Commandments monument may be moved soon
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- About 100 demonstrators prayed Monday outside the Alabama Judicial Building, keeping up their opposition to a federal court order to remove a 5,300-pound stone representation of the Ten Commandments from the building's rotunda. ... Many of the monument supporters spent the night in sleeping bags on a plaza outside the building and nearby steps, and one scaled lattice work on the side of the building and spent the night on a ledge. The unidentified man climbed down after daybreak.
As much as I understand the fundamental (heh) need for the religious right to constantly pat itself on the back, it seems a more...oh, Christian way for them to act would be by volunteering or acting in a manner supposedly consistent with their faith. Surely Montgomery has a soup kitchen or two. Are there no elderly or indigent people who could benefit from the protestors' obviously ample free time?
The funny thing is that Judge Roy Moore knows he's wrong. He's known it since that night in 2001 when he took a page from Robert Irsay's playbook and waited until after business hours to erect a 2 1/2 ton tribute to his own ego. I find it hard to believe that even an intolerant, Bible-thumping demagogue like him ever thought for a minute that his actions would pass the Establishment Clause test. As Moore's legal maneuvering continues, it becomes obvious he never did.
Even if he doesn't successfuly appeal his suspension from the bench, and disregarding - for the moment - the new lawsuit just filed on behalf of a Christian talk radio host, all this legal drama is a great warm-up for a run at a higher office. Here in the South, a mere 140 years removed from a little dust-up called the Civil War, people still love it when someone stands up to the federal government. A comfortable 77% of Alabama residents polled recently voiced approval for the monument. Combine that with some juicy footage of state police in riot gear shoving the protestors rudely to the ground as they enforce the federal court order and you're in landslide territory. He got 54% of the vote when campaigning for Supreme Court in 2000 as the "Ten Commandments Judge," after all.
What I really want to see if Arnie pitching himself as the "Conan, what is best in life?" candidate in California. Now those are some commandments.
Contemplate it...on the Tree of Woe.
"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means."
--George Bernard Shaw
I also like the quotation often attributed to Shaw (but whose source I can't verify):
"Christianity would be a wonderful thing if anyone ever tried it."
I am so bothered by these protesters. They're going to give Christians a bad name.