n a lopsided vote earlier this week, the Indiana House of Representatives approved a measure allowing local governments, courts and public schools to display copies of the Ten Commandments.

   The 92-7 tally came after just thirty minutes of debate. According to the Indianapolis Star newspaper, passage of the legislation was especially "easy" following last week's approval of a similar measure in the state Senate by a 38-11 margin.

   Sponsored by Rep. Jerry L. Denbo (D-French Lick), the measure (House Bill 1180) originally called for the Commandments to be posted as long as they were presumably secularized as part of a display with other historical documents. An amendment offered by Rep. Dean R. Mock (R-Elkhart), though, modified the legislation to permit freestanding displays of the Decalogue.

   "I have no problem personally with the Ten Commandments standing alone," Denbo told reporters. "I think it's a great idea. However, to make it constitutional we (originally) had to say it would be displayed in the same manner as other documents."

   In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky statute that called for the display of the Ten Commandments in all of that state's public school classrooms. In a 5-4 vote, the court held that "the preeminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on school room walls is plainly religious in nature," and that the law therefore violated the separation of church and state.

   Other judicial decisions, though, have approved the Commandments so long as they were part of a larger display of historical documents, or were allegedly connected to some secular purpose.

   Last December, U.S. District Judge Allen Sharp ruled that a Commandments monument in front of the Elkhart, Ind. City Hall that been donated to the town in 1958 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles passed constitutional muster. In a 49-page decision, Sharp suggested that it was part of a broader display emphasizing themes such as justice and the legal system.

   American Atheists Indiana State Director Mike Suetkamp, a plaintiff in that suit, said that he will be appealing the case to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court.

   Yesterday's passage reflected concession to hard-line religious conservatives who want even superficial guidelines on Decalogue displays eradicated -- specifically the requirement that the Commandments be part of a larger presentation depicting secular themes and documents. Sen. Kent Adams (R-Bremen) sponsored mirror legislation in the Indiana Senate that did not permit stand-alone display of the Commandments.

   Warning of possible legal problems with the House version enacted yesterday, he told the Star "I don't want to get into a constitutional debate. I told him (Dean Mock) they were wrong and should not attempt to do this."

   Adams said that he sensed the influence in the House vote of Eric Miller, identified as a lobbyist for the fundamentalist Christian group Advance America

   Since the versions passed in the House and Senate differ slightly on whether or not the Commandments would be permitted to be displayed alone, a joint conference committee will have to craft a compromise version. Sen. Richard Bray, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the House bill would have to be "cleaned up"

   In remains unclear whether the Ten Commandments could be displayed in schools, even if there were juxtaposed with secular documents like the Magna Carta or the U.S. Constitution. Similar bills are now pending in state legislatures in Oklahoma, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi. Legal experts warn that the choice of documents could be crucial in deciding any constitutional challenge.

   In Kentucky, for instance, Ten Commandments booster have included the Decalogue along with former President Ronald Reagan's "Year of the Bible" declaration and a statement by Abraham Lincoln concerning the importance of Christianity.

   "When you actually see the display, every document has a religious intent," says Jeff Vessels of the state American Civil Liberties Union.

   Another problem concerns which version of the Ten Commandments to post. In Alabama, Etowah County Judge Roy Moore gained national attention for displaying a hand-carved plaque above his dais. It simply portrays two tablets with Roman numerals. The versions of the Ten Commandments found in Roman Catholic and Protestant bibles differs slightly, raising the specter that one religion is being favored over another.

   Throughout the nation, the effort to display the Commandments has been energized by the Washington, D.C.- based Family Research Council which has inaugurated a "Hang Ten" campaign. The group, headed by former GOP-presidential nomination hopeful Gary Bauer, has asked members of Congress to display the Commandments in their Capitol Hill offices.

   Commandment supporters have often argued in court that displaying the Decalogue serves a secular purpose, such as instilling moral values, and has little or nothing to do with religion. Most of the groups supporting efforts to encourage or mandate display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and other government venues, though, speak of the need to instill religious faith and honor God.

   In Kentucky, for instance, an organizer of a pro-Commandments rally told the New York Times, "We need to get what God has tried to teach us back in our hearts whether you're a Christian or not..."

   Similar religious sentiments echoed in the Indiana Senate yesterday during the brief debate on the Commandments legislation. After some opponents suggested that the measure would violate the separation of church and state, Dean Young (R-Harford City) declared that he hoped someday to meet the Lord in person.

    "Am I going to say to him or her, 'Well, God, I thought it was unconstitutional?'"

   As detailed in yesterday's AANEWS, Indiana is one of nearly a dozen states where in the past month legislative proposals mandating school prayer, display of the Ten Commandments, instruction in creationism and other "religion friendly" proposals have been fast tracked by lawmakers. Much of the legislation is constitutionally suspect, but that may be the point of at least some proposals says Bob Stevens, associate executive director of the South Dakota Education Association. He told the New York Times that in recent testimony before a State Senate committee considering a Ten Commandments bill, proponents admitted that they wanted to force a legal challenge. While schools districts might not be able to handle the legal costs, state legislatures -- with the power to tax -- presumably could.

    "They want a constitutional confrontation," Stevens declared.

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