"He multiplieth words without knowledge..."
--(Job 35:16)

"'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' "'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to master -- that's all.'"
--(Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking-Glass VI")

on't call them the Ten Commandments, or the Hebrew Commandments, or the Judeo-Christian Decalogue. In Scottsburg, Indiana, they are the 11 "Common Precepts," and this supposedly has nothing to do with religion.

   By most reports, the Scott County School Board would prefer to have the Ten Commandments displayed prominently in all classrooms. The U.S. Supreme has ruled that would violate the separation of church and state, but undeterred, board officials say that they will proceed with a plan to post 11 "Common Precepts" as an alternative. The message is clearly religious, sectarian, even authoritarian. It commands students to "Trust in God," "Honor your parents and family members," save sex for the institution of state-church recognized marriage and -- perhaps most chilling of all -- "Respect authority."

   A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, perhaps restraining himself, told the New York Times that the "Precepts," sound like religious decrees from some Old Testament-style prophet. "It suspiciously tracks the Ten Commandments," declared attorney Kenneth Falk, who promised that he would file suit to stop the Scott County School Board from displaying the new code. "The edict to trust in God is clearly a religious notion," he adds.

   School President Rod Colson, though, said that the board will not be "backing down" from its unanimous decision made last month. "We feel very strongly about them ("Common Precepts") and think they're defensible."

   Colson added, "Right now, I guess we've drawn a line in the sand. We're bound by Indiana statute to instill moral responsibility and instruction, and that's what these precepts do ... We do not want to teach religion."

   The "Common Precepts" were proposed, though, after two local residents -- Tim Hawn and Chris Marshall -- asked the school board to post copies of the Ten Commandments throughout the district's classrooms. Their appeal to the board spoke of encouraging moral values in youngsters and fostering respect for authority. School Superintendent Robert Hooker took their suggestion to heart, and concocted the "Precepts."

   Hooker told the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper that that "with kids killing kids ... people are looking for answers." He said that the "Precepts" would pass constitutional muster since they supposedly employ "secular language." Hooker defended the "Trust in God" precept as similar to the "In God We Trust" phrase placed on the nation's currency as adopted as the national motto at the height of the cold war.

   "A school can't put up a proclamation that you should trust in God as part of the code that a good student should believe in," warns Falk. "Regardless of the jurisprudence around the issue of the Ten Commandments, that statement alone is a violation of the establishment clause."

   According to the New York Times, Scott County -- a rural district about 30 miles north of Louisville, Ky. is heavily religious. "Nearly all" of the 2,700 students in the district are Christian, and the force of the fundamentalist First Church of Christ is felt deeply in the area. Mayor Bill Graham -- his real name -- declared, "We need to instill values in our children."

   In the case of STONE v. GRAHAM (1980), the U.S. Supreme Court ended a campaign by the State of Kentucky to post copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. This has not stopped religious groups, though, from trying to circumvent the ruling; and display of the Decalogue has become a religious flash point issue that is spreading from coast to coast.

   ¶    In nearby Kentucky, public schools are defying legal advice -- and risking potential lawsuit -- by posting copies of the Commandments. Last month, thousands rallied in Corbin, Kentucky in support of a proposal to display the Decalogue. Televangelist Pat Robertson praised the effort, and urged supporters to "throw off the shackles of this dictatorship" and post the Commandments.

   ¶    In Illinois, the flap over the Commandments has ignited passions in communities like Harrisburg, where the school board there has decided to post copies of the Commandments along with "historical" documents.

   ¶    Alabama remains a tense state around issues like prayer in schools and display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Judge Roy Moore, who attracted national support for posting the Decalogue in his courtroom and opening judicial proceedings with an invocation, has announced that he will run for the state's highest judicial post, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

   With passions running high in Scottsburg and other communities, a bill has been introduced in the Legislature that would permit schools and governments to conspicuously display the Ten Commandments. If challenged, such a law would likely be declared unconstitutional, but is sure to become part of a growing controversy over "state's rights" and the issue of federalism -- how far local and state authorities may go in enacting policies which seem to conflict with the Bill of Rights, or which clash with federal legal jurisdiction.

   Mr. Colson says that many in his community wonder why everyone does not support the open display of the Commandments; indeed, the "Precepts" seem to be accepted as a shabby cover for smuggling the Judeo-Christian Decalogue into the public schools.

   "Every one of us on the school board believe in ... God," he told the Times. "We're not going to turn our backs on him. You've got to draw a line in the sand somewhere..."

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