It's Our Heritage

(This is an article that I wrote and submitted to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in response to the view that The Ten Commandments should be removed from government buildings.)
 
Our government should protect the religious freedoms of all its citizens but it should not be in the business of judging whether the architecture and monuments of govenment buildings offend a minority of its citizens.  This country is a democracy founded on the principle of rule by the majority.  The role of our govenment is to protect the rights of minorities.  The majority of Americans still adhere to Judeo-Christian principles of our Founding Fathers and therefore it is appropriate for government buildings to reflect these values.  Therefore, quotes from the Bible and other Judeo-Christian expressions are appropriate.

Even if the majority of our citizens were to hold other than Judeo-Christian values, I would still argue for keeping our historic government buildings to help future generations understand our heritage.

If the Supreme Court crosses from protecting the rights of its citizens to judging whether government buildings and monuments are offensive to any minority of its citizens based on any religious connection, then we have to do much more than just remove the Ten Commandments.  Many government buildings reflect Greco-Roman architecture and include statues of gods and angels that could be viewed as potentially offensive to anyone who does not adhere to these historic religious beliefs.