Acknowledging God in Law

defending the First Amendment against the Christian right ...

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Acknowledging God in law

Former judge Roy Moore addresses congregation on religion, government

By J.J. Stambaugh, The Knoxville News Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee), November 6, 2006

BEAN STATION - Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore offered his own interpretation of the First Amendment to a packed church Sunday in Grainger County.

Moore, who was ousted in 2003 after defying a federal court order to remove a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument that he installed in the state courthouse, told the crowd of more than 230 people at Barnard's Grove Baptist Church that some judges are creating laws rather than interpreting them.

He also told his audience that, while American soldiers are fighting overseas, there is also a war going on in the United States.

"There's a battle going on here for the heart and soul of America," he said. "You are the soldiers ... We all must be engaged."

Moore said his battle to display the Ten Commandments pitted a secular reading of the U.S. Constitution against his interpretation, which relies heavily upon the legal documents that frame the nation's government, including the Declaration of Independence's description of rights as being derived from God.

Knox County Commission passed a resolution in 2001 calling for posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings but didn't follow through. Several other Tennessee counties, however, did post the documents in public buildings.

In 2005, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that copies of the Ten Commandments could not be displayed in two rural Kentucky courthouses. But a narrow majority said it was constitutional to display a monument to the Ten Commandments in a historical context on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin.

Moore said Sunday that a government's legitimacy was understood by the nation's founders as being dependent on whether it secured the rights granted by God.

"If it's necessary to start a new country, what gives us the right (to do so)?" he said.

Moore repeatedly cited passages from early American thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson to bolster his assertion that Judeo-Christian principles formed the basis of American law.

"They started with a Christian concept," he said. "The First Amendment is all about God. ... It does not mean separating God and government."

Moore said his actions while chief justice were motivated by a desire to "acknowledge God" and asked the crowd: "Put yourself in my shoes ... Are you going to acknowledge God over the state?"

He also attacked the logic of various legal decisions that have placed restrictions on how and when religious documents like the Ten Commandments can be displayed on public property.

Federal courts have ruled several times that the context in which such displays are presented can determine whether they are lawful or not.

For instance, displays that are presented as part of a historical display are allowed, while those that clearly are meant as an endorsement of Judeo-Christian beliefs aren't permitted, he said.

Moore satirized the position by saying: "You're not allowed to mean it. The courts are ruling upon what we think."

Moore also said the U.S. Supreme Court opens its sessions with a reference to God and pointed out that the nation's currency bears the phrase "In God We Trust," leading him to describe the legal battle that unseated him as hypocritical.

The crowd welcomed Moore with a standing ovation and later thronged the front lobby of the church, where they could purchase autographed copies of his book, "So Help Me God."

Moore is now chairman of the nonprofit Foundation for Moral Law in Montgomery, Ala., a group that focuses on litigating religious liberty issues and education, according to its Web site at http://morallaw.org.

Moore agreed to speak at the church after he was invited by the Grainger County Baptist Association and Matt Sexton, a law student who met Moore last year while clerking for a friend of the former judge in Alabama.

"I told him, 'I want you to come speak in East Tennessee,' " Sexton said. "The Lord helped me work it out."

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