[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 52 (Wednesday, May 1, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TEN COMMANDMENTS AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, a week ago hundreds of my constituents 
watched something very sad in my district. A work crew placed a piece 
of sheet metal over a plaque depicting the Ten Commandments that hung 
on the wall of the Chester County Courthouse for over 80 years. The 
county commissioners did not want to do it, but a Federal judge ordered 
it.
  This week, a newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, all the way on 
the other end of the State, said the court's order was reminiscent of 
the Taliban and the Buddha statues, but I find it more disturbing than 
that.
  Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that computer child pornography 
was perfectly legal as long as real kids were not used making it. We 
can turn on the TV at 4:00 in the afternoon, watch Jerry Springer 
interview people about their most disgusting sexual activities. The 
American Nazi Party is told they have a constitutional right to march 
through a Jewish neighborhood in Illinois, but a plaque of the Ten 
Commandments is so offensive we have to cover it up.
  I am not exaggerating. The woman who sued our county said she was 
offended every time she went to the courthouse seeing the plaque. Mr. 
Speaker, something is very, very wrong with America's court system when 
child pornography is protected, can be viewed on computers, but the Ten 
Commandments have to be covered up.

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