Week 8 Readings

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS A SEQUEL.

by Rob Boston How A Publicity Stunt By Hollywood Producer Cecil B. DeMille Wound Up At The Supreme Court --And What Happened When It Did According to the Book of Exodus, God handed down the Ten Commandments to Moses in a most dramatic fashion. In the biblical account, lightning flashed in the sky and thunder boomed around Mt. Sinai. The entire mountain shook, and a horn blared out. The people trembled as Moses approached and ascended the cloud-covered summit. He emerged, after a personal encounter with God, carrying two stone tablets on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. In light of this story, the religious nature of the Decalogue would seem to be beyond question. The list of commands itself bears this out: At least four of the decrees deai with specific matters of faith, admonishing believers to spurn false gods, reject graven images, avoid blasphemous speech and keep the Sabbath holy. But to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the Ten Commandments don't necessarily have to be religious. According to Rehnquist, they are also a document that has played a "foundational role ... in secular, legal matters" that can be featured in a city's "celebration of its culturai and historical roots" without becoming "a promotion of religious faith." Rehnquist's comments were made public May 29, when the Supreme Court issued an order stating that it wouid not hear an appeal of a lower court ruling striking down the government's display of a granite Ten Commandments monument in Elkhart, Ind. Rehnquist dissented from that action, and joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, made it clear that he believes the court should have overturned the ruling, clearing the way for government at all levels to display the Ten Commandments. Justice John Paul Stevens, an advocate for church-state separation, found the trio's reasoning convoluted. He noted that the monument in Elkhart contains two lines in large type that read, "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS -- I AM the LORD thy GOD." Observed Stevens, "The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square

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with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference." After all, he continued, "the monument also depicts two Stars of David and a symbol composed of the Greek letters Chi and Rho superimposed on each other that represent Christ." A few years ago, a handful of Religious Right organizations announced campaigns to get the Ten Commandments posted in government buildings and public schools all over the United States. The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the City of Elkhart v. Books case should help bring those efforts to a halt. But it won't happen without a fight. Religious Right organizations were infuriated when the high court took a pass on the Indiana case and have vowed to find other ways to bring the matter before the justices. And they may have the chance -- at least 12 cases dealing with Ten Commandments displays are pending in seven states. (See "Commandments Controversies," page 13.) Meanwhile, in Elkhart, 6ft officials are toying with open defiance. 4- ~

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Ironically, the pwnument that has sparked so much fuss was until a few. years ago covered with weeds and vines. Many town residents didn't even know it was there until a groundskeeper cleaned it off one day in 1998. The monument had found a home in front of the Elkhart City Hall four decades earlier as a ti~or a P£lll11otional campaign for a movie -Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille's biblical extravaganza "The Ten Commandments." •..... '- -_.~ ,--.-..

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DeMille's involve men of a nalliJnwide campaign first launched in 1943 b EJ. Rue eme a Minnesota juvenile court judge an ead of a Fraternal' !":""o a~s (FOE) committee dealing with the problems of youth. Ruegemer claimed that many of the young people who ended up in his courtroom lacked a moral foundation, and he proposed posting paper copies of the Ten Commandments in juvenile courts to rectify that. DeMille got wind of Ruegemer's project as he was working on his epic film, which starred Charlton Heston as Moses. DeMille, eager to drum up publicity for the 1956 mUl(ie, proposed displaying bronze tablets instead of paper copies, but Ruegemer felt that granite markers would be more appropriate, arguing that the original Ten Commandments were probably made of stone. DeMille agreed and authorized Ruegemer to contract with a Minnesota granite firm to begin

production. Eagles units soon began donating them to cities around the country. DeMille carefully exploited the situation to ensure maximum publicity for his movie, and some of the monument dedications were even timed to tie in with the release of the film. In one town, Dunseith, N.D., actor Heston appeared personally for the ceremony. In Milwaukee, a Ten Commandments monument was unveiled the same week the film debuted, with actor Yul Brynner Pharaoh in the movie -- on hand for the festivities. n

Ruegemer, 98 and still living in Minnesota, told the South Bend Tribune in May that the Eagles were at first wary of taking on the project, fearing that it might be perceived as sectarian. To get around that, organizational ieaders asked Catholic, Protestant and Jewish representatives to come together and decide on how to word and list the commandments in a way that was agreeable to all. (Roman Catholics, Protestants and Jews use different versions of the Ten Commandments. For example, in the Catholic version, the fourth commandment is "Honor your mother and father." In the Protestant and Jewish versions, it is "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. ") Thanks to the DeMille-Eagles partnership, more than 2,000 Ten Commandments monuments were donated to communities around the country. The FOE kept the project going long after the film opened, and some monuments did not get erected until 10 years later. Elkhart's monument was dedicated on Memorial Day of 1958, when local Protestant, Jewish and Catholic clergy in Elkhart, joined by FOE officers and city officials, unveiled it at a public ceremony. Four decades passed. In 1998, when the monument was rediscovered, it immediately became a focus of controversy and the target of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal district court ruled against the ACLU, but the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals took the opposite tack. In its Dec. 13, 2000, decision, the appellate panel insisted that government display of the religious text violates the constitutional separation of church and state, suggesting that some faith traditions are officially favored. Court precedents "simply prevent government at any level from intruding into the religious life of our people by sponsoring or endorsing a particular perspective on religious matters," observed the

2-1 majority. "It prevents, as Justice O'Connor has pointed out, government from creating among our people' ins' and' outs' on the basis of religion." Monument defenders, disappointed with the appeals court's decision, urged the Supreme Court to take the case. But the court said no over the strong objections of Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist. (Four members of the high court must agree to take a case in order to get the dispute on the docket.) n

Why ali the sudden interest in the Ten Commandments? Much of the activity stems from the Religious Right. At ieast four organizations have been active in this area recently Liberty Counsei, lV preacher Pat Robertson's American Center For Law and Justice (ACU), the National Clergy Council and the Family Research Council (FRC). n

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Many of these organizations are still smarting from the Supreme Court's 1980 Stone v. Graham ruling. In Stone, the high court struck down a Kentucky law req);!iriLlgcthe posting of the Ten Commandments in all public sc.hOj?ls. Religious Right groups may see the current crusade 'as a w'i,y" to spark a new challenge to that holding and build pu6lic support for their other politicai objectives .. The groups are also angry over more recent decisions by lower courts striking down government display of the Ten Commandments. In 1994 the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered officials in Cobb County, Ga., to remove a Ten Commandments display from the courthouse. In addition, Americans United has won legal cases against government display of the Ten Commandments in Charleston, S.c., and Manhattan, Kan. Undaunted by the string of legal defeats, FRC, a group loosely affiliated with radio counselor James C. Dobson's Focus on the Family, launched a special Ten Commandments project In November of 1999. Called "Hang Ten," the effort was designed to encourage state and local governments to post the Decalogue at government buildings and public schools as well as win passage of the "Ten Commandments Defense Act," legislation sponsored by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) that would have stripped the federal courts of their ability to even hear legal cases challenging government-sponsored Ten Commandments displays. FRC announced the "Hang Ten" campaign with much fanfare, but the project hasn't achieved much so far. Aderholt's bill has never come to

a vote in the House, and the crusade is going nowhere in the courts. Nevertheless, Religious Right leaders have vowed to keep fighting. On the day the Supreme Court refused the Elkhart case, several released statements blasting the court action. Falwell, in his Falwell Confidential bulletin, asserted that "people of faith across the nation were disheartened" by the action. The Lynchburg televangelist went on to claim that "activist judges are deliberately ignoring the actuality of America's founding -- an actuality of dependence on the Bible and Judeo-Christian values." The day after the high court rejected the case, ACU founder Robertson ranted about the justices' action on his "700 Club" program. The Virginia Beach teievangelist called the action "the craziest thing" and wasted no time launching an attack on church-state separation. Asserted Robertson, "There's nothing in the Constitution that ever intended this, nor and this is very important the phrase 'separation of church and state' does not appear in the United States Constitution. It was in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union, but not in the U.S. Constitution." n

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Robertson insisted that Congress should stand up to "the power of the black-robed justices." Congress, he said, "can take away their money. They can also take away their appellate jurisdiction if they so choose, because the Constitution gives that power." The ACU, which heiped defend the city of Elkhart and has worked on other Ten Commandments cases, issued a bland statement expressing disappointment. Earlier, however, the organization had bitterly criticized groups like Americans United for opposing such displays. In a shrill fund-raising letter mailed in March, ACU Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow asserted that court action against government display of the Ten Commandments could put the country on a ". slippery slope' toward moral ruin." Religious Right legal groups have prodded local officials to continue fighting for the commandments, despite the prevailing legal trend. Even in Elkhart, resistance remains. Local officials have pledged to find a way to keep the Ten Commandments monument in piace. Mayor David Miller, a 44-year-old graphic artist who has led the campaign to defend the marker, told reporters, "I will fight to keep the monument standing right where it is."

During the legal battle, Miller went so far as to design promonument bumper stickers and led a petition drive to keep the commandments up. With his final legal appeal exhausted, Miller has proposed adding other types of historical documents and markers around the monument, which he argues will make the display constitutional. Attorneys at the Indiana branch of the ACLU disagree and have proposed moving the monument to private property. U.S. District Judge Allen Sharp has been given the task of finding a solution. Sharp has been directed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to ensure that "although the condition that offends the Constitution is eliminated, Elkhart retains the authority to make decisions regarding the placement of the monument." (One suggestion involves selling the monument and the land around it to a private group.)

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An Internet poll sponsored by the Elkhart Truth newspaper found that 71 percent of respondents favored leaving the Ten Commandments where it is. Although such:polls..are not scientifically valid, city leaders insist that the ~rwhe ming majority of residents oppose moving the marker. .

"Like the residents of Elkhart, most Americans, polls show, favor the idea of government promotion of the Ten Commandments. One survey, conducted in July of 1999, found 74 percent endorsing the idea of Ten Commandments displays in public schools. But those polls also show Widespread ignorance about what the commandments say. A few years ago, a Gallup poll found that only 42 percent of Americans are able to name even five of the Ten Commandments. Since most Americans don't know what the commandments say, it's not surprising that many of them persist in believing that the Decalogue is the basis for U.S. law. In Elkhart, for example, one official asserted that the monument should stay because the commandments, aside from their religious significance, have influenced secular law. "This has tons of historical significance," said John Mann, a spokesman for Mayor Miller. "Let's say that hypothetically, Moses got the Ten Commandments from aliens or just made them up or something. Still, they are the basis for every modern legal system." This claim, while frequently spouted by Religious Right activists, does not stand up to historical scrutiny, say church-state experts.

Steven K. Green, legal director for Americans United, researched this question in 1999-2000 for a scholarly article that appeared in the Journal of Law & Religion (Vol. XIV, No.2). Green, who holds a Ph.D. in religious and constitutional history, concluded that the claim that U.s. law is based on the Ten Commandments is usually asserted and accepted as a given without historical evidence. For example, Chief Justice Rehnquist in his recent Elkhart dissent, referred to "the foundational role of the Ten Commandments in secular, legal matters." But he cited no precedent or scholarly authority for that view. Green notes that American law is an outgrowth of British common law and "more generally, the Western legal tradition." Claims that the common law was based on the Bible, he says, were first put forth by scholar monks in the Dark Ages, who were trying to defend the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church over temporal governments. The claim is shaky at best, Green writes, pointing out that the common law "relied primarily on custom." Green also discovered that America's Founding Fathers adopted only that portion of British common law that "was consistent with republican ideals." He writes of the Founding period, "[I]t is not surprising that express references to the Decalogue or scripture as a source of law were nonexistent." Even a cursory reading of the Constitution debunks the claim that U.S. law is based on the Ten Commandments. The Constitution contains no religious directives whatsoever and makes no mention of the Ten Commandments or even God. The Constitution, a secular document, instead establishes religious freedom for all by separating church and state in the First Amendment. In addition, both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams explicitly denied that Christianity is the basis for American common law. (And, despite frequent repetition by the Religious Right, there is no evidence that James Madison ever stated, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization ... upon the capacity of each of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." This quotation pops up repeatedly in Religious Right circles, but it is almost certainly bogus.) AU's Green concluded that arguments that U.S. law is based on the Ten Commandments or any religious code are specious. "At best, the most that could be said about the relationship of the Ten

'The Rutherford Institute! "4(('\ Commandments to the law is that the former has influenced legal notions of right and wrong ... ," Green concluded. "[T]hat has always been a noncontroversial fact. But to Insist on a closer relationship or to hold the Ten Commandments up as having a special place in the development of American law lacks historical support." Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn said Green's research proving that the Ten Commandments are not the foundation of the American legal system will be extremely useful. Green's schoiarshlp, said Lynn, shows that there is no "secular purpose" for government display of the Ten Commandments. Concluded Lynn. "There's an easy solution to this controversy: Let religious groups promote the Ten Commandments. The government should stay out of it."

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The Fraternal Order of Eagles and the War over the Ten Commandments "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," Jesus Christ tells his followers in Matthew 10: 16. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Two millenia after the fact, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore took these words to heart, at least in regard to the serpent, and slipped into the state Supreme Court bUilding one late night shortly after his 2000 election. As Coral Ridge Ministries cameras rolled, Moore and supporters installed a 5,300-pound granite monument in the rotunda of the state courthouse displaying the Ten Commandments with other historical documents inscribed on the sides. Moore first became associated with the Decalogue in the mid-1990s when, as an Etowah County judge, he posted a paper copy of the Commandments in his courtroom. He successfully fought for three years, with the help of Rev. D. James Kennedy and the Alabama Christian Coalition, to keep the modest display posted.

Questia Media America, Inc. www.queslia.com

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PUbli~ati?n Information: Article Title: T.he T~n Commandments a Sequel.

Cont~uto:s: Rob Boston - author. Magazine Title: Church & State. Volume: 54. Issue:

7. PublIcation Date: July 2001. Page Number: 9. COPYRIGHT 2001 Americans United for Separation of Church and State; COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group

Moore gained a great deal of attention and support with the same sort of radical stubbornness Alabama governor George Wallace defiantly displayed a few decades earlier. In 2000, the brash West Point grad was elected the top judicial officer in Alabama, in part for pledging to bring the Ten Commandments with him. As Moore has fought his much-publicized battle over the last few years (and continues to fight), Ten Commandments displays around the country have fallen into the spotlight in their respective regions. Over the last few years, the ACLU and similar but smaller groups have filed lawsuits in small towns and cities throughout America to remove Commandments monuments from public property. As Moore awaits a decision in his appeal of his removal as Chief Justice, traveling the country accepting awards from the Constitution Party (there are rumors that he will accept their presidential nomination) and making appearances at Commandments rallies, Decalogue displays everywhere are being removed either voluntarily or by court order. Unlike Moore's carefully crafted Commandments paean, though, most of the monuments currently subjected to review involve gifts from the Fraternal Order of Eagles made three to four decades ago to hundreds of cities (a recent Reuters article claimed that at least 26 such monuments in 15 states have been moved in recent years under court order or legal threat). In 1943, a Minnesota juvenile court judge named E. J. Ruegemer hatched a simple plan to save the youth of America, whom he saw as "without any code of conduct or standards by which to govern their actions." Accordingly, the judge concluded that the nation's juveniles "could benefit from exposure to one of mankind's earliest codes of condUct, the Ten Commandments." The judge also happened to be the chair of the Youth

Guidance Committee of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a goodwill group . formed near the end of the 19th century that today claims as one of its chief accomplishments the advent of Mother's Day.

Commandments, and nearly all have found that the large monuments . serve as state endorsement of religion because of their simple place on public property. Most of the disputed stone slabs are often situated in front of City Hall. In one instance, where the monument was ac~uallY . allowed to stay, a Texas court took into account the monument s location near a rarely used side exit.

The judge's proposal to post paper copies of the Ten Commandments in juvenile court houses throughout the country was initially rejected by the Eagles. Despite the judge's stipulation that the Decalogue displays were "not to be a religious instruction of any kind" and were intended only as "recognized codes of behavior to guide and help them," the Eagles leadership expressed concern that supporting the dissemination of the Commandments "might seem coercive or sectarian." However, their concerns were alleviated when a council of Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic laymen endorsed a version of the Decalogue and the Eagles agreed to sponsor the youth gUidance program. As the story goes, it was at this point that movie director Cecil B. DeMille, in the midst of producing the blockbuster The Ten Commandments, caught wind of the plan, contacted Ruegemer and suggested that instead of paper, the Decalogue should be inscribed on bronze plaques. The juvenile court judge countered that since the Commandments, according to biblical tradition, were written on stone, so should these monuments be. With this decision, two local granite companies began crafting displays in the shaper of two tablets, paid for and distributed by various Eagle chapters or "aeries" to numerous state and local governments across America. While it is impossible to deter,rn.ne the~exact number of monuments produced and installed, .ij:oois__believed that up to 2,000 were eventually distributed a,pd "accepted over the following two decades. Today, these monuments, which are often grand in size and resemble a giant tombstone, are the subject of most litigation involving Ten Commandments displays. A quick survey of current and recent litigation turned up dozens of cases around the country, the most recent involving a reddish stone installation in front of City Hall that the FOE gave to Duluth, Minn. in 1957. The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union filed suit in the first week of March to remove the display for violating the First Amendment by promoting one religion over another. The MCLU attorney stated that the monument "excludes those people who don't believe in the Ten Commandments. They may be atheists ... they may be BUddhist, they may be Hindu, they may be Muslim." Only days later, the Duluth City Council voted 5-4 to remove the 7-foot-high monument. Neither the crowd of Commandments supporters outside the building nor impassioned speakers inside could dissuade the council from its fears of costly litigation (estimates of $20,000). While there have been a number of offers to house it, no concrete plans have been made for the display's departure or where the Eagles' gift will eventually rest. Meanwhile, citizens in support of the monument have raised over $17,000 and collected 2,000 signatures, with 3,000 more needed to put the display on a November ballot. So far, most monument litigation has met a similar fate. Despite efforts to avoid a legal battle, many challenged cities are drawn into court. As a result, judges are called upon to decide the fate of the Ten

In that case a homeless man living in Austin sued for the monument's removal next to the state capitol building. However, the court ruled in December 2003 that no reasonable person would consider the display a religious endorsement. Donated to the state in 1961 by the FOE, the 5foot-high granite display was found to have the secular purpo~e ~f encouraging youth morality. Contributing factors to the U.S. Dlstnct Court's decision included the lack of a state seal or Texas star on the monument. The judge also said that its location-next to a seldom used door and facing away from vehicle traffic-weakened the plaintiff's claim.

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ThiS "victory" illustrates the basic struggle for any Commandments p.U?lic display. Absent a defiant magistrate, a city must prove its lack of religIOUS intent. As in Austin, an obstructed view can be an important factor. Recently, City Council members in Albert Lea, Minn. pledged to keep a nearly identical monument to the one in Duluth in their Central Park. "I don't see where there's a problem with it being there," one Council member told a newspaper. A second added, "We could use a little more religion in the world." A third seemed more pragmatic. "It really makes no difference to me either way," he said. "I can understand both sides." The paper noted what may very well be more important than resolve for. the survival of the monument if the ACLU brings suit. The sizeable slab IS partially obscured by a few evergreen trees. A few cities in the same situation as Albert Lea have tried to avoid removal by selling the patch of land the monument is on to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, thus making the installation private. The FOE donated one of its monuments to Frederick in 1958. For much of its existence, the stone display stood in front of City Hall but was eventually moved to a city park where it was planted among other items like a George Washington plaque and various war memorials. In 2002, the ACLU sought to remove the monument but dropped its suit after the city sold the monument and a parcel of land to the FOE. In 2003, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed suit against the city and the FOE, challenging the transaction. i-::::;;;:;;:-----iFaced with similar litigation, the Casper, Wyoming City Council voted to remove their en Commandments monument from City Park in October of 2003 after the Freedom from Religion Foundation asked that it be removed from government property. After long, involved debates, Council members voted 5-4 L --:-:-~to move the Ten Commandments to a historic plaza, where they can be viewed as an "integral part of history." Part of the city's motivation stemmed from the fea: ~hat they ~~st a~so allow other monuments that espouse differing religiOUS or polttlcal views. Kansas anti-gay extremist Fred Phelps, head of God Hates Fags, has called for the installation of his own monument (click here to see a larger image) in Casper condemning slain gay student Matthew Shepard.

Rev. Phelps made similar entreaties throughout the West after the Tenth , Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2002 in Summum v. Ogden that public bodies must accept displays of alternate messages if they continue to keep Ten Commandments monuments on public property. This past fall, the Tenth Circuit refused to reconsider its ruling that constitutional guarantees of free speech require the city to remove the Ten Commandments monument or accept one listing the "Seven Aphorisms" of Summum, a religion founded in Salt Lake City 27 years ago. Summum sued the city in 1999 after it refused to accept a donation of a stone monument listing Summum's tenets. The Ten Commandments monument was donated to the city in 1966 by the Ogden Fraternal Order of Eagles. The ruling prompted the state of Utah to move or remove seven monuments from public property across the state, not only in Salt Lake City but also in Ogden, Murray, Tooele, Roy and Provo.

over another, Card suggested that the Commandments should be moved • to the nearby Presbyterian Church or given to the Everett Eagles-the organization that donated the monument to the city in 1959. A decision has not yet been made in the case, but a resolution was recently passed stipulating that the city council "vigorously supports efforts by the city of Everett to maintain its long-standing monument containing the Ten Commandments outside old city hall." Kansas c;ty, Kansas In June of 2003, a Commandments monument in front of Wyandotte County Courthouse was moved to a Catholic Church lawn 150 feet away. The local board of commissioners voted 8-0 to move the monument after the ACLU threatened to sue the city jf the nearly 40-year-old monument remained. "At a time when we're trying to save money any way we can and lower taxes, it just seems to be a prudent decision to make," said Commissioner Kelley Kultala.

Similar apprehensions caused Boise, Idaho officials in January 2003 to vote to remove a display of the Decalogue from the City Park and return it to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which donated it to the city in 1965. The Council made the decision in hopes of heading off Rev. Phelps, whose request to install his monument is set for a hearing before the Council this April 6th. After the Council's decision to remove the marker, a Keep the Commandments Coalition formed and filed a lawsuit to obstruct the -- ... city from removing the monument. On February 11, 2004, a judge for the U.S. District Court denied the coalition's request and gave the county the freedom to move the ,mCSrlUrilent. The City Council, trying to recoup legal expenses fron1"the Coalition for the costs of litigation so far encurred, moved the 3,000-pond monument on Monday, March 29th, by crane to a nearby Episcopal Church that faces the state Capitol. Thirteen advocates of the monument, including State Rep. Henry Kulczyk, were arrested before the display's removal. Grandmother and pharmacist Gloria Pfost, facing a possible $300 fine and six months in jail if convicted, remained undeterred. "I would give more than just a fine and time In jail for this/' she told The Idaho Statesman. "I would give my right arm, and even more than that." Outside the Tenth Circuit's jurisdiction, though, and absent any more federal rulings, courts have generally followed accepted doctrine prohibiting state endorsement of religion. Because the FOE monuments are so conspicuous and typically perceived as tied to one religion, Christianity, many courts have found them in violation of the Constitution. Considering the high profile of Roy Moore's attempt to install his monument, as well as the increased visibility of religion in contemporary culture, these monuments are likely to come under increased review. The ~ .following are additional current or recent cases involving Ten Commandments monuments that were originally donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles: Everett, Wash;ngton In September of 2003, 20-year-old Jesse Card filed a $1 suit against the city of Everett, demanding that the Ten Commandments monument in front of the city's police station be removed (click here to see an image). Arguing that the monument is equal to state endorsement of one religion

Plattsmouth, Nebraska In 2002, the ACLU filed suit to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from City Park. A district court judge ruled against the city of Plattsmouth and ordered the monument removed. Later that year an appeal was filed and on February 18, 2004, the Eighth Circuit upheld the ruling that the monument must be removed.

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La Crosse, Wisconsin The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the city to remove a 35-year-old monument from the City Park. Immediately after the sl:lit was filed, the city sold the monument, along with a 440 squarefoot plot, to the same organization, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, that had initially donated the display. Terms of the sale required the organization to erect fences and post disclaimers clearly stating that the display and area were privately owned. Despite these measures, a District Court Judge ruled in February 2004 that the monument must be removed from Cameron Park in La Crosse. Following the ruling, the La Crosse common council voted 13-2 to appeal the case to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Habersham County, Georg;a In 2003, part-time Baptist minister Bo Turner filed suit against the county of Habersham to remove the display of the Ten Commandments on the county courthouse and a public swimming pool. Turner claimed that as a religious symbol the Commandments had no place in the courthouse. On November 18, 2003, a district court judge ruled that the city must remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse and a public swimming pool. The Habersham commission voted on February 9, 2004 not to appeal the case and agreed to move the monuments. Hanover, Pennsylvania In early February 2004, Americans United for Separation of Church and State threatened county officials with a laWSUit if the Ten Commandments are not removed from Wirt Park in Hanover, York County. County officials are not sure if they can afford a costly legal battle over the monument and have not yet made a decision as to what they should do. Several churches in the area have offered to help pay to have the Commandments moved to their private property. Many townspeople are opposed to the proposed removal from the park and over 10,000 people have signed a petition asking the county to fight the lawsuit. Council

members say it could be months before a decision is made.

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Journal of Religion & Society

RELATED LINKS:

White Paper: Affirming Religious and Traditional Heritage: Constitutional Guidelines for Displaying the Ten Commandments (PDF) Press Release: Rutherford Institute Assists Arkansas District Judge in Defending Constitutional Display of Ten Commandments in

Volume 6 (2004) ISSN 1522-5658

Ten Commandments Monuments and the Rivalry oflconic Texts James W. Watts, Syracuse University

Courtroom Abstract Legal feature: The Law on "The law": Why Roy Moore Lost

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The legal and political controversy over Ten Commandments monuments in the United States revolves around iconic texts holding a discrete symbolic value compared to texts whose function primarily is to be read. A comparative perspective on iconic texts reveals that the nation's founding documents, the Declaration ofIndependence, the Constitution. and the Bill of Rights. have also been increasingly turned into monumental icons over the last half-century. The commandments controversy can therefore be understood as competition among iconic texts for symbolic supremacy. At stake in that struggle are basic issues over how the nation will represent the government's relationship to the many religions represented within its popUlation.

Introduction [1] The legal and political controversy over Ten Conunandments monuments in the United States involves iconic texts holding a discrete symbolic value compared to texts whose function primarily is to be read. The nation's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, have also increasingly been turned into monumental icons over the last half-century. The Ten Commandments controversy can therefore be understood in terms of competition among iconic texts for symbolic supremacy. Like the placement of divine images in ancient Near Eastern temples, struggles over the public display of iconic national and religious texts involve claims for their relative prestige in contemporary America. [2] I will defend these claims by describing the nature of iconic texts and the trend to enshrine American national texts as icons. First, I will review the recent controversy over Ten Conunandments monuments, since events in Alabama in 2003 demonstrated very clearly that the Ten Conunandments is an iconic text in America. The essential features of the extensive media coverage of this event are as follows: [3] In 2001, the newly elected Alabama Chief Justice, Roy Moore, installed a two-ton granite monument of the Ten Conunandments in the rotunda of the State Judicial Building. After a series of lawsuits, in the summer of 2003 a Federal court ordered the monument removed, calling its presence there an infringement on the constitutional separation between church and state. This order prompted an outpouring of support for the monument and for Judge Moore. Evangelical Christians protested and prayed by the commandments and in front of the building after they were evicted from the premises. A rabbi promised Moore the support of two Orthodox Jewish organizations. Delays in implementing the court order extended the protests for several weeks, until finally the monument was removed from view (AP, August 1,2001; August 15, 2003; CNN). [4] The media covered these events extensively both in the United States and abroad. They prompted considerable debate about religion, law, and the state, but also much bemusement over the intense emotions the presence of this monument aroused. No one should have been surprised;

Journal ofReligion & Society

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similar events had occurred around the country for the past several years. In 2002, protesters had to be dragged away from a plaque of the Ten Commandments in Chester County, Pennsylvania. so that it could be covered while a lawsuit over its display was appealed (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 23, 2002). One judge ordered the plaque removed, but an appeals court overruled the order, saying that the plaque could be preserved because of its eighty.three-year-old historical value (Philadelphia Inquirer, September 13, 2003). Other lawsuits against Ten Commandments monuments on public land have been filed in numerous communities. Sometimes, protests have occurred against Ten Commandments monuments (for example, in Austin, Texas; see Metroplex Atheists), and in a few places such monuments have even been vandalized with graffiti stating that they are unconstitutional (as in South Bend, Indiana; see South Bend Tribune). [5] Clearly, a plaque or monument of the Ten Commandments carries powerful symbolism in contemporary America. But why has this symbol now become such an object of devotion, derision, and conflict? The news coverage of the Alabama commandments monument COJUlects to an aspect of my own research that may shed some light on this phenomenon.

Iconic Books and Texts

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[6] The Iconic Book Project at Syracuse University is assembling a database of images and descriptions of iconic books. An "iconic" book or text may be defined as one that is manipulated, displayed, venerated, and/or decor~tedJn~dditionto being read. To a certain extent, all books are iconic because bool$.§. are symbolic representations of culture. Books that appear in works of art aim to evokt;asso~ations with education, religious authority, and law, to name a few exampfes:The possession of books characterizes the owner's learning or piety. However, sacred religious books and political texts carry more iconic status than other books and texts. The ritual display of sacred books establishes the legitimacy of religious rituals and the authority of religious leaders. Politicians in many cultures use sacred texts or national constitutions in swearing-in ceremonies that legitimize political authority and succession. Religious scriptures often receive extensive embellislunent of their texts and covers, as well as elaborate cases for preservation and display. In all these ways, people treat books as icons, that is, the symbolic manifestation of divine authority and/or state sovereignty. [7] The Iconic Book Project subjects the phenomenon of iconic books to cross-cultural comparison and analysis, looking for cultural and historical patterns of usage and development. Although the project has only recently gotten underway, some provisional conclusions can already be drawn from this materiaL One of these conclusions is that the iconic use of books in Western culture has not declined in modem times. It has in fact increased over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and plays a central role in many contemporary religions as well as in the political discourses of many countries. [8] One kind of evidence for this conclusion can be found in the depictions of scriptures in art. Prior to the nineteenth century, books or other kinds of texts were usually depicted with people: they signify the person's scholarship or religious orthodoxy or, in the case of divine figures, the source of the book's authority. Traditional Jewish art generally did not portray Torah scrolls, preferring to depict the ark that contains the scrolls. However, in imagery from the last one hundred and fifty years, sacred books and scrolls have been freed of such contexts; they become objects of artistic interest in themselves. Pictures of Bibles or Torah scrolls or Qurans now appear frequently as the focus of attention in works of art and popular media. They have become independent icons of religious truth and power in contemporary visual culture.

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[9] The Alabama Ten Commandments clearly fits the description of an iconic text. Of course, proponents of the Ten Commandments movement also promote reading the commandments: one philanthropist promised ten dollars to every child in American who memorized them (AP, April 10,2003). However, it is important to state again that the Alabama monument was designed to be seen as much as read. Its massive bulk symbolized divine authority behind human law. Its public display in a court building laid claim to the representation of religion as a fundamental source of American goverrunent (see Ten Commandments Defense Fund). [10] Therefore, the controversy over the monument is one symptom of contemporary culture's increasing fascination with iconic texts. Examining the debate in the context of iconic books and texts casts the political and religious forces in conflict over Ten Commandments monuments in a different light than do the usual legal and political commentaries.

The Ten Commandments Movement [11] A "Ten Commandments movement" has been gathering steam for several years. In 2000, the Associated Press reported that "With its message on yard signs, book covers and on the walls of courthouses and public classrooms, a Ten Commandments movement is pushing forward in Kentucky and nationwide" (January 7, 2000). The article mentioned efforts to post Ten Commandments in courts and schools in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and California, and spoke of Ten Commandments rallies across the country. Frank Flinn wrote: "This controversy is quickly replacing abortion as the litmus test for Christian values in the public forum. A complicated constitutional lawsuit over abortion is difficult to pay for and argue. Hanging the Decalogue in a public hallway is both cheap and easy." The escalating battles since then over such monuments confIrm his assessment. [12] The Associated Press also reported in 2000 that "Roy Moore, an Alabama circuit judge who refused to take down the commandments posted in his courtroom in 1995, has spoken about his case at Christian rallies across the country - including one Nov. 7 in Corbin, Ky., that 3,000 people attended. He encourages school boards to post the Ten Commandments even if it means a costly lawsuit for the district" (January 7, 2000). Later that year, Moore campaigned for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court on the slogan "The Ten Commandment's Judge" and won by a wide margin. [13] When Moore installed his granite monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, he did so in the middle of the night and without consulting the other justices of the court. However, he made sure his action was noticed: "A Florida TV preacher who supports Moore, D. James Kennedy, had a crew from his Coral Ridge Ministries film the installation and offered videotapes of it for a donation of$19," the Associated Press reported (October 16,2002). In the lawsuits that followed, Moore testified that he began planning to put a monument in the judicial building at his inauguration in January 2001. Moore acted self-consciously to promote a national movement of Christian political action, and to defy opposing social forces. His defense attorney called the suits against the monument part of a national movement "to censor God." It may be fair to say that in the course of this controversy, the Ten Commandments have become a symbol representing Evangelical political goals. [14] However, other courthouse monuments of the Ten Commandments are products of much earlier movements. The Ten Commandments have been a common theme in Western religious and legal art. The tablets on which the commandments are traditionally represented, alone or

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with lions rampant, often decorate the synagogue arks containing the Torah scrolls. The "holy ark" [ha 'aron haqodesh] usually occupies the most prominent position facing the congregation. The tablets of the commandments emphasize the centrality of law in Jewish tradition, and are a common feature of synagogue architecture. The fact that the tablets often contain only the munbers one through ten in Hebrew characters (or Roman numerals in Christian iconography) in place of the actual commandments further illustrates their iconic role in Jewish and Christian cultures. [15] During the Protestant Refonnation of the sixteenth century, some European churches replaced their pictorial altar pieces with biblical texts, often the Ten Commandments, as part of an iconoclastic reaction against images in churches (Koerner). In England, "Decalogue boards" appeared after the Refonnation, not only to demonstrate essentials of Christian behavior but also the legal power of the state over the church. Few have survived the changing tides of English religious politics: many were painted over by seventeenth-century Puritans who opposed all visual displays, even textual ones; others were reinstalled by eighteenth-century Evangelicals, but were dismantled again by the nineteenth-century Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement (see Suffolk County Churches). Their fate shows that the Ten Commandments have long been a potent symbol when religion and state clash over issues oflaw. It also demonstrates that their" symbolism may be wielded by the state against religious dissidents as much as by religious groups against state authority. ." C;;

-",

[16] Art in other conte~..s..usua11Yportraysthe commandments in the hands of Moses, in a scene often reproduced.in monUiilental sculpture decorating graveyards and memorials, American law schools:ana courthouses. The current U.S. Supreme Court building, opened in 1935, portrays Moses holding the tablets of the commandments as the central and largest figure on its east pediment. Court rulings allow such displays if they are motivated by historical, rather than religious, intent. In this case, Confucius and Solon flank Moses so that the three represent historical antecedents of U.S. law in Chinese, Hebrew, and Greek cultures. But Moses' central position and larger size nevertheless lends support to the Ten Commandments movement: proponents often cite it and other artwork depicting Moses and the commandments in Washington government buildings as examples of the Federal Judiciary's hypocrisy in outlawing Ten Commandments displays on public land (for example, Pat Robertson on CBNNews and the photo essays by Carrie Devorah in the National Conservative Weekly). [17] Religious groups set up Ten Commandments monuments on public sites in some American cities as early as the 1920s. During World War II, Minnesota Judge E. J. Ruegemer, with the support of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE), a nation-wide service club, pushed to have the Ten Commandments posted on the walls ofjuvenile court rooms (Mittlebeeler). Ruegemer defended this action as non-sectarian because ''the Commandments are not just a religious rule, but a good code of conduct which can be followed by everyone, regardless of creed" (ACLJ). The trend gathered steam in the 1950s, when the FOE began donating granite monuments of the Ten Commandments to courthouses across the country. This effort was bankrolled by Cecil B. De-Mille, whose movie "The Ten Commandments" was released in 1956 (FOE). The FOE claim to have set up over four thousand monuments to date (Minneapolis Star Tribune). In the 1990s, Evangelical Christians reenergized such efforts by mobilizing to defend existing monuments and install new ones. [18] Proponents have often repeated the claim that the commandments distill a moral and spiritual code common to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions. The FOE worked to

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synthesize the different wording and enumeration of the commandments in Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions to produce a version acceptable to all. The commandments monuments were therefore one more expression of the mid-twentieth century effort to promote an American civil religion that also produced the phrase "under God" in its Pledge of Allegiance. This effort built on a tradition dating back to the 1864, when the phrase "In God We Trust" first appeared on U.S. coins. These efforts during the Civil War and Cold War tapped religious sentiment to fuel American nationalism. The Ten Commandments monuments, by virtue of their monumental character, gave God a visible place in public space, which is what their sponsors intended. Robert S. Nelson and Margaret Olin observe that this is the function of any public monument: "The Monument expresses the power and sense of the society that gives it meaning, and at the same time obscures competing claims for authority and meaning" (7). [19] Claims for the universalism of the commandments encounter more resistance at the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, when immigration has diversified the American religious landscape and Christian and Jewish communities find themselves split internally over many issues, including state display of the commandments. For example, several groups representing Christian and Jewish denominations as well as interfaith organizations filed amici curiae briefs opposing the Alabama Ten Commandments monument (see Alabama Supreme Court), in contrast to the Christian and Jewish support for it cited above. The commandments have now become a symbol of conservative political and religious agendas in an era when sharp ideological differences divide both political and religious institutions. [20] Some advocates are using the decades-old tolerance for monuments to the Ten Commandments for openly divisive purposes. Reverend Fred Phelps proposed erecting monuments on public lands in cities in Wyoming, Idaho, and Kansas to commemorate Matthew Shephard, murdered in 1998 because he was gay. But he intended to commemorate Shephard not as a victim of murder, but as an object lesson of someone who "entered hell" because of his homosexual behavior. In Pennsylvania, Phelps announced a similar effort to focus on a gay man who committed suicide in 1997. Phelps cited a ruling of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that "any city that displays a Ten Commandments monument on public property must also allow monuments espousing the views of other religions or political groups on that same property" (AP, February 1,2004). The city council ofeasper, Wyoming, where Shephard was murdered, considered removing their Ten Commandments monument, donated by the FOE in 1965, to frustrate Phelps' legal challenge. These developments illustrate not only the complicated legal problems posed by religious monuments, but also the iconic tendency of monuments to generate more monuments. When society enshrines some texts, opposing social groups tend to interpret the symbolic relationship between such texts differently, some seeing them as mutually supportive while others view them as contradictory. Since the relationships between iconic texts is symbolic, such disputes cannot be resolved by simply interpreting the contents of the texts. [21] The net effect of this history is that the Ten Commandments have become a common symbol for the claim that U.S. law and government developed from religious roots and that it should remain true to them. However, the; Ten Commandments are not alone in being displayed on public property as iconic texts. In fact, the Ten Commandments movement is playing catchup with another movement in American society, the one to elevate the country's foundational documents to the status of iconic texts. This movement has developed in ways that parallel both the Ten Commandments movement and other ways in which religious groups revere and popularize their sacred texts.

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Iconic National Texts [22] Since the late 19405, another American service organization, the Exchange Club, has been placing "Freedom Shrines" in public schools, government buildings, and courthouses throughout the United States. The shrines contain twenty or thirty documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, as well as materials ranging in date from the Mayflower Compact to Martin Luther King, Jt.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (see NEe, "Freedom Shrine"). The National Exchange Club developed Freedom Shrines as part of its "Americanism" project, which promotes "pride in country, respect for the flag, and appreciation of our freedoms" (NEC, "Americanism"). The club claims to have placed more than twelve thousand shrines nationwide. It distributes the shrines to its local clubs together with suggested rituals and speeches for dedication ceremonies (NEC, "Exchange Marketplace"). [23] Around the middle of the twentieth century, the original founding documents of the United States were installed in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In the installation ceremony, held on December 13, 1952, President Harry S. Truman said:

•

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The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are now assembled in one place for display and safekeeping ... We are engaged here ...r today in a symbolic act. We are enshrining these documents for future ages ... This magnificent hall has been ~onstructecl to exhibit them, and the vault beneath, that we have b~ilt to protecf'thet1,~iS as safe from destruction as anything that the wit of m9de~ can devise. All this is an honorable effort, based upon 4'everence for the great past, and our generation can take just pride in it (NARA, emphasis mine).

After undergoing extensive renovations, the rotunda of the National Archives was reopened on September 18, 2003. The National Archives publicized the event with rhetoric of a promised renewal of not only national but worldwide import: "The Charters of Freedom: A New World is at Hand," The following description captures a sense of the rotunda's architectural effect: Placed in the center of the grand 75-foot high domed semi-circular Rotunda, the Charters are currently displayed in a raised marble case, flanked by two 35-foot murals depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, on the left; and James Madison presenting George Washington with the final draft of the U.S. Constitution, on the right. The Declaration is mounted vertically on the wall above the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Each night the Charters are lowered twenty feet into a steel and reinforced concrete vault beneath the display area (NARA). The architecture of the rotunda and its display cases evokes, consciously or unconsciously, that of a synagogue ark that holds Torah scrolls. Truman rightly described the foundational documents as "enshrined." [24] The tendency to characterize the Constitution as incomparable was taken even further by the publicity for the new National Constitution Center that opened in Philadelphia on July 4, 2003. It is promoted as a constitutional theme park: Just as the Constitution affects every facet of Americans' daily lives, so will the National Constitution Center (NCC) use a wide variety of media - interactive and multi-media exhibits, live actors and interpreters, film, music, artifacts, television,

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text panels and labels, sculpture, and the Internet - to bring the document to life (National Constitution Center). This textual theme park invites comparison with Christian Bible theme parks that have been popular in recent decades (Jim Bakker's well-known "Heritage USA" went bankrupt in the late 1980s, but there are others: Holy Land Experience opened in 2000 in Orlando, Florida; an old example is Field of the Woods in Murphy, North Carolina, which among other things advertises ''the world's largest Ten Commandments"). In Philadelphia's Constitution Center, the text of the Constitution is etched in 450 feet of illuminated glass encircling the main exhibit hall. At its opening, boosters proclaimed the universal importance of the Constitution in language that makes the rhetoric of the Ten Commandments' movement look modest by comparison. "Through these elements, NCC visitors will discover the history behind the world's most important document as well as the depth and breadth to which it affects every single American today" (emphasis mine; for the current, somewhat less hyperbolic publicity, see NCC). [25] Thus, since the mid-twentieth century, the U.S. government and various private groups have been raising the iconic status of the Constitution and its associated documents by treating them as visual symbols of the nation's government and ideals. Of course, proponents also hope to encourage greater familiarity with them by having the public read them. The focus on their physical form, however, whether original (in the National Archives rotunda) or in reproduction (in the Constitution Center and in Freedom Shrines), encourages a symbolism and universalistic rhetoric otherwise associated with the sacred texts of various religious traditions.

The Rivalry of Iconic Texts [26] It is doubtful that the protestors at the Alabama courthouse would have liked these claims about the incomparability of the U.S. Constitution. Not that the Ten Commandments movement is inherently anti-constitutional; far from it. Some Evangelical leaders hold a very high view of the Constitution as "the greatest document ever penned by human hands," an oft.repeated catchphrase that exempts comparisons with divinely-inspired scripture (used in this way, for example, by the conservative commentators Cal Thomas and David Black; Reverend Jerry Falwell prefers to restrict this accolade to the Declaration of Independence). However, they do want the Constitution and the Federal courts that interpret it to acknowledge the higher authority of God and scripture. Some protestors in the Alabama monument incident wore t-shirts that juxtaposed a cross over the American flag and waved their bibles as they burned copies of the federal court order to remove the monument from the rotunda (AP photo, August 31, 2003). This ritual concisely represented the conflict as one between iconic texts, elevating one while destroying the other. It also illustrated the fact that the texts each side defended represent, and to some degree camouflage, other realities: Evangelicals use the Ten Commandments as a cipher for the entire Christian Bible, an iconic text considered in its entirety to be the literal utterance of God, and which represents for them the sum of Evangelical beliefs about religion and politics. The Federal Courts use the Constitution as a cipher for their own authority over American law, and over every aspect of government and society that law touches. This sets the two texts, as icons, on a collision course for symbolic supremacy. [27] Some communities have compromised by combining the two movements. They have incorporated the Ten Commandments into a display of significant "historical" documents, since court rulings allow historical, but not religious, displays. An imitator of Roy Moore erected a short-lived monument in North Carolina in front of the Winston-Salem City Hall with the Ten

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Commandments on one side and the Bill of Rights on the other (AP, January 20, 2004). More successful examples can be found in Charles County, North Carolina, the Georgia State Capitol, and the Garrard County Courthouse in Lancaster, Kentucky. The Christian Coalition sponsored the installation of such a display in the Alabama State Judicial Building after failing to save Roy Moore's monument (CNSNews). But Roy Moore rejected this compromise: "To put things around the Ten Commandments and secularize it is to deny the greatness of God," he said (AP, September 10,2003). "First, they hid the word of God in a closet; and now they tried to hide it among other historical documents. Neither is an acknowledgment of God" (CNSNews).

[32] From the perspective of the comparative study of iconic texts, however, such appeals to basic textual reality look like one more invocation of the iconic nature of these books and texts as metaphors for political and religious authority. To claim greater reality or significance for the words of texts than for their physical forms and images paradoxically enhances the unique characteristics of texts that make them such potent icons in the first place. Books and texts have been invested with iconic status by long and widespread usage. The fact that some become particularly prominent in certain times and places does not mitigate the iconic function of all texts.

[28] Moore's career exemplifies the fact that we live in a period of iconic struggle in which many of the most contested icons are books or texts. Analysis of this news from the perspective of comparative iconography allows one to see patterns of cultural development that the legal arguments obscure. For example, some Evangelical observers have commented on the irony of advocating stone monuments of commandments that forbid "carved images of anything in heaven, on earth, or under the earth" (see Christianity Today). Christian opponents of Roy Moore have bluntly labeled his efforts "idolatrous" (New York Times; ABP). From this perspective, the Federal courts can be viewed as iconoclasts trying to keep their "temples" pure from "foreign" influences. But the iconoclastic controversies between the supporters and opponents of images that have periodically erupted in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim history have generally resulted in replaci~g o~ set of iIpages with another, and this case is no exception.

[33] Therefore, we cannot avoid the symbolic import of texts, nor the fact that some texts have greater iconic appeal than others. A society can choose which texts to pro~ote and "enshrine:" and this is exactly what the conflict over Ten Commandments monuments IS about. At stake In its outcome is the fundamental issue of how the United States government will represent its relationship to various religious ideas and the many different religious groups within the American population.

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[29] 1?~ public .dis~~~r?f icoiftc t~xts per s~ is not seriously in qu~stion in the current debate; what IS In que~tIOn IS tHeIr appropnate locatIOn. Debates over locatIOn have been characteristic of iconoClastic controversies, but an even better analogy to the current conflict can be found in ancient struggles for the supremacy of one image over others. Ancient gods were patrons of particular temples and states, and the placement and relative positions of their images in ancient Near Eastern temples reflected the political status of kings and cities. Victorious kings would place the gods of conquered cities in subordinate positions before their own patron deity. (A biblical story about such iconic rivalries can be found in 1 Samuel 5.) The iconic struggle over the Ten Commandments in contemporary America is less about whether to pennit iconic texts, and even less so about whether to enshrine the Ten Commandments or the Constitution. It is rather about where to enshrine them and how to symbolize their relative position and status. [30] Not often reported in the media frenzy over the Alabama case is the fact that the Alabama State Judicial Building already contained an iconic text, a bronze copy of the Bill of Rights (Religion News Service). Moore and his supporters seem to want the Constitution to bow before the Commandments and the Bible; in their words, they want the courts "to acknowledge God." The Federal Courts refuse to compromise the Constitution's symbolic supremacy over U.S. government and society. Their rulings defend the sanctity of a national icon (the Constitution) and its temples (the courts). Both the courts and religious groups are engaged in a battle for the symbolic supremacy of their iconic texts. In Alabama, the granite commandments have come and gone, but the bronze Bill of Rights remains. [31] Because Western culture has for so long privileged texts over images, many readers' immediate reaction to this account may be to dismiss the entire conflict as superficial, as masking the "real" battles about how to interpret the important texts, specifically the Bible and the Constitution. This perspective claims that interpretive issues in law and theology are more ~damental than symbolism, which functions simply as inexact shorthand for these underlying Issues.

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Bibliography

Academic Analyses Flinn, Frank 2000

"Whose Commandments? Which Version?" Scripps-Howard Newservice.

Koerner, Joseph 2002

"The Icon as Iconoclasm." Pp. 204-9 in lconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art. Edited by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. Karlsruhe: ZKM.

Mittlebeeler, Emmet V. 2003

"Ten Commandments." P. 434 in The Encyclopedia ofAmerican Religion and Politics. Edited by P. A. Djupe and L. R. Olson. New York: Facts on File.

Nelson, Robert S. and Margaret Olin, 2003

"Introduction." In Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade. Edited by R. S. Nelson and M. Olin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

News Articles Associated Baptist Press (ABP) August 26, 2003 "Moore: Defender of faith or dangerous demagogue?" by Robert Marus and Greg Warner. http://www.abpnews.comlabpnewslstory.cfm?newsId=3786. Associated Press (AP) January 7, 2000 "Ten Commandments replacing abortion as key Christian issue, scholar says." htlp://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID~8836.

August 1,2001 "Alabama Chief Justice Unveils Ten Commandments in State Supreme Court," from FoxNews. htlp://www.foxnews.com/story/0.2933.3l137.00.html.

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October 16, 2002 "Alabama chiefjustice defends controversial monument," by Bob Johnso~ in the Athens Banner Herald. http://www.onlineathens.comlstoriesll 01702/new 20021017071.shnnl. August IS, 2003 "Commandments fight turns to high court," in the Athens Banner Herald. http://www.onlineathens.comlstoriesl081603/new_20030816083 .shtrnl. August 31, 2003 photo in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

August 24, 2003 "Ten Connnandments Supporters Rally On," by Jeffrey Gettleman. http://query.nytimes.comlgst!abstract.htrnl?res~FBOCI OFC3E5DOC778EDDA 10 894DB404482. The Philadelphia InqUirer

April 23, 2002 "Hundreds protest shrouding of Connnandments," by Jonathan Gelb. http://www.pbilly.comlmJdlinquirer/3l20463.hnn.

September 10, 2003 "Alabama governor unveils Capitol display including Ten Connnandments," by Kyle Wingfield. http://www.ardmoreite.comlstoriesl091003/new_alabama.shtrnl#.

September 13,2003 "Commandments plaque will stay put in Cheseo," by Kathleen Brady Shea.

January 20, 2004 "City Hall Ten Commandments monument surfaces in North Carolina," from CNN. hnp:llwww.cnn.coml2004/US/SouthlOI/20/ten.connnandments.ap/. February 1, 2004 "Group seeks monument condemning gay victim," in Philadelphia Inquirer. http://www.philly.comlmldlinquirer/newsllocallstateslpennsylvanialcountieslbuck s_countyI7848198.btrn. _

Religion News Service January 10, 2004 "'Alabama Ten Conunandments monument is gone, not forgotten," by Roy Hoffman, at Seattle Times. http://seattletirnes.nwsource.comlhtrnlllocalnewsl2001833718_tenIOm.htrnl. South Bend Tribune

August 7, 2001 "Commandments monument vandalized," by Margaret Fosmoe. http://www.restoringamerica.orglarchivelreligionllO-conunandmentsvandalized.btrnl.

CBNNews

March 9, 2004 "Sekulow \Y.eighs in on Ten Commandments Battles."

.

http.:lI~.cbn.comlCBNNewslNewsl030827b.asp.

,

The New York Times

Other Web sources

ChristianIty TO'day

October 2003 "Editorial: God Reigns-Even in Alabama; Let's not make the Commandments into a graven image." 47, 10: 35. http://www.christianitytoday.comlctl2003/0 I 0/34.35.btrnl. Cable News Nerwork (CNN)

Alabama Supreme Court James v. ACLU. http://www.pcusa.orglogalarnicuslarnI7.pdf. American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) "What's the Problem With Public Displays of the Ten Connnandments?" by Jay

Sekulow. http://www.aclj .org!resourceslequaVtencomm/020412_whats_the....Problem.asp.

November 14, 2003 "'Ten Commandments monument moved." http://www.cnn.coml2003ILAW/08127/ten.connnandmentsi.

David Black Online

CNSNews.com February 06, 2004 "Ten Connnandments Return to Alabama Judicial Building," by Susan

Jones. hrrpilwww.cnsnews.comlViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C20 0402%5CNATZ0040206a.htrnl. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

August 30, 2003 "Ten Commandments: Different state, different judge, different time," by Warren Wolfe. http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/973176/posts.

"Why do Conservative Cluistians Uphold the Scriptures Yet Compr?mise o.n ~e Constitution?" http://www.daveblackonline.com/why_do_conservatIve_chnstlans_u.hun. The Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE)

"Commanding Presence: Judge E. 1. Ruegemer." http://www.foe.comlmagazinelrnarch2002lmar_07.pdf. The Holy Land Experience

http://www.theholylandexperience.comfindex.html.

November 24, 2003 "Exclusive Photo Essay: God in the Temples of Govemment," by Carrie Devorah. http://www.humaneventsonline.comlarticle.php?id=2441.

McBible.com "Founding Fathers - Libetty Alliance Article," by Jetty Falwell (August 10,2000). hnp:llwww.mcbible.comIMiscO/020DatalFounding%20Fathers.htm.

December 19, 2003 "Exclusive Photo Essay: God in the Temples of Government: Part II," by Carrie Devorah. http://www.humaneventsonline.comlarticle.php?id~2664.

Metroplex Atheists "Respect Our Constitution Rally 2000." http://www.metroplexatheists.org!roc0300.htm.

The National Conservative Weekly

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The National Constitution Center http;lIwww.constitutioncenter.org/index.shtml. The National Exchange Club (NEC)

"Americanism," http://www.nationalexchangeclub.comlProgramsServicela.htm.

"Exchange Marketplace." http://exchangemarketplace.safeshopper.com/23/cat23.htm?580. "Freedom Shrine." http://www.freedomshrine.com/defaull.htm.

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Field of the Woods in Mwphy, North Carolina, described with pictures. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attractJNCMURcommand.html. Suffolk Country Churches "Decalogue, Royal Arms." http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/zdecalogue.htm.

The Ten Commandments Defense Fund http://tencommandmentsdefense.org.

Townhall.com

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"The Battle fOrThe Constitution," by Cal Thomas (June 4, 2(03). ·llttp:!/~.townhall.com/columnistslcalthomas/ct20030624.shtml. U:S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) http://www.archives.gov.

U.S. Supreme Coun "The East Pediment" http://www.supremecounus.gov/ahout/eastpediment.pdf.

World History.com "Heritage USA." http://www.worldhistory.com/wikilHlHeritage-USA.htm.

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