9 monuments in cross hairs

PLEASANT GROVE — Attorney Brian Barnard is out to rid city-owned land of monuments containing the Ten Commandments . . . if he can find them.

Barnard says a 1973 10th Circuit Court of Appeals lawsuit indicates there are nine Ten Commandments monuments in Utah — all donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) in the late '60s and '70s.

As of Tuesday, Barnard had located eight. His latest discovery sits inconspicuously behind an antique shop in a Pleasant Grove park at 100 N. 100 East.

"I wonder if Pleasant Grove felt slighted because no one was picking on them," Barnard joked.

If that were true, a letter sent to Pleasant Grove Mayor Jim Danklef on Tuesday — threatening litigation if the stone monument is not moved to private property — has remedied the slight.

"It does come as a surprise to us," said City Administrator Frank Mills. "We thought we had it in a pretty prominent position."

"We are taking a look at the different options of what we think will best represent the citizens and feeling of Pleasant Grove," he added.

The letter represents the latest move in an ongoing effort that started in 1994 to force cities and counties to remove religious emblems from public property. Proponents say the effort is meant to enforce church and state separation.

The effort initiated by the religious group Summum — which sought to erect a monument in Salt Lake City denoting their Egyptian beliefs along side one of the donated Ten Commandment monuments — has resulted in the removal of six public monuments to private locations following lawsuits and threatened litigation.

In 1997, the 10th Circuit ruled in the Salt Lake case that the Ten Commandments monument could stay on public property only if Summum was allowed to erect its own monument containing the faith's "Seven Aphorisms," which include principles of vibration, opposition and psychokinesis.

Salt Lake moved its Ten Commandments monument to private property instead. Two years later, after a similar lawsuit, Ogden did the same. Other cities, fearing litigation, made pre-emptive moves.

"Our goal was to make certain that the Ten Commandments would not become something that would divide our community," said Provo spokesman Mike Mower.