Vigil Planned to Defend Monument

Faced with the prospect of not being allowed to promote a particular set of religious beliefs and being forced to treat all religious ideas equally, city officials in Boise, Idaho have decided to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Julia Davis park rather than let Rev. Fred Phelps erect another monument that bashes gays. This upsets residents, who plan to mount a vigil to prevent the Ten Commandments monument from being removed.

The Idaho Statesman reports:

“People will peacefully kneel around the monument if they try to move it,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition and a Presbyterian minister from Washington, D.C. “We hope the city changes its mind this week, but if not we´ll keep a 24-hour vigil for as many weeks as we possibly can.” ... Erected by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1965, the monument drew little attention until the Westboro Church sought to install an anti-gay monument. The church argued that if the Commandments monument is allowed in the park, other monuments should be as well.

Coalition spokeswoman Brandi Swindell accused city officials of “caving in” to the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Church. “Why should we appease a bully? Why should a bigot from Kansas show up and have our mayor and council cave in to him? Why is he running the city of Boise?” Swindell said. “Mayor (Dave) Bieter ran on a campaign of integrity,” Swindell said. “This is not what the people want after what we´ve just been through in Boise.”

“If they take this away from us, who knows what´s next?” [Gene Johnson] asked. “Maybe by the time my daughter is grown up, they´ll take away the Bible.” Boisean Javier Aleman said the monument “doesn´t bother anybody and doesn´t push religion onto people. If we take away the Ten Commandments, we might as well throw all our rules out the window.”

Phelps is correct: the government cannot single out one set of religious beliefs to promote. If any religious monument is allowed in the public park, others have to be as well - no content-based discrimination is permitted. This is not "caving in" to a bully, as Swindell alleges, but a matter of following the law. Johnson's position is probably shared by many - but it is also self-contradictory. If the monument really does encourage people to obey the Ten Commandments, then it necessarily encourages particular religious beliefs and must be removed. On the other hand, if it has no effect, then why fight to keep it there?

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Ten Commandments