Louisiana Gives Up On Redrafting Of Ten Commandments

The Louisiana legislature has withdrawn from its attempt to edit the Ten Commandments. 2theadvocate.com reports that on Monday the legislature passed an amended version of Senate Bill 476. The bill, sent to the governor for her signature, provides for the Louisiana Secretary of State's office to make available for display in public buildings a group of historical documents containing religious references, including the Ten Commandments, along with an explanatory statement about the relevance of these documents to America's religious history. The bill, as finally enacted, sets out the precise text of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance that is to be used, as well as the exact text of the accompanying explanatory document. However, it merely says that the displays may include "the Ten Commandments, as extracted from the Bible." This language was agreed upon after an embarrassing debate earlier this month on which wording of the Decalogue should be used.