The last couple of years have seen a lot of wrangling over religious monuments in public places. These are almost invariably displays of the biblical "Ten Commandments," and almost always of the five-ton granite variety. Most of these monuments gets their start when enterprising believers who try to rationalize them as "historical" monuments, and it usually doesn't work.

One city in Utah erected one such monument in a public park, and when they realized it wasn't going to pass constitutional muster, tried a little legal chicanery to keep it. Instead of finding suitable private property to display the monument on, they instead chose to "sell" the spot it stood on to a private owner for a small sum, and erected a little fence around it. A clever idea, but I'm guessing the smirks were wiped from their faces when Summum, an Egyptian-styled Gnostic group best known for their enthusiasm for mummification, asked to have a spot for their own monument, enshrining the "Aphorisms of Summum," which they believe are the original contents of Moses' tablets.*

Of course the city demurred, and gave the usual "if we let them do it, we'll have to let everyone do it" argument, but Summum wasn't kidding, and took them to court. Most surprisingly, they won, getting a ruling two days ago that will enable them to put up their monuments. Definitely one for the be careful what you wish for files.

*In reality, the 'seven aphorisms' are a lightly reworked version of the Seven Hermetic principles of the Kybalion, an early-twentieth century Hermetic book.