Separation of Church and State, or...?

[sff_corgi_lj]

There's a great hoo-hah going on in Federal Court over a judge in Alabama refusing to remove the following piece of statuary from court property:



Now, the way I see it (without being able to read all the engraving on the front of the work), this is a representation of the socio-historial foundation of Western law as much as any sort of religious representation (which is what the judge is leaning towards).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't a lot of British common law (on which a lot of American law bases precedent) derive from Christian-institutional interpretation of Hamnurabi and Hwyel Dda? Doesn't make it right, wrong or otherwise, but it's the mindset behind the very law being practiced in this building in Birmingham, Alabama.

So therefore:

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Comments

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I think that while the judge's attitude is pretty ridiculous (er, he does know that "judge" means he is supposed to uphold the secular law and the Constitution, right?) that the statue by itself is not. Because art is frequently inspired by religion, and in this case, it's a monument to Alabama history really.

But I get a bit iffy after that, because I think that it's fine as long as you are seeing it as Art and not The Basis of The Legal System, but it does not seem that is what they are doing.