"Ten Suggestions?" How about Seven Aphorisms?

[ymarkov]

WASHINGTON -- A Supreme Court case this week spotlighted an unusual religion that draws on sacramental nectar, pyramids and mummies, and raised broader questions about the place of New Age beliefs in modern society.

(The proposed Summum Seven Aphorisms monument which would be placed next to a similar statue of the Ten Commandments in Pleasant Grove, Utah.)

A couple of decades after a visit from "beings Extraterrestrial" inspired him to found the Church of Summum in 1975, Summum Bonum Amen Ra, born Claude Nowell and known as Corky, had another epochal encounter. He saw a monolith depicting the Ten Commandments on the courthouse grounds in Salt Lake City, says Su Menu, the Summum religion's current leader, and "felt it would be nice to have the Seven Aphorisms next to them." The monument would be inscribed with the principles that, according to Summum doctrine, Moses initially intended to deliver to the Hebrews before deciding they weren't ready to understand them.

Several Utah municipalities Mr. Ra approached declined the opportunity to display the Seven Aphorisms, provoking a legal battle that arrived at the Supreme Court Wednesday. The high court heard the plea of one Utah town, Pleasant Grove, to reverse a lower court decision requiring it to accept the Seven Aphorisms -- or, perhaps, remove the Ten Commandments and a dozen other monuments from its Pioneer Park.

The arguments focused on different constitutional theories under which Pleasant Grove could select monuments to install in its park. The court didn't directly address the content of the Summum religion, but that was the subtext of the battle -- a New Age religion seeking the same treatment as a more established faith. [...]
Clinton Park, the mayor of Duschene, Utah, was offered the Summum monolith in 2003 for placement alongside the Ten Commandments. Instead, Duschene sold the small patch containing the Ten Commandments and passed an ordinance forbidding future monuments in the park. "If you have monuments all over, you can't hardly use the park any more," he says.

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Comments

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

If they're going to open up the town square to religious expression, they need to open it up to ALL religious expression, no matter how outlandish some people feel that expression might be.

[aphar.livejournal.com]

if the pioneer park is dedicated to the American pioneers, then the 10 commandments are relevant and appropriate while 7 aphorisms are not.

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

I was unaware that the American pioneers had written or brought down the 10 commandments. Live and learn, I guess...

[aphar.livejournal.com]

You are however aware that the the American pioneers were Christians, and, as such, believed that the 10 commandments were applicable to them?

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

Absolutely - and a monument saying that, or *referencing* the 10 commandments wouldn't be inappropriate. However, posting (their version of) the 10 commandments themselves rises to religious expression on public land.

[aphar.livejournal.com]

I think you are taking the 1st amendment too far.
Putting up a plow they used is appropriate, right?
How about a reconstruction of such a plow?
How about a house they lived in?
How about their church?
How about a bible one of them owned? Or a page from it? A copy of it? Enlarged? In stone?
10 commandments is an important part of their cultural and ideological legacy, and could be displayed wherever their legacy is honored.

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

We'll see what the Supremes say on the matter. So far, the court has said that it must be open to all religious displays if it is open to one. That the religion was important to the pioneers is almost besides the point: religion holds a special place in American law, both protecting it and protecting against it. Choosing that particular display (and then making that the only religious display permissible in the park) was an attempt to do an end-run against previously established case law. Any number of things could have been displayed in that park, but crafting the display as they did changed the message. Instead of the state's message being "(this) religion was important to the pioneers" it became "(this) religion is important".