Not the kind of thing that will help Mississippi’s image

March 31, 2005

Usually when conservatives want to use the power of the government to promote their religion, they make a half-hearted effort to case the effort in secular terms. With this in mind, it’s almost refreshing to see lawmakers in Mississippi drop the pretense.

Mississippi’s Senate voted Tuesday to allow the Ten Commandments, the motto “In God We Trust” and excerpts from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to be posted in all public buildings.

A few senators argued against the bill, saying it crossed the boundary between church and state. They also said Mississippi has a diverse culture, and people who are not of the Christian faith, including Muslims, could be offended.

But Sen. Gary Jackson, R-French Camp, who’s a Baptist minister, said the Decalogue is a historical document and the basis of laws for the United States.

“The Quran is not a historical document as far as the United States of America goes,” Jackson said.

The slap at Islam was apparently superfluous, but it helps make the motivation for the bill even more clear. The right-wing is so insecure about their faith, they need to get government to help promote their beliefs. When questioned, they respond by denigrating minority faiths. Typical.

But this legislation on its face is rather astounding. Most conservatives would be more than satisfied with state support for “In God We Trust” and the Decalogue, but not these guys. They want all government buildings to feature excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount. It’s as if someone sat down to think of the most unconstitutional state-sponsored religious display imaginable — and Republicans in Mississippi embraced it with two hands.

“What we’re attempting to do here is proselytize our religion,” said [Sen. Johnnie Walls (D)], who’s Methodist. “We’re setting ourselves up for a lot of ridicule. Again, Mississippi will look less than progressive.”

You think?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m *really* getting tired of the right-wing claim that the 10 Commandments are “the basis of laws for the United States.” NO THEY’RE NOT!!!! US law was initially derived from Enlish Common Law, which in turn was largely derived from Roman law. And neither the Romans nor the Angles, Saxons and Jutes knew from Moses. I’m willing to concede that some state and local statutes (like the old Blue laws, requiring businesses to close on Sunday) were religiously based, but guess what — those are all unconstitutional.

  • It’s only a matter of time before this silly bill is declared unconstitutional–and all the talk of “judicial activism” starts up again.

  • Much as I disapprove of the state sanctioning religious messages, there’s a pleasant irony to right-wingers putting up signs saying, “Blessed are the meek… blessed are the merciful… blessed are peacemakers…”

  • I love ignorance, It’s so refreshing. Moses (Musa) is a prophet of Islam, as is Jesus (Isa) and the Ten Commandments are part of the Muslim theology. Muslim, Jew and Christian – we are all people of the book. They might try to offend the Hindus but I doubt the Hindus would care.

  • With all the right wing blather about posting the Ten Commandments in public places and declaring it the basis of all law, maybe someone ought to stand up and read some of these commandments out loud to these knuckleheads.

    How much mileage could you get out of the one about “not bearing false witness” when they pillory Hillary, the Dems or anyone who doesn’t mimic Bushspeak. “Honor thy father and mother” would be a good one to point to when they’re working to gut Social Security, neglect the Medicare/ Medicaid fiscal mess, take away the elderly’s ability to import cheaper drugs from Canada, lie about the AARP or tell older folks they can’t declare bankruptcy when overwhelmed by medical bills. “Thou shalt not kill” is beyond mention for all the war-mongering jihadism of the Bush hawks, or when Scalia wants to execute kids that aren’t even old enough to drink. Not worshiping false idols might provide leverage against the goons who want to turn the Stars and Stripes into another golden calf of worship with constitutional amendments against flag burning. “Thou shalt not steal” Iraqi oil after we invade their country, nor should Bush’s white collar criminal friends be able to steal investors dollars with impunity, nor should Halliburton rip off the American tax payer even if the VP is their best buddy. And lastly ” thou shalt have no other gods before me”, including George W Bush who proclaims he is without fault, demands worshipful fealty and scornfully stands in judgement of life or death especially for Texas death row inmates.

    The pious neocon right needs to practice what it preaches.

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