Religion sues Utah town to display '7 Aphorisms'

First Amendment Center ^ | 8.05.05 | Associated Press

[obnogs]

SALT LAKE CITY — The Summum religion has sued the city of Pleasant Grove for the right to display the other set of laws they say Moses brought down the mountain.

The city has refused to allow the Salt Lake City-based religion to erect a monument enumerating the Seven Aphorisms, principles they say underlie creation and nature, with a public memorial that includes the Ten Commandments.

Summum leaders believe these were initially passed only to a select few who could understand them, but that Moses also delivered a lower set of laws, the Ten Commandments, which were more widely distributed.

Pleasant Grove's memorial sits in a secluded area that honors the city's heritage. The monument has been on city property since the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated it in 1971, and Summum wants the right to put its monument of the Seven Aphorisms there also.

The lawsuit alleges the city's denial counters previous rulings handed down in 1997 and 2002, when the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver agreed that Salt Lake County and Ogden City had created a forum for free expression by allowing the erection of a Ten Commandments monument on government property. Both cities eventually removed those monuments in response to the decision, leaving Summum with no public displays.

But that same standard applies to Pleasant Grove, Summum contends in its lawsuit, filed July 29 in U.S. District Court here.

"The rights of plaintiff Summum are violated when the defendants give preference and endorsement to one particular set of religious beliefs by allowing the Ten Commandments monument to remain in a public park or in a forum within the public park supported by taxpayers and disallow a similar display of the religious tenets of Summum," the lawsuit says.

[obnogs]

Here we go . . . Next thing, Heaven's Gate will want a comet monument on every courthouse lawn.

[mudblood]

Lets not forget to erect a giant bent spoon in homage to the mystical Uri Geller.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Let's see,

Rule #1. Don't drive with your elbow out the window, another car will go by and knock it off.

Rulw #2. Don't forget your galoshes, you'll catch cold.

[kjvail]

"Summum leaders believe these were initially passed only to a select few who could understand them"

In other words it's a gnostic heresy... wonderful.

[teacherwoes]

But can they prove Moses brought down the 7 Aphorisms? And what are they anyway?

[brooklyn dave]

Summum religion? Never heard of these folks? Are they a Mormon break away?

[Prime Choice]

Rule #3: Someday your face is going to freeze like that.

Rule #4: Red meat isn't bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is.

[caseinpoint]

Um, why would you want a public monument if you believed these 7 aphorisms were not for the masses but only the select few who could understand them? I know Pleasant Grove and I don't think those denizens have any mental legs up on anyone else.

[brooklyn dave]

OK not a Mormon break away....these folks like to get loaded.

[Prime Choice]

This is their 7 Aphorisms:

I. THE PRINCIPLE OF PSYCHOKINESIS
"SUMMUM is MIND, thought; the universe is a mental creation."

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE
"As above, so below; as below, so above."

III. THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

IV. THE PRINCIPLE OF OPPOSITION
"Everything is dual; everything has an opposing point; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes bond; all truths are but partial truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."

V. THE PRINCIPLE OF RHYTHM
"Everything flows out and in; everything has its season; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing expresses itself in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

VI. THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT
"Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is just a name for Law not recognized; there are many fields of causation, but nothing escapes the Law of Destiny."

VII. THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER
"Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all levels."

[mtbopfuyn]

I worship chocolate. Can I erect a giant bon-bon, edible of course.

[obnogs]

I googled Summum and came up with this:

THE PRINCIPLE OF PSYCHOKINESIS

THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE

THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION

THE PRINCIPLE OF OPPOSITION

THE PRINCIPLE OF RHYTHM

THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER

http://www.summum.us/summum.shtml

[brooklyn dave]

Rule #5 Don't do that or you'll go blind

Rule #6 OK you can do it till you need glasses

[obnogs]

Works for me. Could be kind of messy in the summer though.

[thoughtomator]

The funny part is that their 7 Aphorisms aren't hard to understand in the first place.

[Alexander Rubin]

That's them alright. Weirdo Egyptian new age gnostics. In other news, here in Toronto, Scientologists are using 9 and 10 year olds to recruit. It sickened me when I saw it.

[brooklyn dave]

In the words of Curtis Sliwa..."that definitely is freaky-deaky"

[Prime Choice]

Rule #7: BECAUSE I'M THE MOMMY! THAT'S WHY!!!

...or so I was repeatedly informed while growing up.

[Dominick]

http://www.summum.us/summum.shtml

Worth a visit. For nothing else but:Summum is the only organization in the world to offer the service of Modern Mummification.

Why you may ask? Well:
The Summum Philosophy embodies the Principles of Creation Itself. From Grand Cycle to Grand Cycle the fundamental esoteric teachings of the Summum Bonum are taught to select advanced souls who then progress to new spiritual levels. The last recorded reservoir of these teachings on planet Earth has been found in Egypt, a home of the pyramids.

...

Even the teachings of the Gnostic and Early Christians drew their roots from the Summum Principles. Unfortunately, these same teachings were lost at the time of Constantine whose iron hand smothered philosophy with its blanket of theology. The loss to the Christian Church was incalculable, for its very essence and spirit was gutted. Its participants were thrown into the abyss of the dark ages.

You Gnasty little Gnostics....

Bad emperor. Bad BAD!

I need to go and have a good laugh...

[kharaku]

All sounds vagul plausible at first...

http://www.summum.us/philosophy/tencommandments.shtml

Then you find out...

http://www.summum.us/philosophy/principles.shtml