Boise Ballot Blazes Trail for Ten Commandments Supporters
by Bill Fancher
August 20, 2004
(AgapePress) - The fight over the public display of the Ten Commandments has finally made it to the ballot in a northwestern state.It began in the city of Boise, Idaho, where -- according to Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition -- the local citizenry took matters into their own hands when city officials did what many communities are witnessing.
"The city council removed a Ten Commandments monument from a public park," Mahoney explains. "The citizens and the Christian community became empowered and they decided ... to do something."
More specifically, they began the effort to put the issue on the election ballot and let people decide whether the Decalogue should be displayed. "They had to turn in 8,700 signatures to have the nation's first-ever voter initiative on the public display of the Ten Commandments -- and this past Friday they turned in 19,000 signatures," Mahoney says.
In November, the people of Boise will hold the nation's first referendum on the public display of the Ten Commandments. According to Mahoney, the city is indicating it may try to block the initiative on a procedural question -- "and we may have to take them to court," he says. Still, the Christian activist is confident of victory -- and confident the Boise referendum will be the first of many across the U.S.
On a related note, an educator in Missouri has taken a stand in favor of posting the Ten Commandments in schools. For his bold stand, Humansville Superintendent Greg Thompson has been placed on administrative leave without pay -- and school officials are not saying if he will remain a district employee.
The superintendent posted the Commandments on a school wall in a cafeteria. That act prompted a lawsuit and entangled the small Polk County district in controversy.
According to Associated Press, the school district has agreed to pay the plaintiff $45,000, to refrain from displaying any religious symbols, and to stop officials from leading students in prayer. But school documents state that Thompson told the school board he would not comply with federal mandates barring religious expression.
