The debate, said Shahn Wilburn, the independent Baptist pastor who first suggested displaying the Ten Commandments after Columbine, is “Giles County versus Washington. David versus Goliath. I know that story,” he added. “And I know who won.”

Nearly 12 years ago, in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, officials quietly posted the Ten Commandments on the walls of Giles County, Virginia public schools. It was a natural reaction, said residents of this rural county peppered with churches, to such an alarming moral breakdown.

There the commandments stayed, within nondescript frames that also featured the first page of the U.S. Constitution, stirring little controversy until December. That’s when an anonymous complaint prompted the superintendent to order the removal of the displays. The decision sparked such passionate community backlash that the county school board voted to post them again in January.

Now the fight appears headed to the courts as residents of Giles County, along Virginia’s rugged, pious southwestern spine, fight what they call mounting pressure from Washington and Richmond to secularize their public institutions. The district also runs a so-called “Bible Bus” so that students can get privately organized Christian instruction off site during the middle of the school day.

“The commandments have been a compass for our lives,” said Jared Rader, principal of the county’s Macy McClaugherty Elementary School. “It’s something that the county feels strongly about, something we think our children should learn from.”

The ACLU and the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation disagree. They plan to file a lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs, who have asked the court to withhold their names for fear of retribution.

Read More:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/16/AR2011021603808.html?wprss=rss_religion

(Editor’s Note: The Publisher of The Aquila Report resides in Giles County and reports that there is way more interest in this issue in the national media than there is locally.)