Monumental undertaking

Kalispell man urging churches, individuals to display their faith in the Ten Commandments

By HEIDI GAISER

The Daily Inter Lake

hile the possible removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of the Flathead County Courthouse in 2004 was the subject of intense local controversy, one man's campaign to blanket Northwest Montana with reminders of the biblical mandates is being waged quietly.

Philip Klevmoen, who moved to Kalispell from Las Vegas in July 2005, has made it his personal goal to encourage every church from Eureka to the Mission Valley to post its own public monument to the Ten Commandments.

"I put one up on my property and then a couple weeks later, it came to me to contact churches," he said. "God commanded us to diligently teach our children, and what do we do? We take it out of schools, we put it in our closets, so it can't be seen."

He has offered to donate $500 to churches toward the cost of a sign or monument. He will give private-property owners $200 for the same.

The Rev. Dave Sprunger of Gospel Light Baptist Church in Evergreen didn't hesitate to take Klevmoen up on his offer. The church had a large empty space on its exterior front wall; that space is now filled with a highly visible, easily readable sign listing the Ten Commandments.

"A term I like to use about the Ten Commandments is that they're 'foundational,'" Sprunger said. "I believe that the Ten Commandments cause us to think about God and our place before him as sinners."

There's a New Testament verse on the Gospel Light sign - Galatians 3:24 - "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."

"One of my fears is that people believe you have to keep the law to get to heaven," Sprunger said. "I believe the law shows us we're sinners so we go to Christ for salvation."

Sprunger said the large sign, for which the church held a special fund drive, also has a fringe benefit.

"If people ask where the church is, we're starting to say, 'We're the church in Evergreen with the Ten Commandments sign.'"

The Rev. Bill Lewis at Valley Victory Church in Evergreen said Klevmoen's offer didn't require a lot of deliberation.

"I got off the phone with him and wondered, 'Why didn't I think of that?'"

A wooden sign listing the Ten Commandments is now posted in front of the church building on East Evergreen Drive, but Lewis isn't sure that's enough. A more visible tribute - a large sign on the exterior wall of the gym - is in the planning stages.

"Our vision is to raise them up in other areas, to have people confronted with the law and word of God," Lewis said. "It's an opportunity we've missed, and we'd like to step up and be more vocal in presenting the word of God publicly."

Linda Spangle has the perfect venue to display the Ten Commandments. For around 15 years, the Kalispell woman has tended a large and well-known backyard terrace garden that borders U.S. 93 in north Kalispell.

Spangle is a member of Valley Victory Church, and she was inspired by Klevmoen's presentation there. She asked her son Darin in Spokane if he would design a monument to be placed in the garden.

"We wanted to put the Ten Commandments up because they're taking our Christian symbols," she said. "They don't want them in the courthouses or schools or anywhere."

Darin Spangle created a monument out of granite and logs from his own property. He did all the work but the engraving.

Eagle statues are perched on either side of the Spangles' monument. For Linda Spangle, the eagles have a double meaning. They are a statement of the patriotism she and her husband, Chuck, share, and eagles are also at the heart of her favorite scripture.

" … those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:31

Passers-by have expressed their appreciation for the Spangles' new addition to the garden.

"We've had people stop and climb up the tiers to tell me thank you and that they've been blessed," she said. "They've said we need more of that in this valley."

Charles Barrow, who lives on West Reserve Drive, also was caught up in Klevmoen's zeal for the Ten Commandments. Barrow now has a bright yellow testament with black lettering in his front yard, a half mile west of U.S. 2.

Across the bottom of Barrow's sign, two scrolls state he is "Just a sinner saved by grace."

"I'm a born-again Christian, and I believe that if the whole world would obey the Ten Commandments, we'd have a pretty nice place to live," he said. "That's the way heaven's going to be."

Klevmoen said his proposals have not always been met with enthusiasm.

"The first pastor I went to was pretty negative," he said. "Some have said it's idolatry, others said they don't want to offend anyone. To a lot of people it's controversial, but to me it's God's law."

The Ten Commandments have been in the spotlight in recent years, with monuments on government property the subject of highly publicized courtroom battles.

The most famous is probably the case of Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Moore had a granite monument that weighed close to three tons installed in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building in 2001.

A successful lawsuit fighting the monument was filed by the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Moore was removed from his post in November 2003 for refusing to have the monument taken out of the building.

Moore has since become a hero to many who are dismayed by the removal of religious displays from government property. Klevmoen said he plans to ask Moore to visit the Flathead Valley once he feels there are enough Ten Commandments monuments installed to warrant an invitation.

In the Flathead Valley, the county commissioners responded to the threat of a lawsuit by Americans United for Separation of Church and State by incorporating the decades-old county courthouse Ten Commandments monument into a display of other historical texts pertinent to U.S. and Montana law.

The "Cornerstone of Law Memorial" - which features the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, the Preamble to the Montana Constitution, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Mayflower Compact and the Ten Commandments - was dedicated in October. The Kalispell Eagles and a group led by Commissioner Gary Hall raised the money for the display.

Hall said his promotion of the memorial was not one of his commissioner's duties; it was done out of personal conviction.

"I feel strongly about the significance of the Ten Commandments and what it means to the nation and me personally," he said.

For Klevmoen, encouraging multiple displays of the Ten Commandments is a common-sense calling, done in the service of leading people to a better life.

"I had a guy call me who said he had turned away from the Lord, and he stopped by my Ten Commandments sign, and rededicated himself to the word of God," Klevmoen said. "What would it do if people could be driving down the road and see one Ten Commandments, and then another, and then another?"

He said it's time for churches and concerned individuals to "step up."

"The schools, the bartender, the pornographer aren't going to be putting them up," Klevmoen said. "It's almost obligatory for the Christian to put them up if they're ever going to be seen. We're not trying to offend - we're trying to help people."

For more information or to contact Klevmoen, visit www.gods-ten-commandments.com

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.