A Litmus Test of Biblical Proportions School Exhibit to Add Ten Commandments

Beginning of article

BRUNSWICK -- Glynn County school board members are throwing down a gauntlet in the constitutional controversy over posting the Ten Commandments in public schools.

The Board of Education, voting unanimously, with one member absent Monday night, asked Superintendent William Young to "develop an educational exhibit of non-religious historical documents that will include the Ten Commandments."

The board also instructed, "to the extent possible, this exhibit will attempt to withstand existing constitutional parameters."

But board members did not decide whether to actually post the commandments. That issue was not raised for a vote by the panel.

Nor did board members set a deadline for Young to develop the display of documents.

"The commandments will probably be part of a larger exhibit including the Magna Carta and other very important documents in the history of government, including perhaps the Emancipation Proclamation," board Chairman Harlan Hambright said yesterday.

Gerry Weber, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Georgia, said regardless of the rationale used by elected officials, it stills violates the U.S. and Georgia constitutions to display …