ABINGDON, Va. — The board of supervisors in Washington County, Va., voted unanimously May 14 to hang a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of the county government building — a move which has drawn legal challenges in other localities.
The board’s vote was in response to a motion by a local pastor, the Bristol Herald-Courier reported. Jerry Eggers of Greendale Chapel in Abingdon said his motion was prompted by a recently installed painting of the Hindu god Shiva at the Barter Theatre, a popular stage venue in the Southwest Virginia town.
A display of the Ten Commandments will hang on the wall of the Washington County, Va., government building, following a vote of the board of supervisors.
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“Christianity is our heritage. I think the least we can do is stand for it and I plan to,” Eggers told the Herald-Courier. He offered to purchase the display himself.
At their meeting, supervisors also voted to form a committee to study the vote’s legal implications.
“I support the idea of what you want to do to but I want this done … right,” supervisor Wayne Stevens told the newspaper. “When I hang that up there with you, I don’t want it to come down.”
Last year in Narrows, Va., a challenge to a display of the Ten Commandments in a high school was resolved when the Giles County School Board agreed to remove it.
In its place the board put a copy of a page from a history textbook that mentions the Ten Commandments in conjunction with American government and morality. The commandments themselves do not appear on the page; they are represented by a drawing of two tablets.
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.