NITTA YUMA When Henry Vick Phelps III walks past the granite Ten Commandments just off of U.S. 61 at Nitta Yuma, it’s usually calm and quiet. It’s a stark contrast to the hullabaloo across much of the nation since a similar stone was ordered removed from a public building in Alabama two weeks ago.

“A lot of people stop and say a silent prayer,” said Phelps, 47 and a lifelong resident of the Delta town about 10 miles north of Rolling Fork. “They say it gives them silent inspiration.”

He said curious onlookers often pull their cars to the side of the road and get out to look at the monument and the chapel next to it.

It’s quite different from the loud sermons, debates and prayers heard at the rotunda of Alabama’s Judicial Building in the past few weeks. The Montgomery building has been steeped in controversy since Alabama’s chief justice refused to obey a higher court’s order to remove the monument. The granite was forcibly removed and the justice, Roy Moore, was suspended from the bench.

In Nitta Yuma, there’s no uproar and few changes.

“Basically everything has virtually stayed the same,” Phelps said. “Except for the cars it seems like they’ve gotten faster.”

Phelps said he’s never heard anyone complain about the monument, which, in contrast to Alabama’s case, sits on private property. And he believes no one would get much traction fussing about the granite on his family’s property since about two years after his great-aunt Ellen Phelps Crump died in 1958.

In her will, Mrs. Crump asked for the Ten Commandments and restrooms to be built in a small building at Nitta Yuma. The building and restrooms didn’t happen, but the Ten Commandments stand as a monument to Mrs. Crump.

Phelps has been listening to the debate about the monument in Alabama and heard Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove offer to house the monument at the Old State Capitol for a few weeks. He also heard gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour make similar offers.

He agrees the Ten Commandments have a place promoting family values.

“I’ve always heard a lot of old people around here say they might not go to church, but if they follow the Ten Commandments, they’ll be all right,” Phelps said.

Much of Phelps’ family still lives in the Nitta Yuma area, including his 91-year-old mother, Dorothy Cole Phelps; his wife; a son and cousins. He said he’s where he wants to be n where he can rear his son, Henry Vick Phelps IV, the right way.

Dorothy Cole Phelps said she watches the controversy about the Montgomery monument and can’t understand why all the racket.

“I don’t see why it would hurt a soul to hear those Commandments,” she said.

Last week Henry Phelps mowed the grass around the monument off U.S. 61 just in case someone might want to stand close while reading it.

He doesn’t mind their stopping and he doesn’t interfere, but Phelps wonders what their prayers are.

“I hope they’re good, whatever they are,” he said.