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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject: Yes Or NO - Free Speech or Un "American"? |
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Interesting Supreme Court decision forthcoming.....
Where's your vote -- Yes - they can put up the monument.
No -- no equality for crazies....
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Small sect gives U.S. Supreme Court a lot to consider
By Adam Liptak
Published: November 11, 2008
PLEASANT GROVE CITY, Utah: Across the street from the city hall here sits a small park with about a dozen donated buildings and objects - a wishing well, a millstone from the city's first flour mill and an imposing red granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
Thirty miles, or 48 kilometers, to the north, adherents of a religion called Summum gather in a wood-and-metal pyramid by Interstate 15 in Salt Lake City. Followers of Summum meditate on their Seven Aphorisms, fortified by an alcoholic sacramental nectar they produce and surrounded by mummified animals.
In 2003, the president of the Summum church wrote to the mayor here with a proposal: the church wanted to erect a monument inscribed with the Seven Aphorisms in the city park, "similar in size and nature" to the one devoted to the Ten Commandments.
The city declined, a lawsuit followed and a federal appeals court ruled that the First Amendment required the city to display the Summum monument. The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the case, which could produce the most important free speech decision of the term.
The justices will consider whether a public park open to some donations must accept others as well. In cases involving speeches and leaflets, the courts have generally said that public parks are public forums where the government cannot discriminate among speakers on the basis of what they propose to say. The question of how donated objects should be treated is, however, an open one. |
The rest at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/11/america/sect.php
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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| So long as it's not a Christmas Creche. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know the answer on this one...the Western part of the United States takes in just about everything you can imagine...and things in Utah are right up there in par with California for oddities.
My personal feeling is that the Supreme Court SHOULDN'T say yes or no, and just let each local government decide on their own - therefore, in this case, I guess they won't have the monument in the park, if it isn't the local government's wishes.
This cult group is interesting though...
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| Summum's founder, Corky Ra, learned the aphorisms during a series of telepathic encounters with divine beings he called Summa Individuals. |
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Su Menu, the church's president, agreed. "If you look at them side by side," she said of the two monuments, "they really are saying similar things."
The Third Commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
The Third Aphorism: "Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates." |
muahahaha.
In case someone was looking at the ddeubel's link with the, what appears to be, animal statues. Those are MUMMIFIED PETS! http://www.summum.us/mummification/pets/ |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:19 am Post subject: |
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| In some ways, I understand how Germany cracks down on Scientology and what have you, but you should encourage freedom of speech. However, one may ask why should all kinds of freedom of speech encouraged or not encouraged? You might say, because it will ensure that we won't have a dictatorship. I think that religions views are very strange, but they should have a right to display their views. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| My personal feeling is that the Supreme Court SHOULDN'T say yes or no, and just let each local government decide on their own - therefore, in this case, I guess they won't have the monument in the park, if it isn't the local government's wishes. |
I agree with your approach but would go further (or be more specific). I'd want a plebicite with X number of signatures before any monument could be erected. Local democracy, the way it was intended - instead of the deferred kind we practice in most cases.
I don't think though, given the history of this present court, that they will "not rule". Seems to be the case that they take themselves far too seriously in being the be all, end all. So I expect a ruling, however watered down and with written dissents.
One great thing of America is this "freedom to be" -- there have been so many social experiments and I believe the state should protect them/their right, so long as hate and violence are not practiced.
but yeah, interesting cult.
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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clay4bc
Joined: 01 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 7:56 am Post subject: |
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| If the Christian cultists can display their views to the public, all religions should be allowed the same courtesy. After all, can they really be any stranger than Christian beliefs? I say let them have their monument! Or are freedom of speech and freedom of religion just empty words, and not true American values? |
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