Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Allegany County, Maryland is undergoing a very unusual fight over a monument on public property and one of the people involved in that fight has earned himself a Robert O'Brien trophy for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty. A group there has applied for, and the county board of commissioners has accepted, a permit to put up a monument to the U.S. Constitution on the county courthouse grounds. The monument would go next to already existing monuments to George Washington and to the Ten Commandments.
Edward Taylor is the head of a local group called the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization and he is demanding that the monument not be allowed - not because of anything it says, but merely because the plaque on the monument has the name of the group that donated the monument - and their name contains a word he doesn't like.
Edward W. Taylor Jr., of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, said Wednesday during a public meeting that the monument's "editorialized" inscription and engraving that will recognize the donor, Citizens for a Secular Government, is "very inappropriate."In September, the commissioners approved an inscription for the monument and its location on the lawn of the Allegany County Circuit Courthouse on Washington Street. The monument would join a statue of George Washington and a monument of the Ten Commandments. Taylor said his group originally was supportive of the effort but backpedaled when Dr. Jeffrey Davis, the catalyst behind the Constitution monument, modified the inscription.
"Some of the editorialized paragraphing I do agree with," Taylor said, "but that's what it is -- it's an editorialized monument. We see no reason why his editorialized version of the Constitution needs to be on public property."
At issue is the word "secular," which a commissioner-appointed Constitution Monument Committee eliminated from the proposed inscription. But Taylor said the word still was set to be engraved in granite because the commissioners were allowing the sponsoring group's name, Citizens for a Secular Government, to be included on the monument.
Taylor said his group's board members "have a great issue" with the word, which is defined by The Random House College Dictionary as "not pertaining to or connected with religion."
The word also means "atheist," Taylor said. That word is defined as "a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of God or gods."
Taylor told the commissioners the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, as evidenced by not only the Constitution but also by the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
"In our opinion, if Dr. Davis would like to build this, this is a free country," Taylor said, but "let him put it on private property."
So a Ten Commandments monument on public property is fine, but a monument to the constitution is not - if it's donated by a group that has the word 'secular' in its name. I'll take fucking idiots for $1000, Alex.
Politics
Comments
Is there any wiggle room at all for these type of kooks in the part of the constitution that deals with seperation of church and state?
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 5, 2010 9:24 AM
Not really, but that free speech business still applies. But I don't think it's atheist those people really fear, it's secular Christians they are most afraid off. You can't decry them as godless, but they still don't support the lunacy of a theocratic country.
Posted by: Mu | January 5, 2010 10:11 AM
You could not be more wrong. They can, and they do, all the time.
Posted by: tacitus | January 5, 2010 10:15 AM
Time to rally a group to have the 10
commandmentsguidelines removed. That should give Taylor something really hot to yell about.Posted by: MikeMa | January 5, 2010 10:31 AM
Mu @ 2:
I concur with tacitus @ 3. In the country I live in 'secular Christians' are defined by 'true Christians' as 'godless heathen' or 'apostates', the latter to those who falsely pose as educated. It's a classic use of the 'no true Scotsman' rhetorical fallacy.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 5, 2010 10:42 AM
Christian double standards are nothing new, but they manage to be infuriating every single time.
Posted by: barry | January 5, 2010 11:33 AM
Citation needed, Mr. Taylor. I looked in three dictionaries and could not find "atheist" or any variation in any definition of "secular".
I did find "Novus Ordo Seclorum" on the back of each $1 bill in my wallet, though. Should Mr. Taylor ever be informed of that, we can trust that he will henceforth not accept any such "atheistic" currency to touch his hands: "Keep the change!" (Who wants to bet he's a lousy tipper, btw?)
OT: I copied this item into an email to circulate to my friendly local Humanist Society, as I have with numerous other DftCW items. For the first time, it displayed in the email app with an extra space after each character (including the spaces):
That's not hard to clean up, especially after encountering the same oddity at various places all over the Web, but it's usually consistent, not varying at the same site. What was done differently in preparation of this post?
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | January 5, 2010 11:37 AM
Taylor told the commissioners the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, as evidenced by not only the Constitution but also by the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
Which is exactly why we need a monument to the Constitution in public. Maybe then people will actually read it and see that there is no mention of God or the Bible in it.
Posted by: Iason Ouabache | January 5, 2010 11:47 AM
Wait, the county has a committee that edited the monument inscription? I bet they didn't edit the 10 commandments. This could be a problem for the county.
Posted by: Reed A. Cartwright | January 5, 2010 11:57 AM
Pierce R. Butler "I did find "Novus Ordo Seclorum" on the back of each $1 bill in my wallet..."
Um. I don't think "Seclorum" means what I think you think it means.
I could be wrong, though. Latin is all Greek to me.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | January 5, 2010 11:58 AM
Mr. Taylor is actually acting rationally given his succumbing to Christian Nation propaganda. He's fighting to avoid having to deal with cognitive dissonance since he'd obviously rather believe that only Christianists defend the DofI, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution and the enemy of such are all those evil non-conservatives when in fact it's well educated libertarians, moderates, and some liberals who hold the moral high ground and are the most articulate defenders of America's founding documents and principles.
I remain continually frustrating that liberals and the Democrats do not leverage and drive this point home more often. Non-conservatives lose hugely in the media culture wars on this point in a manner similar to how scientists are getting their assess kicked on climate change in spite of being right, their opponents are completely wrong, and they're holding the moral high ground.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 5, 2010 12:12 PM
Though they sure are willing to count them as fellow Christians when they want to present themselves as the champions for the Great Silent Majority. Otherwise they'd just be another minority with no special claim on civic power.
Posted by: DaveL | January 5, 2010 12:13 PM
As always DaveL, great point.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 5, 2010 12:33 PM
Michael Heath "I remain continually frustrating that liberals and the Democrats do not leverage and drive this point home more often. Non-conservatives lose hugely in the media culture wars on this point in a manner similar to how scientists are getting their assess kicked on climate change in spite of being right, their opponents are completely wrong, and they're holding the moral high ground."
It should be noted that it's much harder to argue from the facts to an audience that views reality as an impediment.
That's not to say that "we" couldn't do better. Keep it short, keep it simple and keep hitting the talking points. Above all, be confident. The facts are on your side.
Anti-absinence only, instead of "...statistics...cost...ineffective...studies indicate...analysis of programs show..." should be "Try to act surprised when your daughter tells you she's pregnant. And she will. And if you don't believe that'll happen to 'your good daughter', ask your mother." But even that's too long. "You did it. They will too."..."Hope for the best. Plan for the worst."
Posted by: Modusoperandi | January 5, 2010 12:43 PM
Is there a cash prize that goes with the Bobby O'Brien award? I'm thinking of doing something really extra stupid, to see if I can get a little more beer money.
Posted by: James Hanley | January 5, 2010 12:57 PM
Modusoperandi @ # 10: I don't think "Seclorum" means what I think you think it means.
"Secular" - and all its verbal relatives - derives from roots having to do with time ("generation", "age", sometimes even "century", etc). In a religious context, that means "temporal" as opposed to "eternal" - i.e., worldly, not divine.
Novus Ordo Seclorum was included in the Great Seal of the United States as an assertion that the new republic was a "New Order of the Ages", or a first in history. (You can possibly stretch that into "New World Order", but a brain pulled that far out of shape may never recover.)
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | January 5, 2010 1:18 PM
Um. Okay. Roots and verbal relatives aside, I just took your "I looked in three dictionaries and could not find 'atheist or any variation in any definition of 'secular'." leading straight in to "I did find 'Novus Ordo Seclorum' on the back of each $1 bill in my wallet, though." and assumed you'd mistaken what the word sounded like for what it meant.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | January 5, 2010 1:31 PM
I received 1 st loan when I was 25 and this supported my business very much. However, I need the short term loan again.
Posted by: CainFrancis28 | July 8, 2011 6:09 PM