House of horrors

Church & State, Jul/Aug 1999 by Boston, Rob

Ten Commandments Rider, Other Church-State Monstrosities Advance In Congress Under Cover Of Darkness

The U.S. House of Representatives studied the vexing problem of juvenile crime last month and emerged with an answer that to many Americans probably seemed curious: a four-pronged assault on church-state separation.

The wall of separation between church and state endured a sustained series of assaults during a 24-hour period June 16 and 17. Working into the early morning hours, members unleashed a legislative barrage of almost-certainly unconstitutional proposals as they deliberated the Consequences for Juvenile Offenders Act of 1999 (H.R. 1501).

When the dust settled, four riders passed that would seriously compromise the separation of church and state:

A measure promoting display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and other public buildings. Sponsored by Rep. Robert Aderholt (RAla.), it was approved 248-180.

A measure, sponsored by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), encouraging religious memorials and services at public schools where students or others have been slain, which passed 300-127.

A measure discouraging lawsuits that challenge church-state violations at public schools. It was sponsored by Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and passed 238189.

A "charitable choice" proposal granting tax dollars to churches to run social service programs for juveniles. Sponsored by Reps. Mark Souder (RInd.) and Phil English (R-Pa.), it passed 346-83.

Congress put the juvenile justice bill on a fast track after the tragic school shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., April 20. Religious Right groups have been busy exploiting that incident to push their agenda and attack church-state separation. It's not surprising that they sought to turn the juvenile justice bill into a vehicle for their pet notions.

Of the four proposals, the Ten Commandments measure captured the most national attention. The news media went into overdrive as headlines blared that the House had approved public schools posting the Ten Commandments. The measure was debated on talk radio all over the country and on a spate of television "talking head" shows. (Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and other AU staffers appeared on many of the programs.)

Aderholt's proposal is an altered version of his "Ten Commandments Defense Act," a bill the Alabama Republican has been unable to persuade the Congress to consider as freestanding legislation. It directs the federal courts to leave decisions about government-sponsored Ten Commandments displays up to state governments.

Speaking on the House floor, Aderholt said posting of the Decalogue "is one step that states can take to promote morality and work toward an end of children killing children."

Legal authorities said the Aderholt proposal is deeply flawed. Most notably, the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled in 1980's Stone v. Graham decision that posting the Ten Commandments in public schools is unconstitutional. Lower federal and state courts have struck down the display of the Decalogue in courthouses and other government buildings. In addition, Congress does not have the power to tell the federal courts how to interpret the Constitution.

Nevertheless, the House passed the measure by a comfortable margin, 248180. (See vote on page 7.)

The speechifying by the Religious Right squad reached new depths of rhetorical excess on and off the House floor. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), for example, blasted opponents of the measure for saying it was not the proper time to debate the issue and seemed to suggest that the shooting at Columbine High would not have occurred had the document been posted.

"When in God's name...is it time?" Barr fumed. "When we have children killing children in our schools, killing teachers in our schools, is it time? Is it the time when we have another tragedy in schools? Will it be time when we have more teachers killed? Will it be time when we have more weapons of mass destruction being taken into our schools? Maybe then it would be time. But I say...it is time now."

At a June 16 "God not Guns" rally on Capitol Hill before a throng of Biblewaving fundamentalist ministers, Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) blamed the Columbine shootings on the absence of school-sponsored prayer.

"I got an e-mail this morning that said it all," observed DeLay, who is widely recognized as a top Religious Right point man in Congress. "The student writes, `Dear God: Why didn't you stop the shootings at Columbine?' And God writes, `Dear student: I would have, but I wasn't allowed in school."'

Later, on the House floor, DeLay expanded the possible list of suspects in the Columbine incident to include "the culture of abortion," the teaching of evolution and "liberal relativism that has hollowed out the souls of too many in our society."

DeLay's broadside drew a response from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who quipped that now even Charles Darwin was being blamed for the Columbine massacre.

As the debate raged into the night, opponents pointed out that there are several different versions of the Ten Commandments. "Whose Ten Commandments?" asked Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). "Which version? The Catholic version? The Protestant version or the Jewish version? They are different, you know. The Hebrew words are the same, but the translations are very different, reflecting different religious traditions and different religious beliefs."