The display features a series of nine wood-framed documents from U.S. and Georgia history, including the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Georgia Constitution and the words to the ``Star-Spangled Banner.'' Two Albany churches and other residents donated the $900 to buy the display.
``What better place to see these documents displayed than in the places that impact our laws?'' Joe Carr, pastor of First Baptist Church of Putney, said after the commission meeting. ``It doesn't matter what people's beliefs are, no one can deny that this country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.''
A ceremony will be held early next year to commemorate the hanging of the display, said Jeff Sinyard, deputy chairman of the county commission.
``This is significant for our county,'' he said. ``We as commissioners are proud to support this display.''
This is perhaps the biggest county so far to put up one of the displays and could draw protest from the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has fought he displays in other counties.
State lawmakers approved a law last year allowing such displays after a controversy over the posting of the commandments at the Barrow County Courthouse. After a court battle, a federal judge ordered the display to be taken down.
Carr and other pastors members of Ten Commandments-Georgia say they are working with officials in Worth and Lee counties to put similar displays in their courthouses. The group is also pushing to get the displays in private homes because of the legal tangles over posting them in courthouses and municipal buildings.
Ten Commandments
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/11/204183