A debate of biblical proportions brewed Tuesday at a work session of the Casper City Council as council members parted like the Red Sea over whether to keep a Ten Commandments monument in City Park.

After about 45 minutes of sometimes fiery conversation between the council members, it was decided that the city will look into the possibility of selling the small portion of the park on which the monument sits to some private party.

The legality of keeping the stone monument, which was donated to the city by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in 1965, was challenged last month by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group that advocates the separation of church and state.

In a letter to the city, the group requested that the monument be moved from the city-owned property at the southwest corner of Center and Seventh streets. Having such a monument in a public park is a violation to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the letter contended.

Before the council discussed the matter, City Attorney Bill Luben and City Manager Tom Forslund explained the legal options the city had regarding the monument staying in the park.

According to the ruling, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals - which has jurisdiction in Wyoming - made in the case of Summan v. Ogden, a city that wishes to have a Ten Commandments monument on public property must also allow other monuments that espouse differing religious or political views, Luben said. These views may include hate speech or other unpopular rhetoric, he added.

Based on this legal precedent, the city has basically two options, Forslund said. The council could vote to keep the Decalogue and risk monuments of hatred and intolerance being placed in the park, or the Ten Commandments could be removed and given to a private party to display in a public manner, the city manager said.

"I hate this situation because it has been there for a long time and no one has complained" to the city about it, Councilwoman Mildred Lamb said. However, she added that she was unwilling to keep the monument and risk hate speech being written in stone in a Casper park.

Councilwoman Renee Burgess agreed with Lamb.

"It galls me to no end to vote to remove it," Burgess said. "And I would challenge anyone who has been hurt by it to come forward publicly" and say so. But like Lamb, Burgess was unwilling to risk hate speech in the park in the name of keeping the 38-year-old monument.

Council members Lynne Whalen, Paul Bertoglio and Jacquie Anderson, however, said they are sick of bowing to groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation and that they were willing to take a stand and keep the monument in the park.

"I am very upset that just the threat that someone might put up hate speech" will make us take down the Ten Commandments, Whalen said. "If they want to sue us, then come let them sue us," she added.

"I won't support moving it," Bertoglio said. "I think at some point we have to stand up to these people. Take a stand and let them come," he added.

"Our nation's motto is 'In God We Trust,'" Anderson said. She asked if Americans are going to have to take that off of every coin eventually.

Conversely, council members Guy Padgett, Barb Watters and Mayor Barb Peryam all expressed their desire to remove the monument.

"I am not offended by this monument, but I am not willing to risk hate speech" like that of Rev. Fred Phelps, who preaches and protests against homosexuals, to be put on a monument in City Park, Padgett said.

"Given the fact that Rev. Phelps comes here it seems every year" we may be taking that risk, Peryam added.

When asked if it were possible to sell the small chunk of City Park to a private party so that the monument could stay where it is, Forslund said that option would be difficult to accomplish.

The land on which City Park sits was donated to the city by former Wyoming governor Joseph Carey in the early part of the 20th century, Forslund said. "And there is (a) restriction placed on the property and if we were to sell off a portion of it then we would open ourselves up to losing the whole City Park complex. That has been litigated in the state Supreme Court twice in years past. The Carey estate, which I think is located in New Jersey, takes it very seriously," he added.

Whalen suggested that the city try to contact the Carey estate and see if they would allow this small portion of the park to be sold. "We do not know how this family would feel about this issue," Whalen said.

Anderson, Bertoglio, Lamb, Burgess and Councilman Ed Opella agreed with Whalen that the city should contact the Carey estate.

Watters, Padgett and Peryam, however, thought the monument should be removed regardless, they said.

Luben said his office would look into the legality of selling a piece of public property so a monument like the one in City Park can remain there, he said.

Forslund, however, warned that it may be some time before the city hears back from the Carey estate as correspondence in the past with it has always been written and has always been slow.