Well, I like Jennifer Granholm on a lot of things (including her ability to challenge Arnold should the presidency be opened up to foreign-born citizens), but this little news tidbit seems a bit too much pandering to the right for my tastes.
- snip -
Symbol of faith gets a boost
Ten Commandments display is backed
February 12, 2005
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Taking a position practically indistinguishable from that of Christian conservatives, Gov. Jennifer Granholm endorsed Friday the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, including the state Capitol.
In an interview for the public television program "Off the Record," Granholm said she has no objection to display of the commandments in public buildings "because the Ten Commandments are universal."
Although government should not be promoting religion, Granholm said, the values expressed in the commandments from the Old Testament reflect a "universal desire for people to behave with dignity and honor God."
She said she would have no problem with the installation of a Ten Commandments display in the rotunda at the state Capitol.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said later Friday the governor was expressing a personal point of view in response to a question from program host Tim Skubick. Boyd said the governor doesn't disagree with court rulings that have curtailed the display of the commandments in public places, nor has she taken a position on pending court cases on the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to take up a series of rulings on Ten Commandments displays this year, after declining last year to overturn a ruling that required the removal of a monument from an Alabama court building.
But former Michigan Rep. Ken Bradstreet, R-Gaylord, who twice introduced legislation to authorize public displays of the commandments, said Granholm's position was a "welcome surprise." Bradstreet said his legislation, which was approved in committee but never voted on by the full House, would have allowed displays that included the commandments and other historic documents. Bradstreet, now an officer with the Michigan Conservative Union, said Granholm appears to be willing to "go further than my bill."
Wendy Waggenheim, communications director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan, issued a statement Friday in which she agreed with Granholm that government should not promote religion. But, she said, a display of the commandments in public buildings "is not an appropriate way to express the citizenship values of our very diverse nation."
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/granholm12e_20050212.htm
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