Dear Doves,

BLOOMFIELD, N.M. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lawn in front of Bloomfield City Hall.

Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said in his ruling in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that the monument amounts to government speech and has the "principal effect of endorsing religion."

Because of the context and history surrounding the granite monument, Parker said Bloomfield clearly violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. He gave a Sept. 10 deadline for its removal.

The suit was filed in 2012 on behalf of two Bloomfield residents who practice the Wiccan religion.

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rules-ten-commandments-monument-must-141940443.html

Lots of interesting comments (4,222) at the bottom, such as this one:

“There was a time in this nation, when the public displaying of the Ten Commandments was not viewed as incongruent with American public life. As a matter fact, they appeared in courthouses and schools -- a time by the way when mass shootings could not even be imagined in schools as it never happened. With the multiplicity of cultures, and the need to not offend those who are not adherents, the nation has walked away from its spiritual heritage. Is there any wonder that the public airways can be filled with the most vile immorality which is has more freedom of expression than the divine principals which repudiate such behavior.”

YsiChrist,

Patty RP