Source: NPR
For New Hampshire residents, the dueling symbols are raising questions about belief, inclusion and the separation of church and state.
On a small bit of land in Somersworth, N.H., two very different symbols are soon going to be sharing a space. At ground level, a monument of the Ten Commandments. Just above it, the atheist flag will blow in the breeze. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Todd Bookman reports.
TODD BOOKMAN, BYLINE: At the intersection of High Street and Government Way in Somersworth stands a thick slab of engraved granite.
JOHN ALLARD: It looks like two tablets just like – I guess you could say like Moses brought off the mountain.
BOOKMAN: John Allard is a resident of Somersworth, a Catholic and a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The Eagles are a non-profit non-religious group. In the 1950s, they paid for this monument as well as hundreds of similar ones around the country. The stated intention was to ward off juvenile delinquency.
Categories: America, Atheism, The Muslim Times, USA