Colo. County School Board Rejects Overture To Post `In God We Trust'.

The Jefferson County Board of Education, representing Colorado's largest school district, voted unanimously Aug. 10 to reject a proposal to display "In God We Trust" posters in the district's 145 schools.

Before the 5-0 vote, Scott Schneider, a parent of two public school students and a member of Americans United, told board members that public schools have no business promoting religion. "I think it is unfortunate that this is even an issue," Schneider told the board members. He added, "No one is better qualified than me to provide religious instruction" to his children.

Prior to the vote, Americans United's Legal Department and Colorado Chapter wrote to Jefferson County board members, urging them to reject the religious proposal. "At best, it is an insincere effort to manipulate patriotic sentiments to achieve a religious goal," said AU Legal Director Steven K. Green and AU Chapter President Steve Sand. "At worst, it will result in school endorsement of religion in the minds of school children, thus violating the principle of separation of church and state."

The initiative to post the religious phrase was begun by the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, a Religious Right group based in Tupelo, Miss. Wildmon, president of the AFA, published a column in the March 2000 issue of the AFA Journal asking his followers across the country to push the scheme and purchase 11 x 14-inch posters from him with the words "In God We Trust." The signs are selling at the rate of three for $10.

The Colorado State Board of Education became the first government body to endorse the AFA approach, when it voted 5-1 July 6 to approve a resolution urging public schools to post the phrase "In God We Trust." The campaign took on a national significance when the U.S. House of Representatives voted July 24 to encourage display of the religious motto in public buildings.

Americans United hailed the vote by the Jefferson County board. "The proposal was a thinly veiled attempt to undercut the religious neutrality of public schools and circumvent the Supreme Court's rulings on church-state separation," remarked Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn. "The board was clearly right to vote it down."

In other news about government display of religious symbols:

* Placement of a large stone tablet bearing the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Kentucky Capitol would violate the separation of church and state, a federal court has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood ruled July 25 from the bench that the monument must come down. "I think the purpose of this is not secular, but I think it is religious," said the judge. Hood later issued a written opinion asserting that government display of the tablet does not have a secular purpose. He said the primary effect of the action is not secular and that it would foster government entanglement with religion.

The monument was originally erected in 1971 after it was donated to the state by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It was removed in 1988 to make way for a new heating and cooling plant. Earlier this year the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution calling on the state to get the tablet out of storage and erect it on the capitol lawn in Frankfort.

State Rep. Tom Riner (D-Louisville), who sponsored the resolution, said he disagrees with the court's ruling. "The intent of this legislature was not to indoctrinate the young people or the citizens of the commonwealth but simply to give credit to the source of our statutes historically," he said. (Adland v. Russ)

* A federal court has issued a temporary injunction barring the display of the Ten Commandments at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis. U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued the order July 28, holding that the display of the Decalogue lacked a secular purpose.

A Ten Commandments plaque had been displayed at the statehouse since 1958 but was removed in 1991 after it was vandalized. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments along with the Bill of Rights and the Preamble to the Constitution. Legislators argued that including the other elements would make the display educational, not religious.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union is sponsoring the legal challenge. Government officials in Indiana plan to appeal. (Indiana Civil Liberties Union v. O'Bannon)

* Government officials in Hawaii have removed wooden crosses that were erected at the entrance to a state park to memorialize eight people who were killed in a rockslide in May of 1999. The white, three-foot high crosses at Sacred Falls Park were placed there by a relative of one of the victims. They were removed after complaints from a local Americans United member.