I'm Not Sure The Faithful In North Huntington Get The Irony Of Their Actions

From Joe Napsha at The Trib, resurrecting a long dead story:

To Shawn Teamann, posting a sign of the Ten Commandments in the front yard of his North Huntingdon home is an affirmation of his faith and his stance against what he sees as an erosion of religious freedom in America.

“It's just standing up for what you believe in. We feel religious freedom is being taken away,” said Teamann, a member of the Immaculate Conception Church of Irwin.

I can not and will not question the sincerity of Mr. Teamann for standing up for his beliefs. Saying that however, I am not sure that Mr Teamann realizes that he's actually exercising a remarkable level of religious freedom by posting The Decalogue on his own front lawn. I can disagree with the commandments but in the end, since it's his sign and his lawn whatever disagreements I might have are meaningless.

He has every right to do what he's doing. It's a right that's protected and it is fundamental to our society's freedoms.

He's even entitled to do this:

Having a sign in his Herold Street yard is a reaction to the removal of the Ten Commandments from publicly owned buildings, Teamann said.

Again. His lawn, his sign, his right to post The Decalogue. If you're offended by seeing them there, you're out of luck, pal.

But look at what he and his pastor, the Rev. John Moineau, are protesting:

Moineau, a Lower Burrell native, said he was prompted to get Ten Commandments signs for parishioners because officials at Valley Junior-Senior High School in New Kensington this year removed a monument etched with the Ten Commandments. The monument on school grounds was removed under the terms of an out-of-court settlement in February with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis. An atheist had filed a lawsuit in 2012, claiming the school district violated the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

Turns out, it was constitutional.  Constitutional as far back as 1980:

A Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

So, Mr. Teamann and Father Moineau, removing the commandments from the public school grounds is not an example of a "religious freedom being taken away" but an example of everyone's religious freedom being protected - including your own.

Father Moineau, your freedom to write about the Ten Commandments is protected.

Shawn Teamann, your freedom to post them on your front lawn is protected.

What you can't do is post them in a public school and in a way so as to force anyone else to read and/or live by them - if you think that you have that right, you're completely (and unconstitutionally) wrong.

It's a sad state of affairs that we still have to have this discussion.