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Home  News & Opinions In The News Newspapers Baptist Okla. governor must decide whether to OK Decalogue monument
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Baptist Okla. governor must decide whether to OK Decalogue monument |
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Written by Robert Marus / Associated Baptist Press
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Tuesday, 12 May 2009 |
Oklahoma's Baptist governor faces a monumental
decision whether to sign or veto a Ten Commandments bill that some
Baptist leaders say violates religious liberty.
Gov. Brad Henry (D) has five days to decide on the measure authorizing
erection of a monument to the Decalogue on the grounds of the state
Capitol.
The Oklahoma Senate voted 38-8 May 11 to approve House Bill 1330. The
move came just days after the state House of Representatives approved
the proposal with only two votes in opposition.
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty released a statement May 12 urging Henry to veto the bill.
The monument would "send a message of exclusion to those who do not
share the Judeo-Christian tradition and a message of favoritism to
those who do," the statement asserted.
"We should be more concerned with following the Ten Commandments rather
than merely posting them on government property," Holly Hollman, the
Washington-based group's general counsel, said in the statement.
"Religion flourishes best when the separation of church and state is
protected."
Supporters of the bill -- including its chief sponsor in the state
Senate, Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso) -- said the monument wouldn't
threaten church-state separation because the Ten Commandments are an
integral part of the nation's and state's legal history.
The Decalogue "is an absolute document interwoven through our society
and our basis of law," Brogdon, said, according to the Daily Oklahoman.
"Disregard for that document is to have a disregard for the rule of
law. Without it, we would be a nation of anarchy. It has put us on a
very solid foundation."
Brogdon, who has announced his plans to run for governor next year,
also said that the display would pass constitutional muster, because
his bill models it after a similar monument on the Texas Capitol
grounds. The federal Supreme Court OK'd the Texas display in its 2005
Van Orden v. Perry decision.
Leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent
Henry a letter May 11 challenging Brogdon's characterization of the
proposed Oklahoma display. It noted that, in the Van Orden case, the
justices took into account both the monument's long history and its
context -- a park-like setting with other historical monuments. On the
same day that it handed down that decision, the court also struck down
two Kentucky counties' newer Ten Commandments displays.
The letter also noted that Jews arrange and interpret the commandments
differently than Christians and that different Christian traditions --
including Catholics, Lutherans and other Protestants -- also differ in
their translations, interpretations and presentations of the
commandments. Brogdon's bill authorizes a version of the Decalogue that
is most commonly cited by non-Lutheran Protestants.
Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists,
signed the Americans United letter. He said May 12 that the state of
Oklahoma had no business taking a side in a debate that has been going
on for centuries among Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and
Reformed theologians.
"Should the government endorse sectarian interpretations of the Bible?
Is it the one that makes the decision?" he asked. "That's the bottom
line here."
Prescott accused the legislators pushing the bill of having a thinly veiled agenda -- to marginalize minority religious groups.
"They're just making a statement; they're trying to do the best they
can to make sure that everyone knows that Oklahoma endorses a Christian
text," he said. "Now, they'll say it's ‘Judeo-Christian,' but you'll
tell from the interpretation they put up on the monument that it's not
Jewish; it's the Christian version. And it's going to be Protestant;
it's not Catholic. In one fell swoop, they can take care of all their
prejudices."
Prescott acknowledged that Henry -- a moderate Democrat in one of the
most conservative and most heavily evangelical states in the union --
was in a tough position.
"He should do the right thing, but he's a politician," Prescott said.
"And if he does veto the bill, it may be the death of all his chances
at future public office."
According to the biography posted on Henry's official gubernatorial
website, he is a longtime member of the First Baptist Church of
Shawnee, Okla., where he has served as a deacon and a Sunday school
teacher. The church affiliates with both the Southern Baptist
Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Henry's press secretary, Phil Bachrach, did not immediately return
phone and email messages left for him May 12 inquiring as to the
governor's decision and when he will make it.
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