I'd be more inclined to cynicism about Moore's motives, if I hadn't seen him speak at length on several occasions. He strikes me as a man of exceptional integrity and conviction.

He has been adamant about displaying the Ten Commandmants in his court room since the beginning of his career as a judge, and has fought several battles to do so.

He COULD back off and obey the court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument, but then his point would not be made. I admire his firm stand for his convictions, even to the point that it lost him his position on the Alabama Supreme Court.

I don't think displaying the Ten Commandments "sells" or promotes Christianity in a public forum. The display simply acknowledges the source from which all law comes. And in particular, the Christian foundation on which all AMERICAN law comes.

Some choice quotes from the Wordnet Daily article:

quote:
A recent poll indicated 79 percent of Alabamians want Moore to complete his term as chief justice, which expires in 2006.
So it's once again a decision of an elite, that usurps the will of the vast majority.

quote:
One backer was Flip Benham – head of the pro-life group Operation Rescue and of Operation Save America – who said Moore's resistance of "those who are breaking the law" is the initiation of a "second American Revolution."

Benham declared Moore "has done more to remind this country of her biblical roots, and the ethical, moral, and legal foundations than any other person in the past 50 years."
Consistent with my point, it is a press toward acknowledgement of the source of American law and ideals (the Bible and biblical principles), and not a step toward a state-imposed religion.

quote:
In Huntsville, Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, D.C., urged the crowd to oppose the decision not to air the trial proceedings on television or radio.

"Every citizen of Alabama needs to hear" the proceedings, Mahoney said, according to the Huntsville Times.
"It's tragic that your chief justice is [being prosecuted] for simply honoring God and posting the Ten Commandments."

"The posting of the Commandments unites Americans –-77 percent of Americans believe it should be posted."

Organizer Rob Schenk said the purpose of the tour, which concluded yesterday in front of the judicial building in Montgomery, was to "bring the principles at stake here into the public arena once again."
I'm not wild about something that an overwhelming majority of the Alabama public supports, being decided against behind closed doors.

quote:
Schenk said he was most concerned about upholding the right of Americans "to acknowledge the sovereignty of God over our land." "Secular nations have one thing in common – mass graves, and the reason is that they believe the government is the final arbiter of right and wrong and good and evil," he said.
This too is consistent with the writings of those who drafted and signed the Declaration and Constitution.

Our founding fathers believed that the reason no previous democracy had succeeded was the absence of Christian principles. And they believed that it was only Christian principles, and the teaching of them in our schools, that would ensure the health of American democracy.


I think things such as the rise of shootings in our schools, drugs, teen pregnancy, spiking drug use, extreme promiscuous sex and other factors --arguably, escalating chaos in our society-- make Moore's call for an acknowledgement of Biblical principles as the historic base of our law and society, a much-needed step back AWAY from that chaos.
And would result in our society as a whole thinking about a standard other than "anything goes", as has been increasingly occurring over the last 40 years.
Not necessarily an entirely Christian standard, but one that looks higher than the last few decades of unrestrained consumerism and instant gratification have.

I think we saw a glimmer of this thought toward a higher purpose, a national purpose, in the immediate wake of September 11th.