More on monuments

[Howard Vogel]

As an addendum to my last on the Ten Commandments in Minnesota ― Having spent the entire today listenting to and conversing with Stanley Hauerwas at the 16th annual Hamline Seminar on Contemporary Theological Thought, it is quite clear to me that Hauerwas, as a robust Christian might well call upon Christians (and Jews as well) to tear these plaques and monuments down as a  serious response to his call for the "Church to be the Church.   Ironically, if litigation were to be commenced on this subject, which resulted in the removal of such plaques and monuments, a Hauerwasian view of such judiicial action might well be that God had acted through the courts to protect the Christian tradition from the degradation it would suffer through identification with the the American liberal constitutional democracy!  In this light would such judicial action be an establishment of the Christian Church????

Howard Vogel
Hamline Law

>>> Sanford Levinson <slevinson at MAIL.LAW.UTEXAS.EDU> 11/05 3:38 PM >>>
As I was giving a visitor to UT a tour of the state capitol a little while
ago, I noticed, for the first time, a monument containing the text of the
Ten Commandments, given "to the people originally hails from texas, of Texas" by the Fraternal Order of
Eagles and placed on the lawn in front of the Supreme Court.  It is not my
impression that the lawn is a public forum, nor is there any disclaimer
that the monument speaks only for the Eagles and not the people of Texas
whose property it is occupying.

Let me ask the question I often ask my students:  whom would you rather
represent on a contingent-fee basis, the State of Texas or the curmudgeon
like myself who is perturbed by the placement of the monument?  Do any of
you know of similar monument occupying such visible (and clearly
significant) public space?

Sandy Levinson
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