Religious Leaders Split Over 10 Commandments

The national debate raised by Congressman Tom Delay’s call for placing replicas of the 10 Commandments in schools has drawn mixed reaction from Queens religious and political leaders.
The measure brought a quick response from some who feared it would violate the time-honored separation of church and state. Others, however, welcomed the opportunity to bring religious issues back into the classroom.
Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Queens/Brooklyn Democrat, said he opposed the bill.
"It’s a violation of the fire wall that we impose between church and state," he said, observing, "I don’t think this will be the last time I’ll have to take issue with Delay."
Meanwhile, Jewish and Baptist leaders in Queens disagreed over the 10 Commandments issue.
The Rev. Charles Norris, executive director of the Southeast Queens Clergy and the minister of the Bethany Baptist Church, welcomed the idea of placing the 10 Commandments in Queens schools.
"It’s a good idea," he said. "They took prayer out of the schools and this could be the first step to getting it back in again."
Norris had no qualms about disrupting the traditional separation of church and state.
Diametrically opposed views were expressed by two central Queens Jewish leaders.
Rabbi Schlomo Blickstein of the Rego Park Jewish Center, said he is not a strict constructionist but opposed the 10 Commandment measure for "a lot of reasons."
He said there were varying views of the 10 Commandments by different religious groups and those who believe in a multiplicity of Gods.
"It’s the job of our religious schools to take up the issues posed by the 10 Commandments," Blickstein said. Our students spend from four to eight hours a day in religious study."
At the Forest Hills Jewish Center, Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik, said the Delay-backed bill "threatened to erode the separation of church and state."
He called the bill "an effort to force this concept down our throats. It’s a cheap effort that’s been disguised by the Congress."
Rabbi Skolnik called the whole matter "a bad idea."
Attempts to reach Terri Thomson, the Queens member of the Board of Education, were unsuccessful.