Ten Commandments Should Be Removed From School Demanded Atheists
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
PHILADELPHIA, PA (Worthy News)– A traditionalist group held a rally Monday in support of a display of the Ten Commandments at a Pennsylvania school after atheists legally tried to remove it from public property, according to the Christian Post.
The group's organizer, Pastor Ewing Marietta of Liberty Baptist Church in Uniontown, told The Christian Post that they hold a monthly rally in support of the monument at the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Connellsville.
In the 1950s, the Connellsville Area School District erected a display of the Ten Commandments at Connellsville Junior High School as one of several displays placed on public property. But in September 2012, a staff attorney for the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) demanded that the displays be removed because they violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
But Marietta told the Post that as a citizen and former soldier, the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution couldn't have happened without the Ten Commandments.
"The Ten Commandments have both religious and secular significance. They are significant as one very important root of our government. If our young people do not understand where we have come from as a nation, they will not be able to understand where we need to be going."
Not surprisingly, FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor disagreed.
"Instead of protecting the freedom of conscience of students, they are sending a message that the First Amendment is trumped by the First Commandment," she said.
Although Connellsville had initially agreed to FFRF's demands, public outrage prohibited the removal of the displays; as a result, a lawsuit was filed by the FFRF on behalf of a local atheist.