Thursday 22 August 2013

10 years ago: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Exodus 20:2-17

On August 22, 2003, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ), effectively suspending Chief Justice Roy Moore for his refusal two days before to enforce an order from a federal judge to remove from the rotunda of the State Supreme Court building in Montgomery a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The COJ ordered the rock removed, using the ridiculous argument that the display violated the separation of church and state.

American readers may decide for themselves whether the decision to order the removal of the Ten Commandments from the State Supreme Court building in Montgomery has had a beneficial effect for Alabama and the U.S.A. I think those who demand the removal of the Ten Commandments should be challenged to explain which of the commandments they find so offensive and why they find them so offensive. I suspect the commandment that most offends secularists and idolaters is the first one.

No comments:

Post a Comment