Atari2600

Anyone remember the monument lawsuit from Bedford, IN? Well, they finally found a place for it.

<a href="http://www.hoosiertimes.com/stories/2002/09/27/TMLife.new.32938.sto" target="_blank">http://www.hoosiertimes.com/stories/2002/09/27/TMLife.new.32938.sto</A>

beejay

Well, that's where it belongs. On private property.

I will say that if I'm driving through Bedford and want to have a Subway Sandwich, I would hesitate to stop there.

Splat

Congratulations, plowboy, you've just discovered free speech.

Did these morons really ever believe that anybody would try to stop them from putting up the 10c on their own fucking property?!?!?

Wish I had some downtown property. I'd put up a big honkin' sign that said "There is no god but Molloch."

4th Generation Atheist

Prominently displayed on private (preferably of obvious religious affiliation, though one can't control that) property strikes me as a sensible compromise, though unlikely in at least a few cases to keep the peace. These guys want that stuff on public property, specifically in order to get the implicit government endorsement. It's good to see that some of them don't feel this way, especially as regards those cheesey monuments that wouldn't exist if it weren't to promote a dumb Biblical-setting movie, but not all of them do; this likely isn't over. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Splat

Absolutely. But I never know whether those who act as if publically displaying their own religion on their own religious buildings constitutes some major victory are really dumb, or just playing dumb to gain sympathy.

Either way, it reflects the sad state of civics education in the US.

4th Generation Atheist

Yeah, sad that they think it's a victory...but no one takes an intelligence test to attend any church I know of! I've never minded religious displays on religious buildings; this way the Surgeon General doesn't have to post a mental health warning on them. It's the political displays on religious buildings and vice versa that rile me, with an exception for things like nineteenth-century Latin mottos in the stonework and suchlike.

Anycase, you're right, those people do come off looking awful damn dumb, and it would be nice if everyone's high school civics course trained them better. Might even let these guys know why a government endorsement of their particular religion isn't important to their right to practice.