Rich blogs <\/a>on further developments <\/a>in the shenanigans of the “Reverend” Fred Phelps and the city of Casper, Wyoming.<\/p>\n Two statements, from either side, highlight a couple of important principles:<\/p>\n “This is where our statement of faith, our statements of values, our backbone belongs,” [Casper City Council rep] Peryam said while endorsing the historic plaza plan. “And for those outsiders who think they can run our city, I say, ‘Thank you, thank you very, very much.’ Because, you know what, if you think that we are going to put our monument someplace in cold storage, I’ve got another thought for you. We are going to put it where it will be more noticed, more taken advantage of and used for learning purposes by all families.”<\/p>\n That, of course, is one of the problems — that the Casper City Council is universalizing the Ten Commandments to be “our <\/i>statement of faith, our <\/i>statements of values, our <\/i>backbone.” I wonder how I would feel, were I a Buddhist resident — current or prospective — reading that coming from an elected official.<\/p>\n For that matter, a statement like that is likely to run them into trouble when they start trying to argue that the Decalogue is only an “historic” document on display on public property. <\/p>\n On the other hand, there’s this little bit from Phelps, who’s now trying to buy a slice of town square land in a small Idaho town, similar to what the American Legion is doing there for another Ten Commandments monument:<\/p>\n Phelps, 73, of Topeka, Kan., said he was unconcerned that his anti-gay message could prevent the Ten Commandments from being displayed in Rupert, a community of 5,645 people about 165 miles southeast of Boise. Riiiiight. Pretty Godly of you there, Fred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rich blogs on further developments in the shenanigans of the “Reverend” Fred Phelps and the city of Casper, Wyoming. Two statements, from either side, highlight a couple of important principles:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5125,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/29\/marked.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":0},"title":"Marked","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Oct-03 11:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Casper City Council is trying to take the middle road regarding its own Ten Commandments monument and a proposed Fred Phelps monument condemning Matthew Shepherd to hell. Bully for...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11089,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/13\/he_really_doesnt_have_to.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":1},"title":"He really doesn’t have to listen, I guess …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-07 5:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"Law suits by a pair ejected from a Bush speech a couple of years ago have led\u00a0to a fascinating appeals argument asserted by lawyers for some of the people who...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136752,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/13\/tv-cartoons-of-saturdays-past.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":2},"title":"TV Cartoons of Saturdays Past","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Jun-18 6:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"For those who wonder why I am how I am today, I blame Saturday Morning Cartoons. This crop is from when I was in kindergarten or so, and (aside from Casper) I was an avid viewer of most of these at one time or another. Original Post","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/shazzan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4248,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/08\/calling_in_mark.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":3},"title":"Calling in markers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Oct-03 3:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am morally bound not to hate anyone. Of the greatest commandments Jesus detailed, loving your neighbor is second only to loving God. So, really, hating people is not on...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3064,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/15\/well_they_do_ha.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":4},"title":"Well, they do have a contract …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Aug-02 10:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"US bishops have issued a statement that Jews don't need to be evangelized: Citing teachings dating back to the Second Vatican Council, and statements by Pope John Paul II throughout...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3919,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/10\/diplomacy_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":5105,"position":5},"title":"Diplomacy","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Mar-03 8:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Does anyone else find the following two statements from John Kerry just a bit ironic? Statement 1: \"What I do regret is that this administration has not lived up to...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n”My message is infinitely more important than the Ten Commandments, because nobody is delivering it,” Phelps said.<\/p>\n