Moore makes a case against his 10 Commandments

Moore makes a case against his monument

October 20, 2002

The trial of the lawsuit in Montgomery seeking to remove Chief Justice Roy Moore's 5,300-pound monument to the Ten Commandments from the state Judicial Building will drag on into this week, but the judge should have little difficulty in making a decision when testimony finally ends.

Moore has made a damning case against his monument.

The chief justice, who took the witness stand on Thursday, came across as exactly the kind of religious zealot that the plaintiffs claim he is. Nothing less than "the future of the nation" rests on his monument, he testified.

Moore said that the washing machine-size monument, which he had installed secretly at midnight, represents a bulwark against what he sees as 40 to 50 years of assault on religious freedom by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court's decisions have distanced the nation from/sacknowledgment of God, and "without the acknowledgment of God there is a loss of morality," Moore said at the federal court trial in Montgomery.

That is strong evidence of the plaintiffs' contention that the monument has a religious purpose that violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

But Moore, true to form, didn't stop there. He said he would not permit Buddhists, Hindus or Muslims to erect monuments to their faiths, because they have nothing to do with what he sees as the moral foundation of law.

That foundation, in Moore's mind, comes from the one true god ó his god. The god of any other religion doesn't meet Moore's measure.

In another telling bit of testimony, Moore admitted that one of the few people he let in on the secret, dark-of-night plans to erect his monument was a Florida TV preacher, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries. Kennedy had a crew film the installation. Today, he peddles a videotape of it for $19 a pop.

Moore's defense will spend much of this week talking about moral law and the Ten Commandments, but that/sisn't the issue. The legal case against the monument is a slam-dunk. Federal law is clear.

At the same time the trial was going on in Montgomery, county commissioners in Chattanooga, Tenn., were trying to decide how to pay legal bills after losing a federal court fight to post the Ten Commandments on the walls of a courthouse, a courts building and a/sjuvenile court.

The Hamilton County, Tenn., officials ordered the plaques erected after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Last May, a federal judge found that they violated the constitutional separation of church and state and ordered them taken down. He also ordered them to pay plaintiffs' legal fees. With their own attorneys' fees, the county owes $78,000 to lawyers. Commissioners are thinking of selling the plaques to help pay the bills.

Moore, who is using private money to finance his/sdefense, may face a stiffer judgment. If he loses in U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's court, as expected, he will appeal to the Supreme Court ó ironically, the same court he accuses of eroding the nation's moral values.

It's an expensive proposition, but it will offer Moore's backers a chance to sell a lot more videotapes. If the court hears the case, Moore will get another national stage to advocate his theocratic views. That's value for money, if your values don't include/supholding the integrity of the Constitution and the criminal justice system.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
by Judge Roy Moore
(This is how he runs his courtroom!)

America the Beautiful, or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride, I'm glad they'll never see
Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is built on sand.

Our children wander aimlessly, poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.
From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

So many worldly pastors tell lies about our Rock,
Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.
We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown,
When earth is but His footstool and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,
Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not angry that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?
How are we to face our God from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children will humbly turn and pray,
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way,
Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

But America the Beautiful if you don't, then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from thee.
AMEN!