Leader Of Barrow's Ten Commandments Fight Hospitalized (heart stopped)

[Whoa_Nelly]

Winder -- Barrow County's leader in the legal fight to retain a display of the Ten Commandments in its courthouse is on life support after his heart stopped yesterday afternoon.

Commission Chairman Eddie Elder has been listed in serious condition at Athens Regional Medical Center.


Lane Downs -- spokeswoman for the county commission -- says Elder had been undergoing tests for stomach pains around 1:40 p-m when his heart stopped for about 13 minutes.

<snip>
Elder had been scheduled to attend a U-S District Court hearing yesterday in Gainesville over the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Elder and the county for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments display.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/2808263/detail.html

[jsw_81]

1. It must be a sign from gawd

[ogminlo]

2. Um, sir? The Almighty has spoken.

Stop tying to turn America into the Christian version of Iran.

[grasswire]

3. thirteen minutes?

Geez. It doesn't sound good for a recovery.

[SemperEadem]

4. I hope that in those 13 minutes, he had a real nice convo with his gawd

when he returns to this life, he might try living the 10 commandments, instead of trying to subvert the constitution of this country to make everyone else live by them, as the only person who is going to answer for himself is him, and him alone.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. As far as "living" the ten commandments,

please remember that some of them have to do with how one practices one's religion and nothing with how one behaves toward other members of society -- and forgive this devout orthodox atheist if she gets them out of order or not quite correct:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt have no graven images.
Thou shalt not take the lord thy god's name in vain.
Thou shalt remember the sabbath and keep it holy.

As far as I'm concerned, those four have nothing whatsofuckingever to do with courthouses or public policy and have no business being posted in public places. They are religion-oriented ONLY.

Now, some of them have to do with intimate interpersonal/family behavior:

Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not commit adultery

but those should apply only within the intimate relationships involved. they should not have anything whatsofuckingever to do with the law or public policy. Please note that there is nothing about "honoring," i.e. supporting and not beating the crap out of, your kids.

Only three have to do with what we would consider social behavior and/or "legal" issues:

Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Those three are pretty much accepted and expanded upon in our entire massive and convoluted legal system.

The last one, that quirky thing about covetting, actually contradicts the basis of our economic system: If we don't covet all those cool consumer goods our neighbors have, we won't keep the capitalistic wheels turning.

So it's really only three out of the ten that have anything to do with our legal system. The others have absolutely no business around our courthouses -- unless, of course, the christian taliban is taking over.

[DoctorMyEyes]

5. See what happens

when you worship false Gods? LOL