The turn of events in Montgomery was a setback for supporters of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy S. Moore, whose refusal to move the monument has resulted in rebukes from state officials and a temporary suspension by a judicial ethics panel.In the past two weeks, however, Moore has become an icon of Christians who wanted the monument to remain in place. His supporters have traveled from across the country to pray outside the court.
"This is a tragic day for religious liberty and the First Amendment," said the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. "This is the future of our nation if we do not get involved now."
Mahoney called for even larger crowds to flock to Montgomery in the coming days.
Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James Dobson made a similar plea earlier this week on his radio program. He said the freedoms that Americans have come to enjoy are on the verge of being lost.
"There's much more at stake here," Dobson said. "This is part of a larger plan to remove every vestige of faith or reverence for God from the public square. That's where this is headed."
While the fight rages in Alabama, it is also having an impact elsewhere in the country.
In Houston, real estate agent Kay Staley, who is a member of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a lawsuit to have a King James Bible removed from a memorial on the grounds of a Houston courthouse. Staley cited the Alabama controversy as her motivation.
"I saw how vicious this was becoming [in Alabama], and it looked to me like it needed to be stopped as soon as possible [in Houston]," she told Reuters earlier this week.
Before the dispute over the Ten Commandments display in Alabama, religious conservatives most recently railed against the attempt to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
Congress has even taken an interest in these disputes. Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) has introduced the Ten Commandments Defense Act, and Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) followed with the Religious Liberties Restoration Act.
The bills would limit the authority of federal judges to make decisions about the Ten Commandments, the Pledge of Allegiance and the motto "In God We Trust."
Mark Iain Sutherland, president of the Positive Action Coalition, which supports the legislation, said Congress should also consider reigning in the federal judiciary, including the possibility of impeaching judges.
Without changes, Sutherland warned, the country is likely to experience more debates over the Ten Commandments and other symbols that might have ties to religion.
Catholic League policy analyst Joseph DeFeo said he is saddened by the current disputes because interest groups like the American Civil Liberties Union simply want to push religion into the private sector.
"Religion is a part of our culture," DeFeo said. "It has influenced our culture in many ways that we can't really remove so easily. It's easy to remove a monument from a vestibule, but it's not so easy to remove the cornerstone of western law, which happens to be the Judeo-Christian tradition."
Added Sutherland: "If you destroy the very foundation of our laws, then our laws become whatever the people in power decide they want them to be. Then, instead of the laws protecting the liberties and the rights that we have created in the image of God, they become tools for those in power to control the masses to whatever means they want."
But Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said organizations like his do not want to tear down all public displays that happen to mention religion.
Boston drew a distinction between Moore's Ten Commandments monument and a historical exhibit at the U.S. Supreme Court that features an explanation of religion's influence on the law. Moore, he said, installed the monument based entirely on his religious beliefs.
"We're not going to be trying to sandblast anything off the Supreme Court," Boston said. "In my mind, the Supreme Court has it right. They have the Ten Commandments included as part of a larger display that educates about the law."
Americans United is selective in the lawsuits it files, and the case against Moore's monument presented a good set of facts, Boston said.
Other challenges aren't as successful. Two weeks ago, a federal appeals court allowed the Ten Commandments to be displayed at the Chester County, Pa., courthouse for its historical value. And in July, a federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled that a plaque of the Ten Commandments outside the Allegheny County courthouse didn't violate the Constitution.
See Earlier Story:
Moore Vows to Continue Fight for Ten Commandments (Aug. 21, 2003)
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