Wednesday, February 09, 2000
Ind. House OKs commandments
The Associated Press and The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Ten Commandments may soon go up along the walls of Indiana public buildings.
The Indiana House approved a bill, 92-7, Monday to allow government entities, including public schools, to post the Ten Commandments. The Senate already has approved a similar measure and Gov. Frank O'Bannon said he would sign such a bill, if it is constitutional.
The debate comes amid a nationwide push to display the commandments in public venues. School districts in Ohio and Kentucky have been struggling with the issue, and its constitutionality for months.
In Southeastern Indiana, the movement has hardly been an issue at all. “This is the first I've heard about this,” Greendale Mayor Doug Hedrick said, after learning of the House vote.
Greendale Councilman Al Abdon said in his four years on council he has heard everything from proclamations to discussions of potholes. He said no one had ever brought up the Ten Commandments. But both Mr. Abdon and Mr. Hedrick said they support the legislation.
Under the bill, the commandments could be posted in schools, courthouses or other
government property if displayed with other documents of historical significance that formed and influenced the U.S. legal system.
Supporters say the United States based its system of laws on the 10 rules that the Book of Exodus says God gave to Moses.
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union and its counterpart, the American Civil Liberties Union, say that's not a good reason to post the commandments in public buildings. Some oppo nents said such a law would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled posting the commandments in schools violates First Amendment protections against a government's promoting religion. But new lawsuits are pending, including appeals of a federal judge's ruling to let Elkhart, Ind., keep a commandments monument on its City Hall lawn.
Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said the bill made sense, especially given crime rates and violence in schools.
“We cannot separate the religious history of this country from the government history of this country because they are intertwined,” he said.
Rep. Mae Dickinson, D-Indianapolis, voted against the bill. She noted that a pair of plaques listing the commandments recently turned up missing from the Morgan County Courthouse, and officials think they were stolen.
“Will this help us? I hope it does, but will it honestly help us?”
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