Crowd Supports 'Ten Commandments' Judge Moore (10,000)

[Rose Siding]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore told thousands of supporters Saturday that he would be guilty of treason if he didn't fight to keep a monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Drawing cheers and shouts of "amen" at a rally, Moore said his crusade to keep the 5,300-pound monument was not about bolstering his own political career, as some have claimed.

"Let's get this straight. It's about the acknowledgment of God," Moore said in front of the Alabama Capitol.

Buses and vans from as far away as California brought Moore supporters to Montgomery for an enthusiastic rally on a hot and muggy morning. Evangelist Jerry Falwell and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes were among a half-dozen speakers urging the crowd to take back America from what Keyes described as the "unruly courts."


Newsday

[sujan]

1. they are being good christians

[CO Liberal]

2. Supporting a Law-Breaker

Moore should be thrown in jail for 30 days for each day that illegal monument has been in place. And the monument should be removed, busted up, and buried in a landfill.

[snake1306]

11. Then they ought to cover

the 10 Commandments engraving at the US Supreme Court, when they're done with this guy.

While they're at it, they should remove the statue of Moses as well.

[LEFTofLEFT]

17. yes yes yes

we must fight the rightwing monsters like the future is at stake.

IT IS !!!

They will destroy us all if we do not stop them.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Buses and vans from as far away as CALIFORNIA????

You mean that this isn't solely the work of southerners?

/sarcasm

jchild
Southerner
Anti-fundie

[Nay]

4. And they are being bad Americans.

Not because they are protesting -- but because they cannot see that their religion, or any religion, cannot constitutionally be given support by the government.

[Maddy McCall]

5. Here is the fundie take on it.

I hear it on talk shows here all the time. Disclaimer: I completely disagree with this.

The conservative line on this situation:

"It's ok for the governor and all liberals to support increased taxation and the proliferation of social programs with the claim that Jesus would want it that way. But when Judge Moore installs a monument to those same christian beliefs, the same christian beliefs that liberals love when the money that says "In God we trust" finds it way to their pockets, they rail against him. They are hypocrites. The ACLU is the scourge of America, is anti-Christian, and therefore anti-American. Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves at this liberal corruption of what they intended the United States to be."

[CO Liberal]

8. Our "Founding Fathers" Were LIBERALS!!!!

The Tories (who wanted the colonies to remain colonies) were the conservatives back then.

[booksenkatz]

18. WWJD

As a non-Christian, I sometimes note that Jesus would have likely wanted to help the poor in every way possible, but I do it to try to show Christians the folly of their anti-poor positions in light of their professed belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I'm always wanting them to explain to ME how they can be followers of Jesus, and yet ignore some of his most basic teachings; no one has been able to explain it to me yet. But there are certainly plenty of reasons to help the less fortunate that are not related to Jesus.

BTW, I wish they would remove God from our money. I'd be happiest never to see a trace of ANY religion in government. Guess I'm just a Constitution-lovin' nut.
:eyes:

[PartyPooper]

21. This controversy is exactly WHY the 'founding fathers'

wanted to keep the separation of church and state. And, BTW, as a gay 'heathen Christian', this story reminds me of 'false prophets'. I'm sure Jesus would be appalled by the hypocrisy.
But, hey, what do I know, I'm just one of those crazy libruls.

:eyes:

[Lexingtonian]

29. eminently attackable

But when Judge Moore installs a monument to those same christian beliefs,

Are they dead enough to need a monument already?

the same christian beliefs that liberals love when the money that says "In God we trust" finds it way to their pockets,

God doesn't actually back up the money with gold bullion or any other guarantees. I dare you to disprove that 'In God We Trust' commemorates Mammon.

they rail against him.

Is He out of thunderbolts already?

They are hypocrites.

Compared to who- the so-called Christians?

The ACLU is the scourge of America, is anti-Christian, and therefore anti-American.

Either this Christian God you speak of is a weakling, or you misunderstand His plan for America. I'll put money on the latter.

Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves at this liberal corruption of what they intended the United States to be.

Yep, but their slaves' descendents, women, and American Indians are pretty agreeable with the changes. Btw, did the Founding Fathers intend for white Americans to make changes and become really American, or to fossilize culturally and eventually return to Europe?


++++

There are lots of grounds to attack Moore and his supporters. First of all, they paganize the God of the Hebrew Bible as "God of Nature". Then there's the First Commandment, which implicitly says that it's idolatry to make the Ten Commandments the highest authority rather than revelation of God's Will to the individuals assembled. Then there's the bit that the Law is supposed to be 'written on the heart' of the true adherent- if it isn't, then all the cutest granite sculptures there are are in fact utterly pointless.

In short, the monument cannot theologically withstand a charge of idolatry. Now what exactly did Abraham do with his dad's idols....

[eagler]

23. Nor can the government prohibit the free exercise thereof.

nt

[CO Liberal]

25. This Isn't an attempt to "prohibit the free exercise thereof."

This is an attempt to shove one view down everybody's throats.

[arcane1]

6. "Let's get this straight. It's about the acknowledgment of God,"

makes me wonder, how on earth this country survived 200 years of existence prior to Mr Moore's arrival

:eyes:

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. This is one step away from what happened...

....in 1992 in India, at the mosque in Ahodhya

[Corgigal]

9. It would be funny

if the Federal Govt just closed down the courthouse and poof all the jobs were gone.
Bet that would change the tune around there.

[papau]

10. Video of "Crowd" shows 2000 folks - but what the heck - if 10000

makes them feel good, use that.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. About the crowd size, the Newsday writer's words are:

"Police would not estimate the size of the crowd, which appeared to be several thousand people, possibly as many as 10,000."

Newsday might well have asked for a crowd estimate and forced the guy to make one.

[alaine]

27. Ah, I finally have the crowd estimation formula:

for right wing extremist type gatherings: estimate crowd then multiply number by five

for commie pinko faggot gatherings (gay pride, war protests, etc): estimate crowd then divide number by five

Five is the magic number I've been searching for...one of life's mysteries finally solved

[TreasonousBastard]

13. I'm numb when I see this.

I understand that in a nation of almost 300 million people there will be a few nutjobs out there on all sides.

But it still amazes me that there is so much tacit support for merging religion and government. Every time something like this comes up and I mention the parallels in Islamic governments, or the problems keeping Israel secular, I get the "Well, that's not the case here..." response. No one thinks it's a big deal.

The courts and the government must remain secular and for ALL the people. Sure, most people agree with most of the Commandments, but not everyone believes Moses got them straight from God, or that they should be a basis for government.

This nonsense makes religion a force for division, not unity, and many mainstream churches are also aghast at it.

[snippy]

16. Agreed.

People like Judge Roy Moore are no different and no less dangerous than people like Mullah Omar and the rest of the Taliban. I am afraid that things will have to get much worse before the American people will vote in numbers large enough to repudiate and replace Moore and his ilk.

[0007]

`Ah yes, the wise men came great distances

to this special ceremonial acknowledgment by a vassal of allegiance to this judge under feudal law. LOL!

[Rose Siding]

15. This monument has become something of a

Golden Calf.

[snippy]

14. The American Taliban. Again.

Judge Roy Moore is a sick, sick fuck.

[Liberator_Rev]

19. The Jchild's Conservative argument answered.

Jchild quoted this argument above (without agreeing with it) :
"It's ok for the governor and all liberals to support increased taxation and the proliferation of social programs with the claim that Jesus would want it that way."
Jchild was referring to Gov. Bob Riley's promoting increased taxes on rich Alabamians in order to reduce taxes by the poor an improve education.

The reason that Liberals can and should approve of such proposals is not because their source is religious, but because they good public policy in their own right.

The Conservative policies to which Liberals object on the other hand are good public policies in their own right, but policies designed to benefit religious institutions.

See our http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/ChurchvsState for insights on this most important subject.

[usregimechange]

20. Impeach Moore

"Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious strife and weaken the foundations of our democracy" ~Justice John Paul Stevens

[Mike Niendorff]

22. Ah ...

... I see the race for a Bush SCOTUS nomination has now formally commenced.

:eyes:


MDN

[wildmanj]

24. Moore

is a little Hitler---he would love to be the totality of the brain for the southern people---damn a 5300 lb rock---do you people suppose he lovessssssssssssssssss his rocks----idol worship :nopity: :nopity:

[Mixxster]

26. Interesting article with references to Moore

I came across the article yesterday. It was in the religion section of my local paper.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030816/COLUMNISTS0402/308160313/1042/COLUMNISTS

<snip>

I wonder how many of the people at today's "Restore the Commandments Rally" in Montgomery, Ala., know the Ten Commandments. The rally is a protest that two federal courts have ordered the removal of a Ten Commandments monument in the state judicial building.

<snip>

An evangelical Christian of a particularly pugnacious sort, Moore may have thought he could score Constitutional points, leveraging an explicitly religious text into the public square. He thought wrong, and now he has actually set his cause back, since the precedent is likely to discourage similar attempts to force the Ten Commandments in front of the public, at least in publicly owned venues.

<snip>

I think if Moore really wants people to know the Ten Commandments, he ought to take over the Kelleys' project. There are probably precious few people who actually enter the Alabama state judicial building -- and they're mostly lawyers, who if you shook them awake could probably instantly recite their fee structures and lobbying regulations but might have trouble recalling even one of the Commandments when fully alert.

Just think of how many people Moore could reach if he were to pay kids, and grownups too, to learn the Ten Commandments. He must have plenty of money, since he paid for that marble monument himself, and it was bound to cost a small fortune. And, it would give him something to do, since he won't be able to spend his time defying federal judges anymore. Apparently deciding legal cases for the citizens of Alabama wasn't keeping him busy enough.

[reno1699]

28. An interesting note

Moore didn't pay for the monument. It was paid for by Coral Ridge Ministries out of Florida. They are also paying his legal fees. So, the only people that will be hurt financially by this are the taxpayers of Alabama. Also, Moore and Coral Ridge Minitries have a copyright on the monument.