On Wednesday, March 2, 2005, at 08:39 AM, Paul Finkelman wrote:
Even if that is true, to only put the Ten C. is historically inaccurate and to claim it is "historical" is pretextual.
Of course it is. But my point was, again, that the Court could well do exactly that no matter how much you may dislike it or think it improper to do so.
Put up a monument with great law givers from history and Moses gets in there (not the Ten C. however); but he would be one of many. If you put up the 10 C alone then you have a pretty in your face endorsement.
I agree. But I'm not the one deciding the case.
And, whose 10 C do you put up? Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, General Protestant -- there are at least those 4 out there that are different; and whose translation. THe Portestant 2nd commandment prohibits "graven images." THe Catholic first commandment (notice already we have to make theological choices here) prohibits "idols." Jews prohibit "murder" as do some Protestants; Catholics and the King James incorrectly translate it as "kill" but this is not a battle of linguists, it is a serious religious and theological set of issues that are not nearly as simple as the arguments made by Judge Roy Moore in Alabama or the Texas Legislature (with their Luthern Ten C. monument).
This is, I think, well beside the point. It is a matter of near meaninglessness to most people; it is a matter unknown to most people; it is a matter that is relatively irrelevant for the mostly symbolic justification for including any version; and if we are to believe my colleague Prof. Newsom, the chance of a non-Protestant version being put up is a bit remote given the largely Protestant make-up of the country.
--
Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567
2900 Van Ness Street NW mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Washington, DC 20008 http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar/
"The most precious things one gets in life are not those one gets for money."
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