akhhorus
11-12-2008, 06:40 PM
Corky Ra?
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111201431.html?hpid=topnews)
The Aphorisms are the guiding principles of Summum, a religious organization that operates from a pyramid in Salt Lake City and practices mummification. They are so important to Summum that the group's founder, Summum "Corky" Ra, asked that they be displayed in a public park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, near a Ten Commandments monument.
The city said no, triggering a court fight that today wound up before the Supreme Court. The justices debated whether the city violated Summum's First Amendment rights and must also erect the Aphorisms, which contain sayings such as "Summum is MIND," "Everything flows out and in," and "The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left."
(snip)
But beyond the legalities, much of the interest in the case focused on the small religious sect at its center. Founded in 1975, Summum is described by its Salt Lake City lawyer, Brian Barnard, as believing in "Gnostic Christianity and new age philosophy," along with ancient Egyptian traditions.
One of those is mummification, which is practiced on everything including pets such as parrots and dogs. The body of Summum founder Ra, who died this year, is currently undergoing the six-month process. The group's Web site features sections including "Arrange for Your Mummification" and "Memorialize Your Pet."
Central to Summum tradition are the Aphorisms, which the group believes were inscribed on the original stone tablets handed down by God to Moses. Moses found that the Israelites were incapable of understanding them, according to this account. So he destroyed the stone tablets, revealed the Aphorisms to only a select few and returned to Sinai to receive a second set of tablets -- the Ten Commandments.
In 2003, Ra wrote to the mayor of Pleasant Grove and asked that the Aphorisms be displayed in the city's Pioneer Park, which contains artifacts including a replica log cabin, a Sept. 11 memorial and the granite Ten Commandments monument. It was donated to the city in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a civic group that distributed similar monuments nationwide after Charlton Heston starred in "The 10 Commandments" movie in 1956.
Pleasant Grove refused, saying it only accepted monuments directly related to the city's history or ones donated by groups "with longstanding ties to the Pleasant Grove community," according to court documents.
The judges must have been bored lol. And they should have made Corky Ra still be present in DC while he's being mummified.
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111201431.html?hpid=topnews)
The Aphorisms are the guiding principles of Summum, a religious organization that operates from a pyramid in Salt Lake City and practices mummification. They are so important to Summum that the group's founder, Summum "Corky" Ra, asked that they be displayed in a public park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, near a Ten Commandments monument.
The city said no, triggering a court fight that today wound up before the Supreme Court. The justices debated whether the city violated Summum's First Amendment rights and must also erect the Aphorisms, which contain sayings such as "Summum is MIND," "Everything flows out and in," and "The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left."
(snip)
But beyond the legalities, much of the interest in the case focused on the small religious sect at its center. Founded in 1975, Summum is described by its Salt Lake City lawyer, Brian Barnard, as believing in "Gnostic Christianity and new age philosophy," along with ancient Egyptian traditions.
One of those is mummification, which is practiced on everything including pets such as parrots and dogs. The body of Summum founder Ra, who died this year, is currently undergoing the six-month process. The group's Web site features sections including "Arrange for Your Mummification" and "Memorialize Your Pet."
Central to Summum tradition are the Aphorisms, which the group believes were inscribed on the original stone tablets handed down by God to Moses. Moses found that the Israelites were incapable of understanding them, according to this account. So he destroyed the stone tablets, revealed the Aphorisms to only a select few and returned to Sinai to receive a second set of tablets -- the Ten Commandments.
In 2003, Ra wrote to the mayor of Pleasant Grove and asked that the Aphorisms be displayed in the city's Pioneer Park, which contains artifacts including a replica log cabin, a Sept. 11 memorial and the granite Ten Commandments monument. It was donated to the city in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a civic group that distributed similar monuments nationwide after Charlton Heston starred in "The 10 Commandments" movie in 1956.
Pleasant Grove refused, saying it only accepted monuments directly related to the city's history or ones donated by groups "with longstanding ties to the Pleasant Grove community," according to court documents.
The judges must have been bored lol. And they should have made Corky Ra still be present in DC while he's being mummified.