Why don't we put the Bill of Rights on pedestals in front of our schools? That way well-meaning politicians like U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, will be able to support academic monuments without tripping over the First Amendment.

Rep. Portman became a champion of those who favor state-supported displays of religion last week when he accepted a plaque of the Ten Commandments in Adams County for his support of the Adams County/Ohio Valley School Board. The school board has been ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to remove the etched tablets of the commandments that stand in front of the district's schools.

I have no problem with Mr. Portman supporting the Ten Commandments. In fact, I've never heard of him breaking a single one. I just think that he ought to remember that the oath he took when he was sworn in was to the Constitution, not the Bible.

The First Amendment says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ."

Mr. Portman described the commandments as a "basic moral foundation that does not promote one religion over another."

Let me say right here that I, too, believe the Ten Commandments are basic moral principles and that if every child in America learned them by heart we would probably all be a lot better off. For the record, I believe in the virtue of the Ten Commandments and I hope that I have taught my children to do the same.

But the congressman is wrong when he says that chiseling them into stone and setting them up in front of a public school like a prop from a Cecil B. DeMille movie doesn't constitute government promotion of religion. As everybody who ever went to Sunday school or watched Charlton Heston cower on the mountaintop knows, these particular rules came from God. Specifically from the God of the Christians and Jews.

There's no doubt that Mr. Portman is in tune with most of his constituents on this issue. That doesn't make him right. It just makes it a lot easier for him to be wrong. The Constitution doesn't say no law respecting an establishment of religion except the one that most of the community believes in.

The commandment monuments were given to the district's schools by a group of local ministers back in 1997. It didn't take long for one person in the county to become uncomfortable in the face of the religious majority.

Berry Baker, a resident of Peebles, sued the school board with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal magistrate sided with Mr. Baker and the district appealed.

Adams County isn't alone in putting up such tablets. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has put up a 5,300-pound granite memorial with the commandments in the state's judicial building. There's another granite monument with the commandments on the grounds of the Kentucky Statehouse. Critics, who have won court orders against both displays, say they are used to promote political agendas, rather than the word of God.

Last Friday, the Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council presented Mr. Portman with a petition signed by 100,000 people from across the country who supposedly support the Adams County schools in this fight. The National Clergy Council wants Congress to pass a law that will let states decide whether to allow public displays of the commandments.

Think about that. Let's pass a law that allows states to say no to these pesky federal courts that keep upholding the Constitution.

That's not exactly the power-balancing act the Founding Fathers had in mind, but it could happen. The plaque Rev. Schenck gave to Mr. Portman is just like those his organization already has bestowed upon such Constitutional defenders as President Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Mr. Portman and other leaders have said they are hopeful such a bill might pass now that Congress has grown more conservative.

My question to Rev. Schenck and his supporters is this: Aren't you just a little worried that if you succeed the schoolchildren of Adams County might grow up thinking the Ten Commandments have been handed down from Congress instead of the Almighty?

Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com.