The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear a case concerning the right of a religious group to place its ”Seven Aphorisms” alongside the Ten Commandments in a public park in Pleasant Grove City, Utah.
The Salt Lake City-based religious group, known as Summum, which claims to represent both the “inner workings of Nature” and "the sum total of all creation," has argued consistently in local courts that the display of the Ten Commandments in public parks must not exclude the viewpoints of other religious groups.
Most notably, according to Summum, is the belief that their “Seven Aphorisms” represent the complete version of the Ten Commandments.
“When Moses received stone tablets on Mount Sinai inscribed with writings made by a divine being, he actually received two separate sets of tablets,” Summum claims on its website.
“The first set of stone tablets was not inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Rather, they contained aphorisms of a Higher Law that held very profound and deep meanings,” the group adds. “Moses had been initiated into an understanding of the inner, esoteric source of these aphorisms - aphorisms that outlined principles underlying Creation and all of nature.”
Summum's attorney, Brian Barnard of the Utah Legal Clinic, described the efforts by Summum to place its Seven Aphorisms alongside the Ten Commandments as “a matter of simple fairness.”
"Summum says, 'Our Seven Aphorisms are comparable and complementary to the Ten Commandments, so please let us put ours up,"' he said, according to Deseret Morning News.
The City of Pleasant Grove, however, has argued that the Ten Commandments do not represent any government endorsement of any particular religious viewpoint – the Ten Commandments were privately donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles over 40 years ago – and should not be obligated to act as a public venue for all religious viewpoints, a potentially bad precedent, the city claims.
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the law firm representing Pleasant Grove City, spoke to The Associated Press about the weight and importance of any Supreme Court ruling.
"The Supreme Court is faced with a dramatic opportunity: preserve sound precedent involving the well-established distinction between government speech and private speech – or permit a twisted interpretation of the Constitution to create havoc in cities and localities across America," he said.
The Summum group first began in 1975 after founder Claude "Corky" Nowell had a claimed encounter with advanced “Summa Individuals” who showed him the answers to “the matrix of Creation's formulations.”
According to its website, the Seven Aphorisms of Summum are the principles of psychokinesis, correspondence, vibration, opposition, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender..
The group claims to have over 250,000 members worldwide.
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Because it is a park. Period. I don't think it has anything to do with 'fairness', as this group claims; I don't think it has anything to do with seperation of church and state, as many lawsuits against courthouses claim; and I don't think it has anything to do historically or socially with the city, as they claim the Ten Commandments were 'privately donated.' It is a park. A park is an area where you go to let your children play, socialize, enjoy the beauty of nature, walk, run, be active, get out of a 8hr venture in a cubicle in NYC, etc.. Whatever one does in a park, it is a park. Should we erect TC monuments on all of our beaches? Or maybe place them on the walls of all our libraries. I don't use any legal, biblical, historical, or social reason for my answer, it is simple - religion does not need to be visible, and thus controversial, everywhere in this country.
NOT ONLY SHOULD THE TEN COMMANDMENT'S STAY THERE THEY SHOULD BE EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Ten Commandments should not even be in a public park...
This is nothing more than an opportunistic attack on the display of the Ten Commandments in public places. The Summums and their lawyer would like us to think that it is merely an effort to have their aphorisms displayed in public places alongside the Ten Commandments, but really, with the deplorable way our government has been treating the Ten Commandments in the last few decades, it is sheer madness to approach their stated objective in that manner. Do they want to associate with a winner? Well, perhaps they should ask Judge Roy Moore for more information on that score.
The Summum's attorney is quoted as calling it "a matter of simple fairness." Fair to whom, and on what grounds? How can we equate a handful of new-age postulates with a body of work that has helped shape the moral awareness of billions, the policies of nations, and our very own judicial system (USA)?
The city of Pleasant Grove argues, "the Ten Commandments do not represent any government endorsement of any particular religious viewpoint." This is probably an accurate statement of their current situation - mores the pity. The Establishment Clause has been interpreted in recent decades to mean that our government should take all pains to disengage itself from religion, with Christianity taking most of the brunt. If that were truly the case, then our founding fathers were daft for making that statement in a document where our nation's dependence and reliance upon God were so clearly spelled out.
From the group's website, they are Gnostics. Gnostics who quote The Matrix, at that....
The first aphorism: "SUMMUM is MIND, thought; the universe is a mental creation"
Dear, misled friends, God did NOT tell Moses that everything was a figment of his imagination.
I've read these. There is absolutely nothing biblical about them. These are not revelations from God, if anything, they came from the golden calf - figuratively speaking.
To anyone from this Summum group,
Point me please to the scripture that can back up your claims as you say, this sounds like a new age- spiritual holistic type of view. Show it in GOD'S holy word and I will correct myself- I and many other's await your answer......