MY TURN: Ten Commandments should be displayed in schools

Wow! Every time Jim Jones has a column in The Press, I have to decide if I want to read it or not. Like his name likeness, Jim Jones tries to feed us his Kool-Aid of poison negative far-left messages like his latest attack on the Louisianna governor signing into law requiring the “Ten Commandments” must be displayed in every public-school classroom in his state. Jones fears the Idaho Legislators will choose to pass a similar bill in 2025; I sure hope they do!

Jones even goes on to attack Alliance Defending Freedom, a powerful nonprofit legal firm protecting religious freedoms for free for individuals like the Washington State football coach fired for praying on the field after a game; and the cake baker in Colorado not willing to bake a cake symbolizing against his religious beliefs. These court cases were won at the U.S. Supreme Court against anti-religious government bodies and organizations.

Regarding the display of the Ten Commandments: when you walk into the United States Supreme Court, the most prominent display of any symbol is the Ten Commandments, which appears around 50 times inside and outside the Court. Walking up the big steps to go into the Supreme Court, every fifth symbol is the profile of Moses with the Ten Commandments. Walking through the double doors, the Ten Commandments are etched on both double doors. After sitting in the pew as you exit, the Ten Commandments are at eye level on each pew, both to the right and the left. The Ten Commandments is the only document that is written inside the Supreme Court, and on the back of the building. The actual official seal of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a very activist court, has the Ten Commandments as part of the seal.

Why do all these areas show the Ten Commandments? Because it is critically important and influential in American law and government. We do not have the laws and government that we now have absent the Ten Commandments. Jones is still aligning with the liberal activist Supreme Court of the '70s: the Roe v. Wade abortion decision which now our truly Constitutional Supreme Court Justices overturned two years ago; the 1971 decision Lemon V. Kurtzman that distorted the First Amendment, Free Exercise Establishment Clause, and free speech clauses. Lemon is now gone as of 2022, it can no longer be cited thanks to our Supreme Court Justices, who now use the historical approach of what our Founders meant and created in our Constitution and Bill of Rights!

The majority of this information on the Ten Commandments was gleaned from a written interview with Mathew Stauver, a litigator of Christian values and Chairman of the 501(c)(3) organization Liberty Counsel, Inc.

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Eric M. Redman, Idaho State Legislator 2014-2018, veteran of the Vietnam War, is a Spirit Lake resident.