God's Words as Lawn Ornaments

From Virginia, God's words are popping up like the proverbial pink flamingoes of lawn ornaments. Seems the Ten Commandments can be purchased by churches and individuals alike to remind townsfolk of lost morality.

Mark Cline, a Southwest Virginia resident, started a business creating signs of the stone tablets that can sit on your lawn to remind the immoral youth of today about God.

"Some people look at the Ten Commandments as promoting religion, but I look at it as a good moral message that needs to be out there. Pardon the pun, but God knows, we need it today.''

Even God had to smile at that one. Cline is the former designer of Enchanted Castle in Natural Bridge, Virginia, which burned in a "suspicious fire" in 2001. People from all over the state are buying signs, and some are even shipping them to friends in other states. Ronnie Hollins, from Blacksburg, Virgininia, sees this as a virtuous throw back.

"When I was a kid in the elementary school, we quoted the Lord's Prayer," every morning at the former Bethel Elementary School near Radford. "The more we take God out of school, the worse school gets."

Cline, who considers himself nondenominational, seems more interested in the aspect of getting back into lawn decorating, making it clear that the religious tracts he received and threats of suffering at the hands of God when Enchanted Castle burned had nothing to do with this new theme of work.

"Everybody is free to believe what they want to believe. I don't believe there are any true atheists,'' he said. "People need to believe in something -- God, the Ten Commandments, Buddha, Santa Claus or fairy tales."