Citizens rally in support of Ten Commandments bill
Legislators favorable toward more local parental control for public schools
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, January/February, 2000

More than 3,000 individuals from Kentucky, Tennessee and other states joined together at a rally Nov. 8 to support legislation that would allow the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Little more than a week later on Nov. 16, legislators on the Interim Joint Committee on State Government voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Ten Commandments bill as more than 300 Kentuckians watched.

Judge Roy Moore of Alabama served as the featured speaker at the rally, held in Corbin, Ky., at Immanuel Baptist Church. Moore emphasized the fact that Kentucky laws allow the display of historical documents, which cannot be censored because of religious references. Yet many schools do not allow such documents, sometimes because they do not know that the law allows them, and other times because they wish to protect themselves from possible controversy.

According to Moore, “We use our tax money to teach our kids there is no God.”

The proposed legislation, sponsored by Rep. J.C. Ausmus, R-Middlesboro, would give local communities control of whether or not to allow the Ten Commandments, now censored, to be posted on school walls and implemented in the history curriculum.

Many supporters of the bill cite the tremendous impact the Ten Commandments have had in the making and working of America, including its laws.

Ausmus stated in the Nov. 16 hearing that he would add an amendment that will require local school councils to consider implementing creeds from other religions into school lessons as well, though the amendment would not require the schools to do so.

Only one legislator, Rep. Mary Marzian, D-Louisville, voted against the bill. Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, chose not to vote, saying he had not been there for much of the hearing.

Jeffrey Vessels, executive director of the Kentucky chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), voiced his strong opposition to the measure, saying it would promote one religion over another.

“Liberty is not subject to a vote,” Vessels said. “Virtues can be taught without government promotion of a particular religious viewpoint.”

Ausmus, however, stated that there is nothing in the bill that would preclude any comparative religion or any text to be compared with the Ten Commandments. “This is not a religious bill,” Ausmus stated. “The only mention of religion is the comparative religion clause.” The bill, according to proponents, would actually help control what many believe is a false neutrality and hostility toward religion.

Joe Bray, policy analyst for The Family Foundation, testified in favor of the Ten Commandments legislation at the committee meeting. “To forbid any mention of religion is not neutrality. It’s hostility,” Bray stated. “It’s tantamount to censorship.”

Though the Committee on State Government has no power to enact the Ten Commandments bill into law, its vote could be a telling preface of its performance during the General Assembly in January — a performance that would stop the ACLU’s moves against schools that are choosing to post the Ten Commandments.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst