Using Outrage to Raise a Debate
Feb. 5, 2004 -- A Ten Commandments monument stood undisturbed and unprotested in a Boise, Idaho, city park for nearly 40 years, but now it is threatened by the actions of a conservative Christian minister.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., has chosen Boise and roughly 10 cities around the country to be locations for an anti-gay monument because those cities all have Ten Commandments monuments on city property.
He believes that, based on a federal court ruling, those cities have to allow his religious monument on city property because there is already another religious monument, his lawyer said.
Boise City Councilman Alan Shealy proposed returning the Ten Commandments monument to the group that gave it to the city in 1965, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, rather than get into a court fight with Phelps over what Shealy called a "repugnant" message.
But if Phelps had not arrived on the scene, Shealy said he never would have proposed removing the city's monument from the park.
"I wouldn't have, I know that for sure," he said. "I'm not one to stick my neck out for no reason. I'm not spoiling for a fight."
But it appears he might have one.
The City Council voted last month to move the Ten Commandments monument and newly elected Mayor Dave Bieter agreed, but a local Christian group led by the Rev. Bryan Fischer of the Community Church of the Valley is fighting the move, taking the issue to federal court.
Fischer is also pushing for recalls of the mayor and Shealy.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge did not give Fischer's group the restraining order it sought to stop the Ten Commandments monument from being removed from the city's Julia Davis Park, but the city decided to hold off on moving it anyway until Lodge issues his ruling, which is expected to come Monday.
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