Giles County school board votes to return Ten Commandments to schools
The Giles County school board this afternoon unanimously decided to rehang copies of the 10 commandments at each of the county’s schools following an outpouring of community support.
The religious texts were removed during December following a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. An attorney for the foundation asked Dec. 8 for the district to remove the texts. Superintendent Terry Arbogast II said in a Dec. 17 reply that the district would comply.
But at today’s school board meeting, hundreds of parents showed up to express their displeasure.
We have more details on this story here.
January 20, 2011 - 5:38 PM
What harm could it possibly cause to hang The 10 Commandments on a wall somewhere in a school building? This nation was founded by Christian people looking to practice their Christian religion freely. Most Americans still consider themselves to be Christians, I think this was a logical decision. Good for the Giles County School Board, stick to your decision!
It’d be nice if the citizens of Giles County had expressed similar concern about the coal ash dump placed beside the New River.
It’s harmful because the government is telling our children what to believe,
and that’s as anti-American as it gets. I don’t care in the least what people teach their children at home, but the public school system should be neutral ground when it comes to religion. Otherwise there is no freedom, only the state telling you what to do and what to think.
1.”What harm could it possibly cause to hang The 10 Commandments on a wall somewhere in a school building?”
For one thing it violates Consitution issues..Separation of church and state.Plus todays society is made up of many religions..We would have to put up rules from every religion to be fair,therefore not having any one set of religious teachings at school is the logical choice.
Let children get religious teachings at home and Church.
Most leaders at the founding of our nation were deists, if anything. Few were “Christians” as we define them today. Those that were, were not as dogmatic as most contemporary Christians. Do your reading, it’s evident in nearly of every writing by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, etc….
Did any of these hundreds of parents present any ideas on how they’re going to pay for the thousands of dollars in court costs?
“It’s harmful because the government is telling our children what to believe,”
My whole 12 years going to public school in Roanoke County, if I had seen something hanging on a wall, I would never have thought that it was “the government” telling me what to believe. Interesting way to look at it. I suppose the student body of the Giles County school system is talking daily about something on a wall and it is “the government” telling them what to do.
This is a strange collection of folks that visit around here, on the one hand, they appear to have a rightward-lean to their politics, but then on the other hand, they don’t seem to stand up for Christian religion. Maybe they are big fans of Christopher Hitchens or something.
Giles County is treading in some dangerous waters. I hope they left room on the walls of the schools for every other religion’s version of their creed to live by.
I actually agree with Jack 100% on this.
“This is a strange collection of folks that visit around here, on the one hand, they appear to have a rightward-lean to their politics, but then on the other hand, they don’t seem to stand up for Christian religion. Maybe they are big fans of Christopher Hitchens or something.”
Bova-Just because someone believes firmly in separation of church AND state as well as separation of church FROM state, it doesn’t mean they aren’t standing up for Christianity. If anything, it is for protection from the government intruding on their religion. As a Christian, I don’t want the government ANYWHERE near the Bible or any other religion for that matter. They will warp it,taint it, corrupt it, etc and interpret it the way they see fit- and then dictate to the people their laws. It’s better to keep it 100% completely separate in every possible way.
Belle, I agree with Jack also. You and some others made some similar comments that I agree with too. I also like that you both made your points without denigrating anyone’s opposing views.
What I wonder is how many Giles County parents actually knew the Ten Commandments were hanging in the schools until the request to remove them was sent to the administration? Had there not been press about it being removed, would have anyone noticed?
I think a lot of what is going on is people are fed up with the ACLU and other groups telling them what they are going to do in their own school system. I don’t care which way this goes, someone’s rights are going to be stepped on. Christians want religion back in the school, no one else does. If you take the 10 commandments down, you are treading on the rights of the Christian tax payers who also support the school system, if you don’t you are treading on the rights of Jews, Muslims and atheists. What I do see especially today, is everyone is quick to respect other faiths, but not Christianity. We have bent over backwards to not offend Muslims and to separate the attacks of Muslim extremists on Sept. 11, and be culturally sensitive to them, we are very quick to condemn anti Semitism, but for whatever reason, Christianity seems to be fair game for everyone. We preach tolerance for other religlious faiths, its only fair to expect the same in return.
“Giles County is treading in some dangerous waters. I hope they left room on the walls of the schools for every other religion’s version of their creed to live by. ”
You mean the way that classrooms have to have every flag in the world hanging in them?
#13- Henry, I don’t understand your analogy. The Ten Commandments are religious. The Country’s flag is not. This thread is about separation of church and State. Unless you’re saying that the flags actually are representatives of different religions- not States or Countries.
some legal experts said the Giles citizens that put the ten commandents back in school were playing with fire. the ones that are taking GOD out of this country are the ones playing with fire-hells fire.GOD will punish these that do this. CHRISTIANS continue to stand up for our faith in OUR GOD.
#15- “CHRISTIANS continue to stand up for our faith in OUR GOD.”
Don, you do realize that he was the Jewish and Muslim’s God before he was the Christian’s (and still is their God too). Also, your rhetoric is more similar to radical Islamists. You should read comment #9. She’s a Christian also but has a different take on this. And the tone of that post is more CHRISTian (to be Christlike).
There’s a fine line between good moral values and a life of debauchery and sin. The Giles Co. parents realize that without a daily dose of religion, their children are doomed to a life in Hell! We cannot trust our teenagers to do the right thing without constant reminders everywhere they go. The next logical step would be subliminal messages sent through the PA system. If the parents and school board members don’t remain vigilant in the fight against the Devil, the next thing we’ll hear from Giles Co. will be the arrests of several kids for DANCING! Better to nip it in the bud!!
#16 – Magpie
Small correction of fact: Muhammad and the start of Islam came after Jesus and the start of Christianity.
#18- Albert, you’re definitely right that Islam is the youngest religion of the three. Geez, I knew that. I got up in thinking about Abraham and Ishmael and inadvertently put Islam back there too. Thanks for catching that.
Magpie- WE WILL BOTH STAND BEFORE GOD ONE DAY I AM READY HOPE YOU ARE TOO.
The school board is a government body. The school board is putting a religious poster on a school wall. So the government is telling our children “this is the religion you should follow.” It’s that simple. Whether children pay attention or not is unimportant, but I’m betting most of you think that they do, otherwise you wouldn’t be so adamant about keeping the 10 commandments up there.
You don’t have to have a “rightward-lean” to think that it’s anti-American for the government to tell us what we should believe. Being allowed to think for yourself is at the core of our country. It seems to me that it’s usually folks who call themselves conservative that want to start taking away freedom of thought and instituting a “big brother” nanny state, telling us what we should worship, how we should think, how we should live and what we can and can’t value.
Don- do you have anything to impress those who disagree with you besides fear tactics?
Better start having lots of bake sales to pay for these court costs. But they won’t. The school district will lose in court and the tax-payers and, especially, the students will suffer.
If this mob that showed up is acting as they think Jesus would, they must be pretty convinced Jesus would screw over the students of Giles County. I feel sorry for Jesus, his followers sure give him/her a bad name.
- “WE WILL BOTH STAND BEFORE GOD ONE DAY I AM READY HOPE YOU ARE TOO.”
Newsflash!! Don,your not ready.
Don, we will all indeed stand before God and he might remind us all of a few failings.
One thing advocates of religion in politics/schools/government needs to understand, is that it is NOT as easy as putting God back into these facets. The question is, Whose God are we gonna put back in? If we go with our 6th district representative’s God, Bob Goodlatte, we are looking at the Christian Scientist God. What about Eric Cantor’s God? He is Jewish, so we are looking at a God without Jesus. What about Glenn Beck’s God? He is Morman, so we are looking at a Morman God. What about John F Kennedy’s Catholic God? A Jehovah’s Witness God? Well, how about Fred Phelp’s God? You know from Westboro Baptist Church? Actually, since our current President was a follower of Jeremiah Wright, how about that God? The one that says “Don’t God bless America, God damn America”. Should we be democratic and have the people vote on which God they want?
“Should we be democratic and have the people vote on which God they want?”
Well, this is basically what happened in Giles County. The parents in this particular school district showed up and expressed what they wanted for their own children. I think it’s good on those parents for being active in their area schools.
Its obvious Giles County officials have some history to learn. They should read the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom by Thomas Jefferson that was passed by the Virgina General Assembly in 1777. No need for a constitutional reference because it is a state law. A state law that became a future basis for the 1st amendment.
The Ten Commandments are WORDS of wisdom from a book. Are words of wisdom an establishment of religion? Religion is not being established through the Ten Commandments being hung on a wall of any building. It is good and right conduct and behavior that is being established through these words.
These commandments hanging on a wall are for our childrens own good and protection. They will see Thou shalt not kill every day. Could seeing these words every day in school STOP a child from thinking about killing another persons child?
Thou shalt not kill. What is religious about that? The Word of God says, “I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you OBEY the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day and a CURSE of you will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. The choice is ours. If my child kills your child in school or anywhere else he/she is cursed. The curse doesn’t affect only him or her; it affects the whole family.I have to live with guilt and shame for the rest of my life if my child kills another child. Our whole family is cursed; we are all dishonored because of this childs actions. Why don’t you people start seeing that the Ten Commandments is NOT an establishment of religion they establish good and right actions and behaviors.
If the school wants to put up its own list of rules,that would be fine,and it could incorporate the spirit of the commandments.
The Ten Commandments are WORDS of wisdom from a book. Are words of wisdom an establishment of religion? Religion is not being established through the Ten Commandments being hung on a wall of any building.”
Perhaps you should re-read the first 4, Linda.
“ONE: ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’
TWO: ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.’
THREE: ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.’
FOUR: ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
I would dare say that these are emphatically religious!
Regardless, there is no argument that can be made by Giles County that will overrule the precedents set by case law and the SCOTUS. If suits are filed, GC will lose badly. Sorry, those are just the facts. The GCSB is in direct violation of the US Constitution. End of story.
do any of you that say the 10 commandments are telling our children what to do, realize this…. they usually do nothing that you tell them to do,(usually the very opoposite) they have their own opinions, personalities etc… so i guess when you post things about not having prematural sex, you honestly think that influences their decision? wow i can’t believe that this country has turned into the country of the offended, you can’t say or do anything without offending someone, this is really sad. I for one have six children and it does not bother me that the 10 commandments are hanging in the school, in fact it makes me feel better.
Well said and right on Belle!
Linda Templet, you are playing semantic games with a Constitution supported and Supreme Court adjudicated fact of life.
What hangs in the schools is seen as coming from the government on the most basic and brainwashing level. Which is the problem. Remember the big kerfuffle when President Obama wanted to talk to the school children of this nation and how the right wing reacted like it was Armageddon coming to eat their young? If it was only the Five Pillars of Islam or only the 613 mitzvot of Judaism some school was posting, I think you would see the problem PDQ!