Article: Georgia legislators, in their infinite wisdom, are trying to imitate Oklahoma, which is rarely a good idea. Republican Rep. Greg Morris is sponsoring a bill to install a Ten Commandments monument on or around the state Capitol grounds… and it just passed through the House on a 138-37 vote. One Democrat attempted to warn him about what’s going to happen… Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, asked Morris if people of other faiths would be free to have a monument on Capitol grounds. Morris said it would be possible. “If the Legislature were compromised of enough people who had the view that the Declaration of the Independence, the Constitution, the Georgia Constitution had some other basis for the freedoms we enjoy today other than the Judeo-Christian values they believed and they reflected in the documents that give us our economic, political and religious freedoms, I suppose they would be free to do so.” I’m still waiting for Morris to explain how each of the Ten Commandments corresponds to our freedoms. Especially the ones about not praying to false idols, and not worshiping the wrong God, and not taking God’s name in vain, and keeping the Sabbath day holy. (You may recall that it was Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland who, in an infamous interview on “The Colbert Report,” was unable to name all the Ten Commandments even though he was fighting to install them in the House.) Morris attempted, in his bill, to make sure only elected officials get the final say in which monuments get approved, but that won’t stop lawsuits from the outside. If a Ten Commandments monument goes up, you can bet other groups will fight to get their own monument approved, too. Dave Silverman of American Atheists already wrote on Twitter: “I Guess an Atheist bench will be in Georgia soon.” I’ve also sent an email to the Satanic Temple asking if they’ll be pursuing a monument in Georgia if this bill gets through the Senate and signed into law by the governor. Incidentally, in Oklahoma, the state called for a moratorium on all additional monuments until they can settle their legal battle over their own Ten Commandments monument. Not sure why Georgia wants to put itself in a similar position. patheos/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/03/07/georgia-legislators-want-to-begin-a-legal-battle-by-installing-ten-commandments-monument-on-capitol-grounds/
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 04:43:25 +0000
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