A school district outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been ordered by a federal judge to remove a public display of the Ten Commandments from a school by a federal judge.
The monument had been located outside Connellsville Area Junior High School, but the judge ruled it violates the First Amendment. While the judge stopped short of ordering the district to remove it, school district officials said the judge’s conclusion was very clear that the monument was unconstitutional, and therefore another student could also bring suit.
The statue was donated in the 1950s by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It will now be returned to the group.
A suit challenging the Constitutionality of the monument had been brought by the group Freedom From Religion, and co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor remarked:
“We’re delighted that reason will prevail and school First Amendment precedent will be followed. Returning these biblical edicts to the Eagles is the rational solution.”
On the other side, monument supporter Gary Colatch said:
“I’m upset they did this without an open discussion or community involvement. They had the community’s support.”
But school district director Ken Lape said the issue for the district was a financial one:
“We surely don’t have the money to fight against something like this.”
I consider myself to be a Christian, and I and my daughter attend church on a regular basis. But do I want the Ten Commandments to be visible whenever she walks into her school? No. If I want her to know what the Bible says, I can tell her or let her read the words for herself from the scripture. Just as I would not want a member of the Muslim, Hindu, or Jewish faith proselytizing my daughter, I also do not see the need to force feed a child who is not a Christian or may not believe in anything at all.
In my opinion, overly ardent Christians in this country seem to feel the need to impose their faith on others. That is wrong, and, more importantly, it is a direct violation of the Constitution. I have said this before and no doubt I will have to repeat myself many more times in the years ahead: We run this country by a Constitution, not by the Bible.
Period. Full stop.
