(Around the inside of the top of the dome)

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

There are also four walls, each bearing a longer quote. The one that caught and held me:

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, intitutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

This seems particularly important to me in examining the rules and morals handed down by the church. America is starting to claim itself to be a Christian state, as mistaken a notion as that should be. But before we use the Bible or some other tome 2000 years old as the only justification for a rule or moral standard, we need to seriously think of the context of the time.

Last edited 1/6/97