Opinion: Americans Should Display God's Law on Heart, not on Courthouse Lawn

July 10, 2005

Source: Star-Telegram

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/12094322.htm

On July 10, 2005 the Star-Telegram ran an opinion piece by Charles Foster Johnson, senior pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church of San Antonio. He reflects on American civil religion in light of the current public debate on the display of the Ten Commandments. Johnson says, "today religion in the public square has been stripped of its civility. A disease of uncivil religion has infected our land. This disease has been incubating for years, but has reached epidemic proportions in our current time of terror... This crusade is most recently confirmed by how the forces of uncivil religion reacted to the Supreme Court's decision on the posting of the Ten Commandments. A national campaign has been launched to place 100 Ten Commandments monuments this year on public property. In short, this means that the disease is spreading to every town, further infecting our national family with division and alienation... We are all for the display of the Ten Commandments -- more displays than an Alabama judge can possibly imagine. We just want them put where God says to put them, on human hearts that cannot be corrupted by cynical powers and principalities -- not on courthouse lawns. We stand for a movement of God's Law, not a monument."