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By Dane Smith
Published: November 1, 2003
Publication: Star Tribune (Minneapolis daily paper)
About 200 Minnesotans gathered in the wind and chill on the State Capitol steps Friday for a three-hour "Ten Commandments Rally," where they heard a dozen speakers call for a return to biblical and Christian principles and for posting the commandments in public schools and buildings.
Speakers also urged getting rid of federal judges who have ruled that the commandments' display in some public places violates constitutional prohibitions against the state establishment of a particular religion.
The rally was prompted in larger part by the national furor over a federal judge's recent ruling that a display of the commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama state judicial center had to be removed. A recent CNN poll found that about four of five Americans disapproved of the judge's ruling.
"This is judicial tyranny," said Allen Quist, a former legislator and longtime leader of conservative Christian activists in the Republican Party.
One sponsor of the rally was the Declaration Project, a group headed by Dave Racer, a veteran conservative Republican activist and a supporter of 2000 Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who is organizing a national movement supporting the Ten Commandments.
The Declaration Project's newsletter lists on its letterhead priorities that include "Impeaching Federal Judges" and establishing the "Holy Bible as Foundational to All Governing Authorities."
The rally was aired live on KKMS (980 AM), a religious radio station in Richfield, and the event agenda allowed time for commercial breaks on the station.
One of the speakers, state Sen. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, told the crowd that the founders of the United States -- including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson -- "recognized the Ten Commandments as the foundation of our laws."
Other speakers said the commandments' prohibitions of behavior ranging from lying to murder are an expression of universal moral values, and are badly needed in a secular society that seems to have no values.
"The commandments are such a civilizing influence that we want to get them in all the schools," said Mark Skogerboe, a lay minister for a Wisconsin church.
But Skogerboe said the group does not seek to make posting the commandments mandatory.
"We want enabling legislation," he said.
House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said Bachmann's interpretation of the commandments as the foundation of American law was off-base.
Those founders in many ways made it clear that having the state impose a particular religion's beliefs on citizens was forbidden, Entenza said, and tens of millions of Americans are neither Jews nor Christians.
"I'm all in favor of the Ten Commandments, but our founders came to this country to escape a state church and religious persecution and it's sad that 222 years later a few people have forgotten about that," Entenza said.
A spokesman for Minnesota Atheists, August Berkshire, released a statement arguing that the U.S. Constitution "makes no mention of a god, Jesus or the Bible." As early as 1797, in a treaty with Tripoli negotiated by George Washington, the United States government stated that it "is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," the statement by Berkshire said.
Although Bachmann was one of three legislators participating in the event, it's not clear whether the commandment crusade has a strong political coalition supporting it in Minnesota.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered an ally of social conservatives on issues such as abortion and gun control, did not attend the rally.
Maverick: Added to the news page. Message icon updated.
By Dane Smith
Published: November 1, 2003
Publication: Star Tribune (Minneapolis daily paper)
About 200 Minnesotans gathered in the wind and chill on the State Capitol steps Friday for a three-hour "Ten Commandments Rally," where they heard a dozen speakers call for a return to biblical and Christian principles and for posting the commandments in public schools and buildings.
Speakers also urged getting rid of federal judges who have ruled that the commandments' display in some public places violates constitutional prohibitions against the state establishment of a particular religion.
The rally was prompted in larger part by the national furor over a federal judge's recent ruling that a display of the commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama state judicial center had to be removed. A recent CNN poll found that about four of five Americans disapproved of the judge's ruling.
"This is judicial tyranny," said Allen Quist, a former legislator and longtime leader of conservative Christian activists in the Republican Party.
One sponsor of the rally was the Declaration Project, a group headed by Dave Racer, a veteran conservative Republican activist and a supporter of 2000 Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who is organizing a national movement supporting the Ten Commandments.
The Declaration Project's newsletter lists on its letterhead priorities that include "Impeaching Federal Judges" and establishing the "Holy Bible as Foundational to All Governing Authorities."
The rally was aired live on KKMS (980 AM), a religious radio station in Richfield, and the event agenda allowed time for commercial breaks on the station.
One of the speakers, state Sen. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, told the crowd that the founders of the United States -- including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson -- "recognized the Ten Commandments as the foundation of our laws."
Other speakers said the commandments' prohibitions of behavior ranging from lying to murder are an expression of universal moral values, and are badly needed in a secular society that seems to have no values.
"The commandments are such a civilizing influence that we want to get them in all the schools," said Mark Skogerboe, a lay minister for a Wisconsin church.
But Skogerboe said the group does not seek to make posting the commandments mandatory.
"We want enabling legislation," he said.
House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said Bachmann's interpretation of the commandments as the foundation of American law was off-base.
Those founders in many ways made it clear that having the state impose a particular religion's beliefs on citizens was forbidden, Entenza said, and tens of millions of Americans are neither Jews nor Christians.
"I'm all in favor of the Ten Commandments, but our founders came to this country to escape a state church and religious persecution and it's sad that 222 years later a few people have forgotten about that," Entenza said.
A spokesman for Minnesota Atheists, August Berkshire, released a statement arguing that the U.S. Constitution "makes no mention of a god, Jesus or the Bible." As early as 1797, in a treaty with Tripoli negotiated by George Washington, the United States government stated that it "is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," the statement by Berkshire said.
Although Bachmann was one of three legislators participating in the event, it's not clear whether the commandment crusade has a strong political coalition supporting it in Minnesota.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered an ally of social conservatives on issues such as abortion and gun control, did not attend the rally.
Maverick: Added to the news page. Message icon updated.
