God and County:Alabama “Ten Commandments” Judge Speaks in Midlands About His Crusade

Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore brought his crusade to post a Ten Commandments monument at the Alabama Supreme Court to the Midlands on Oct. 20, telling an enthusiastic audience that America has lost its way by defying God.

“The issue is, can the state acknowledge God?” Moore said while speaking at a banquet at Saluda Shoals Park on Broad River Road. About 300 people attended.

Moore has rapidly become well known across the nation because of his crusade, which began on the night of July 31, 2001, when he installed a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court.

About three months later, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued, arguing that the monument was an unconstitutional establishment of religion in a government building.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled against Moore in November 2002. Moore then turned to the 11 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in July also ruled against him. The district court judge then gave Moore an Aug. 20 deadline to remove the monument or incur a $5,000 a-day fine.

Moore refused, and on Aug. 25 he was suspended, with pay.

Alabama officials removed the monument on Aug. 27 and stored it in a closet at the state’s highest court.

Moore had a similar experience in 1995 when the ACLU sued him for posting the Ten Commandments in his courtroom as a circuit judge. The case was thrown out on a technicality.

Since his suspension Moore had gone on the offensive, traveling and speaking about his crusade.

Locally, Moore held a news conference and spoke at a Lexington church before serving as the keynote speaker at the annual banquet of Frontline Ministries, a Columbia-based evangelical group.

At the banquet, Moore spoke passionately about the legal battle over the Ten Commandments statue, which is sometimes referred to as "Roy’s rock." Using a Power Point presentation he compared the writings of America’s founding fathers with biblical quotes and current-day judges’ orders.

In describing a degeneration of religion from Americans’ lives, Moore said, “And for Thanksgiving, in schools you can’t thank God, you have to thank Indians!” The audience applauded, laughed and greeted Moore’s comments with a frequent “amen.”

“Haven’t we followed along blindly as they’ve taken away all our references to our God?” Moore asked. He then referred to the notion of separation of church and state as a fable.

“I am not ordained to preach,” Moore said. “I am sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States. The court says it does not have the expertise to define ‘religion.’ When a judge takes the law into his own hands he becomes a tyrant.” Later he added, “You can say or do anything, as long as it doesn’t mean anything.”

In closing, Moore said, “The monument is in a closet in the judicial building. If it were marijuana they would have destroyed it. But it’s not illegal.”

While the banquet was free, donations were accepted for the Foundation for Moral Law, which manages Moore’s defense fund, and items were for sale like Ten Commandments car magnets, CDs by musicians who performed at the banquet and books by Moore and others.

The Alabama Supreme Court is located one block from a church where Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached. Supporters of the monument often relate their battle for it to King’s struggle for civil rights with expressions such as singing, “We Shall Overcome.”

Others have compared Moore to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who defied federal court orders in a failed bid to preserve segregation.

Moore has taken issue with the latter comparison. In a CNN interview he said, “Wallace stood in the doorway to keep people out. We’re trying to keep God in. Wallace stood for division. We’re standing for unity. This is more like what Martin Luther King did in standing for the people of Alabama and the people across this nation.”

Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to remove the monument, says on the group’s web site, “Perhaps Roy Moore will soon leave the bench and move into the pulpit which he seems better suited for.”

Becci Robbins, spokeswoman for the SC Progressive Network, an umbrella group for progressive organizations in South Carolina, says, “The absence of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama judicial building doesn’t really impede anyone’s right to practice Christianity, but the statue does force Christianity on those who haven’t chose it. What Judge Moore and his supporters espouse is not religious freedom, but religious fanaticism or fascism even.”

Currently Moore and his followers are asking Congress to accept the monument for display in the Senate or House. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll on Aug. 2 found that more than 77 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the federal court’s decision to remove the monument.