to be constitutional as it did not endorse a religion.
There's several constitutional problems of the issue of the Ten Commandments. One, it's purely a religious icon. There's nothing secular about it. Even more damning (okay, bad choice of words, but in a constitutional sense), the words are verbatim out of the bible, a text specific to a certain religion. In this case the constitution is clear. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The Ten Commandments are specific to a certain religion, therefore respect an establishment of religion.
At the same time, I fully understand why people are upset about this. The constitution bans their religion in federal areas. It doesn't ban religion, but it does ban theirs. I would actually argue if it contained the Ten Commandments alongside writing of other texts, religious and/or secular, it would be perfectly fine. Let everyone feel welcome at the table.
And I'm actually not against the use of the word "God", such as in the Pledge of Allegance, or swearing "so help me God". The idea of God is universal to most all religions, not just a particular "establishment." And our nation was founded on religious freedom, and our use of the word "God" embodies those beliefs. But our nation was also founded on many different religions. I personally feel that people of all religions should feel welcome in America, and I believe our Founding Fathers felt that way as well.
But to specifically condone a specific religion is unconstitutional. If someone feels offended about this, then they get a taste of how God-fearing but non-Christian people feel living in a Christian America.
posted by Joe Carlin at 3:11 AM
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