The Taubman Museum of Art, Stadium Woods and William Hopkins Sr. in today’s letters to the editor.

Pick of the day: Judge’s idea has been tried

There is interesting precedent for Judge Michael Urbanski’s suggestion that the Giles County School Board remove the first four of the Ten Commandments before posting them in their public schools (“Cut Ten Commandments down to 6?” May 8 news story).

Roger Williams, who arrived in Massachusetts Colony in 1631, said that no government could enforce the first four of the Ten Commandments because they address each individual’s obligations to God, and the state had no authority to dictate the relationship between individuals and God.

The Puritans, who founded Massachusetts as a theocracy where God and state ruled hand in hand, banished Williams from their colony because of his heresy, and because he said that the Massachusetts Bay charter was illegal because the land they occupied belonged to the Indians.

Williams escaped from Massachusetts in the dead of winter 1635-36, survived because of aid he received from the Narragansett Indians and founded the town of Providence, now in Rhode Island. Thereafter, Williams became a champion of religious freedom and called for the right of each person to decide how best to worship God without any interference from civil authorities.

JOHN KERN

ROANOKE