Rockwall County plans to install a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of its historic courthouse.
The Rockwall County Commissioners Court voted unanimously last week to accept private donations to fund the monument.
"I think it just speaks a lot to the moral compass of Rockwall County,” Commissioner Dana Macalik said. “I'm proud to be a lifelong Rockwall County resident."
More than a dozen Rockwall County residents spoke in support of the resolution, including Gary Moody.
“[It’s] not a church and state matter, it’s a moral matter,” Moody said. “If we had everything in place and we followed those, we’d have a whole lot more less stress and misery, divorces and crime.”
Resident Jerry Brewer said the Ten Commandments aren’t just a religious symbol, but a “historical foundation.”
“The Ten Commandments have shaped Western law for centuries,” he said.
The monument will be similar to the one on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, which the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 did not violate the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment. The Tarrant County Commissioners Court last month accepted a Ten Commandments monument from the nonprofit American History and Heritage Foundation. That monument – similar to the one at the Capitol – will be placed on county grounds.
“There are other multiple monuments and statues and things like that on the grounds of the historical courthouse,” said Rockwall County Commissioner Lorne Liechty, who authored the resolution. “This seemed like the appropriate place to put it.”
But Imelda Mejia with the progressive Texas Freedom Network said displaying religious monuments in government buildings “crosses a fundamental line.”
"Texas is a home to many faiths and no faith at all,” she told KERA. “We believe that public property belongs to all of us and government should never do anything to appear to be sponsoring one specific religion.”
Liechty said during last week’s meeting the monument isn’t about giving preference.
“To say that there's favoritism is, I don't think, appropriate because all we're doing is recognizing the place of the Ten Commandments in our history and in the heritage of our nation,” he said.
He said Jeff Mateer, the Chief Legal Officer of First Liberty Institute and former First Assistant Attorney General of Texas, assured the county it’s within the bounds of the law.
Resident Beth Maynard was the sole resident to urge commissioners not to install the monument.
"There are those of us in the community that y’all represent ... that would rather it not go up,” she said.
A former teacher, Maynard said it’s not necessary to display.
“People have said we’ve taken God out of schools, we’ve taken prayer out of schools,” she said. “As long as there are believing people in a school room, you cannot take God out of it.”
The commissioners court’s vote comes as state lawmakers consider a bill that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
Olla Mokhtar is KERA’s news intern. Got a tip? Email Olla at omokhtar@kera.org.
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