Thursday, June 15, 2000
Ten Commandments a sign of the times
BURLINGTON — Like capri pants and fiberglass pigs, the Ten Commandments are catching on. They can't be hung in school hallways, so people are sticking them in their yards.
It's a fine solution to the ban on government sponsorship of religion. But I wonder whether anyone feels intimidated by the small blue signs popping up around Northern Kentucky. After all, who among us hasn't worked an occasional Sunday or coveted our neighbors' ox?
Then there's the burden on the sign's owners. Proclaim your standards to the world, and you must get paranoid about slipping up.
“I never really thought about it that way,” says Donna Baker, who lives along Pleasant Valley Road in Burlington.
Her big concern, she said, was whether her husband would be able to mow around the commandments.
50,000 strong
Judging by sign sales, the Bakers are among about 50,000 Kentuckians and Ohioans who have posted the Big 10 in the wake of controversy over their presence in schools.
The signs say “We Stand For” followed by a list of the moral laws. They're being sold for $2 by a group in Adams County, Ohio, where a resident sued last year to keep the Ten Commandments off school grounds.
Ms. Baker got her sign from her father, the Rev. David Hocker, who first saw one while passing through Sand Gap, Ky. He arranged to purchase hundreds for members of the Verona Full Gospel Church of God.
Janet Mooneyham lives along Buttermilk Pike in Fort Mitchell. She obtained a sign after her next-door neighbor posted one.
“I saw his and thought, "Oh, that's really neat. I really like that,'” Mrs. Mooneyham says. “I want people to know that I do stand on the word of God.”
Her location is ideal, considering the way cars converge at Buttermilk Pike and Dixie Highway. Stuck in afternoon traffic, motorists have lots of time to read the Bible off her lawn.
Debbie Burch lives on the other side of Mrs. Mooneyham. She's not inclined to put the commandments in her own yard, but isn't bothered a bit by seeing them next door.
“I thought, "Well, isn't that a nice statement to make?'” Ms. Burch says.
The signs also get a thumbs-up from atheists Edwin and Helen Kagin of Union.
"Sacred text'
Free speech is sacred to the Kagins, and they would fight for anyone's right to post religious beliefs on private property.
Berry Baker agrees. He's the Adams County resident who sued the school board last year. “I consider the Decalogue a sacred text,” he says. “To use the text for political purposes ... I think that's a questionable thing to do.”
But if people are motivated by a sincere interest in sharing their faith, he's all for it, he says.
Mary Loy, a Southern Baptist, obtained her sign from the Pentecostal church on her street in Newport. She's almost 70, and a recent battle with cancer has put her in a contemplative mood.
“You go along for years and years and just take things for granted,” she says. “You know you wouldn't be where you are without God's help, but you're kind of pushing it into the back.”
Not anymore. In Ms. Loy's tiny front yard, the Ten Commandments appear to sprout from a nest of day lilies.
Karen Samples can be reached at 578-5584 or
ksamples@enquirer.com
