On Friday January 21, 20011, the Roanoke Times had an article regarding the Giles County School Board voting unanimously voting to return the prints of the Ten Commandments to the walls of their county schools. These 3x4 framed prints hung on the walls of the county schools for more than ten years without any protest. One parent notified the Freedom From Religion Foundation and an attorney contaceted the Superintendent of Giles County schools and He had the prints removed because of the usual legal misinterpretaion of the consitution regarding freedom of Religion.
The school to a courageous stand and voted to have the prints placed back in the schools. The attacks by the liberal newspaper began almost immediately. They have been described as intolerant and prejudiced. Anne Laurie Gaylor, the co- president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, described the school board members as individuals with a "mob mentality."
The term "mob memtality" is used to descrbe a large group of disorganized, aggressive, panicked group of people who resort to violence to attain their goals.
This description does not fit the members of the Giles County Schhool Board members who, in an organized, peaceful meeting, voted to take a staand against the irrational actions of an obvious liberal organization who are clearly trying to use a mob mentality to harass the school board members to remove the prints of the Ten Commandments.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation stated in the article that they were seeking parents of children who attended any of the schools to encourage them to act as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Schools system.By the way, more than two hundred parents in the small county of Giles showed up in support of the Ten Commandments being placed in the schools.
Why are atheist, agnostics and other individuals who claim no religious affliation so terrified of quotations from God's Holy Word. Are they afraid that their convictions are not strong enough to withstand logical, reasonable examination of an historical document without turning from their beliefs that there is no God. That is what this ridiculous threat of a lawsuit is all about.
Now let us examine what the constitution states concernig freedom form religion. The first Amendment reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. What this is saying to me is that posting a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of any public building is not forcing anyone to convert to any particular religion.
I work in a school. I have palced posters and flyers around the school, announcing upcoming events. There are many students who never read these announcements. The Giles County School Board is not telling the students that they have to read the Ten Commandments or any other historical document placed ont the walls of the schools. They are there for those who do want to read them.
I know that there will be those who read this blog who will violently argue with me concerning my logic but you need to understand YOU are violating the rights of those who do wish to view the Ten Commandments. YOU are the intolerant, prejudiced. individuals.l
