He’s back! Roy S. Moore, better known as the “Ten Commandments Judge” for his attempt to jettison First Amendment’s establishment clause by installing a granite monument in the lobby of the Judicial Building in Montgomery, has announced that he will try once again to be elected governor of Alabama.
Moore, a former kickboxer, served as a circuit court judge in Gadsden, Alabama, during the 1990s, at which time he waged a legal battle to display a homemade carving of the Ten Commandments on the wall of his courtroom. For some of the folks in Alabama, apparently, this sort of brazen disregard for the Constitution is considered a qualification for higher office. Not only did Moore not run from the controversy, he ran for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000 as the “Ten Commandments Judge.” The voters of Alabama elected him, and shortly thereafter he plunked a two-and-a-half-ton granite monument emblazoned with the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the judicial building.
Moore, who claims to be a Baptist, steadfastly refused to place the representations of any other religious group in that space, which is what made the gesture a violation of the establishment clause. He also denied a request from the Alabama Atheist Association (both members, no doubt) to post a statement of their principles.
The case went to the US District Court. As one of the expert witnesses in the case, I testified that the First Amendment is the best friend that religion has ever had. I also argued that religion, as Roger Williams (founder of the Baptist tradition in America) predicted long ago, has flourished in this nation as nowhere else precisely because the government has stayed out of the religion business.
When Judge Myron Thompson ruled (correctly) that Moore’s stunt represented a violation of the First Amendment and the workers were preparing to remove the monument, one of the protesters screamed, “Get your hands off my God!” Unless I miss my guess, one of the commandments etched into that monument says something about a graven image.
Moore’s refusal to remove the monument, as directed by the court, resulted in his own removal as chief justice. And a martyr was born. Moore traveled around the country addressing religious right audiences about how the United States is and always has been a “Christian nation” and recounting his exploits in Alabama.
In 2006, Moore thought that he could once again parlay his disregard for the Constitution into higher office. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor, but lost badly in the primary. (Several weeks later, in neighboring Georgia, another poster boy for the religious right, Ralph Reed, lost his bid to become the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. And people say there is no God!)
On June 1, Moore announced that he was again running for the Republican nomination. His Web site features a quote from James Dobson on its home page. “Judge Moore is a man of courage and strong Christian character,” Dobson says, “and I have long admired him.” Another testimonial comes from Oliver North, identified simply as “American Hero”: “Chief Justice Roy Moore is a proven fighter for his faith and our freedom.”
In announcing his candidacy, Moore was up to his old tricks. “Out of Washington comes a dangerous new message that we are not a Christian nation,” he thundered. “Indeed, I refute that.”
Several years ago (after the “Ten Commandments” trial), I accompanied a group of students from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism on a tour of the South. We arranged a meeting with Moore, who is an engaging man with a good sense of humor. I found myself liking him, even though I consider his ideas and his antics dangerous. In the course of the conversation—a peroration, really—Moore did his schtick about our Christian nation and how the First Amendment protects the “free exercise” of only Christians and Jews because, he said, the founders knew nothing about other religions. (That statement in itself is false, of course; Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Qur’an.)
I asked Moore if that same logic applied to the second clause of the First Amendment, which covers freedom of the press. By his own reasoning, and that of all those who argue for “original intent” in their approach to the Constitution, freedom of the press would not include radio or television or the internet because the founders had no knowledge of these forms of media, just as they did not (according to Moore) know of any religions besides Christianity and Judaism. Does the same “original intent” logic, I asked, apply to both clauses of the First Amendment? Moore had no answer. Perhaps the voters of Alabama will press him (pun intended) for a response.
Tags: alabama, james dobson, oliver north, roy moore, ten commandments monuments
With no respect for Roy Moore, what do you mean he "claims to be a Baptist"?
I assume this is an attempt to imply that Moore's idea of being a Baptist does not meet your standards. Fair enough. His religion is, indeed, at odds with any kind of traditional Southern Baptist church. But not with the main currents of the convention today.
Saying that Moore "claims to be a Baptist" is a bit like a conservative saying Gene Robinson "claims to be an Episcopalian."
What Roy Moore, along with the majority of Southern Christians, fail to recognize is that when Jesus Christ was crucified, HE fulfilled "The Law." This includes the "10 Commandments." As Christians, we are no longer "Under the Law," including these Commandments. (Galations 3:24-25; among others) However, if Roy Moore wants to show his ignorance of the very religion he so proudly hails, he should go all out. While he is trying to enforce those Commandments, he should also look closely at upholding the other 603 laws in the Old Testament; I base this suggestion on James Chapter 2, in which James is speaking about partiality of people, to the Christians. However, James, addresses "picking which Laws to obey" in verses 8-11 (The Message): " 8-11You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: "Love others as you love yourself." But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period. 12-13 Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time." (The Message)
Historically, there are two characteristics of Baptists, going all the way back to Roger Williams, founder of the Baptist tradition in America: belief in adult (believer's) baptism and belief in the separation of church and state. (Williams believed that church and state should be segregated in order to maintain the integrity of the faith.) The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enshrined that Baptist principle into law. Anyone, therefore, who seeks to eviscerate the First Amendment is not, in my judgment, a true Baptist.
Roy S. Moore, better known as the “Ten Commandments Judge” for his attempt to jettison First Amendment’s establishment clause by installing a granite monument in the lobby of the Judicial Building in Montgomery
How is posting the Ten Commandments establishing a Church?
This includes the "10 Commandments." As Christians, we are no longer "Under the Law," including these Commandments.>
Where in Scripture is the Law abrogated?
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enshrined that Baptist principle into law. Anyone, therefore, who seeks to eviscerate the First Amendment is not, in my judgment, a true Baptist.>
The Baptists were not against Separation of Church and State, rather, government intervention with the Church.
Randy -- isn't that defining religious affiliation by doctrine and tradition rather than by lived experience? Would you then agree with the Lubavitchers who tell me that I'm not a Jew because my mother wasn't? Or Austin Ruse, the organizer of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, who invited George W. Bush to speak but not Ted Kennedy because, he said, Kennedy's support for abortion rights means he's not a Catholic?
I'm guessing you wouldn't. You know that religion is never so simple as what the books say and what our grandparents believed. To insist as much is a rhetorical trick of intolerance, one typically employed by the less imaginative gatekeepers of the right.
by Stephen Fox
I live about 20 miles from Roy Moore. Several folks who used to be members of the Baptist church where my Mother was baptized have matriculated to his base of operations at Crosspoint Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama
BTW, if all them were tithers it would amount to about $100,000 a year loss to the small local congregation they left.
Balmer knows me to be a friend, but I think he and Sharlet's considerable influence is lost in pursuit of the carny atmosphere inherent in Moore's 2nd try at the Governor's race.
The story here in Alabama is more complex. Definition remains elusive for me, but it involves the mediocrity of the Alabama Baptist Convention in the face of President Obama's Good friend Artur Davis's run for Governor.
That run can be nuanced by Bama legend and SCOTUS justice Hugo Black's Grandson Stephen, who teaches at UBama.
Artur DAvis is running a reform candidacy with Constitutional Reform as a major part of his plank.
The average Baptist in the pew in Alabama is not a Roy Moore Baptist. The average Baptist in Alabama remains in football satiated fog with no vocabulary for what is best for the state. A good bit of the blame for that can be laid at the leadership of the Alabama Baptist Convention.
Couple things, Balmer's friend and Sharlet's almost certain acquaintance, Charles Marsh of UVA will be the Shurden lecturer on Church state issues in Bham next Spring, a lecture Balmer gave this year in Macon.
It is doubtful The Alabama Baptist convention will engage that moment. But it is in the promise of such gatherings that Alabama's hope now resides, not in repeated circus or concern for Judge Moore.
Another important opportunity for exploring Alabama's soul lies in Senator Sessions stance toward SCOTUS Sotomayor. I don't think Sessions can pass his own test--that being his stellar tribute the great Alabama native Judge Frank Johnson who gave MLKing legal authority to march from Selma to Mgomery--and persist in diminishing Sotomayor's nomination.
Google up Sessions tribute of ten years ago on the floor of the US Senate.
Finally, I encourage Balmer and Sharlet to begin conversations with Glenn Feldman of UAB and the aforementioned Stephen Black; better using their considerable influence next look at Alabama, and I do hope there is more to come.
by Stephen Fox
I live about 20 miles from Roy Moore. Several folks who used to be members of the Baptist church where my Mother was baptized have matriculated to his base of operations at Crosspoint Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama
BTW, if all them were tithers it would amount to about $100,000 a year loss to the small local congregation they left.
Balmer knows me to be a friend, but I think he and Sharlet's considerable influence is lost in pursuit of the carny atmosphere inherent in Moore's 2nd try at the Governor's race.
The story here in Alabama is more complex. Definition remains elusive for me, but it involves the mediocrity of the Alabama Baptist Convention in the face of President Obama's Good friend Artur Davis's run for Governor.
That run can be nuanced by Bama legend and SCOTUS justice Hugo Black's Grandson Stephen, who teaches at UBama.
Artur DAvis is running a reform candidacy with Constitutional Reform as a major part of his plank.
The average Baptist in the pew in Alabama is not a Roy Moore Baptist. The average Baptist in Alabama remains in football satiated fog with no vocabulary for what is best for the state. A good bit of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the leadership of the Alabama Baptist Convention.
Couple things, Balmer's friend and Sharlet's almost certain acquaintance, Charles Marsh of UVA will be the Shurden lecturer on Church state issues in Bham next Spring, a lecture Balmer gave this year in Macon.
It is doubtful The Alabama Baptist convention will engage that moment. But it is in the promise of such gatherings that Alabama's hope now resides, not in repeated circus or concern for Judge Moore.
Another important opportunity for exploring Alabama's soul lies in Senator Sessions stance toward SCOTUS Sotomayor. I don't think Sessions can pass his own test--that being his stellar tribute the great Alabama native Judge Frank Johnson who gave MLKing legal authority to march from Selma to Mgomery--and persist in diminishing Sotomayor's nomination.
Google up Sessions tribute of ten years ago on the floor of the US Senate.
Finally, I encourage Balmer and Sharlet to begin conversations with Glenn Feldman of UAB and the aforementioned Stephen Black; better using their considerable influence next look at Alabama, and I do hope there is more to come.
From the US Senate Floor Ten Years ago and I quote:
But, most of the time and in most of the cases he simply followed the law as we had always known it to be, but unfortunately, not as it was being applied.
When the State tried to stop the Selma to Montgomery march, Judge Johnson concluded, in words quoted, in a fine obituary by J. Y. Smith in the Washington Post Sunday, that the events at the Pettus Bridge in Selma.
Involved nothing more than a peaceful effort on the part of Negro citizens to exercise Constitutional right: that is, the right to assemble peaceably and to petition one's government for the redress of grievances *.*.*
It seems basic to our Constitutional principles that the extent of the right to assemble, demonstrate, and march peaceably along the highways and streets in an orderly manner should be commensurate with the enormity of the wrongs that are being protested and petitioned against. In this case, the wrongs are enormous. The extent of the right to demonstrate against these wrongs should be determined accordingly.
These simple, direct and powerful words are typical of the man and his way of thinking. The years in which he presided were tumultuous, the times very tense. I remember the times. Few who were alive in those days do not. Rosa Parks and Frank Johnson-were there. They were present and participating in the commencement of a revolution and the creation of a new social order in America--a better society in which we undertook as a nation to extend equality to all people. True equality has not been
fully achieved, but is indisputable that when the hammer of Rosa Parks hit the anvil of Frank Johnson, the
sound of freedom rang out loud and clear and to this day that sound has not been silenced. His actions, the cases he decided have caused the anvil of freedom to ring again and again, and that sound changed, not just the South and America but the entire world.
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