[Mb-civic] Part II: Hang Ten and Fight!

[Ian]

You know, Osama bin Laden must be sitting in his cave laughing his butt off. 
Because although I'm sure he'd prefer to convert all of us to Islam, he must 
be tickled pink to see how far the U.S. is moving toward a supressive, 
quasi-totalitarian theocracy.  I'm sure that in his wildest dreams he could 
not have hoped for a more significant "victory" vis-a-vis 9/11.

Peace.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
To: "Civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 12:18 AM
Subject: [Mb-civic] Part II: Hang Ten and Fight!


>    This is part 2 of a 5-part series.
>
>        Part I: The Lure of Christian Nationalism
>        Part II: Hang Ten and Fight!
>
>    America's Religious Right - Saints or Subversives?
>    By Steve Weissman
>    t r u t h o u t | Investigation
>
>    Part II: Hang Ten and Fight!
>
>
>
>
>
>    Friday 15 April 2005
>
>    Judge Roy Moore knows how to rally the troops, especially among
> right-wing Christian evangelicals. A devout Southern Baptist, he tells 
> them
> what they want to hear, as he did in early 2002 to a gathering in 
> Tennessee:
>
>    Since September 11, we have been at war. I submit to you there is
> another war raging - a war between good and evil, between right and wrong.
> For 40 years we have wandered like the children of Israel. In homes and
> schools across our land, it's time for Christians to take a stand. This is
> not a nation established on the principles of Buddha or Hinduism. Our 
> faith
> is not Islam. What we follow is not the Koran but the Bible. This is a
> Christian nation.
>
>
> Judge Roy Moore and his monument to the Ten Commandments.
>
>    A West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, Moore also knows how to pick
> his weapon - the iconic Ten Commandments, which he has honed over long 
> years
> into a popular organizing tool and a potentially winning issue.
>
>    Moore began his campaign back in the early 1990s. As a local judge in
> Alabama's Etowah County, he put a small wooden display of the Ten
> Commandments in his courtroom and opened his judicial sittings with 
> prayer.
> The American Civil Liberties Union took legal action to stop him, and the
> state courts eventually dismissed the case over a question of legal
> standing.
>
>    But, even as the wheels of justice turned, politics quickly took hold.
> Alabama Governor Fob James Jr. loudly threatened to send in the National
> Guard if federal authorities tried to remove the Ten Commandments from
> Moore's courtroom.
>
>    The US House of Representatives voted 295-125 to support the right of
> public officials to display copies of the Ten Commandments, which - said
> Congress - are "fundamental principles that are the cornerstone of a fair
> and just society."
>
>    And in the 2000 election campaign, George W. Bush proposed that a
> "standard version" of the Ten Commandments be posted in schools and other
> public places. "I have no problem with the Ten Commandments posted on the
> wall of every public place," he told reporters.
>
>    In the arcane world where religious militants become political
> organizers, evangelical Christians and others all over the country 
> escalated
> their long-term fight to bring back school prayer and encourage the 
> official
> display of the Ten Commandments. Moore had found his signature issue, and
> gained growing fame throughout Alabama and across the nation as the "Ten
> Commandments Judge."
>
>
>
> Judge Roy Moore, the "Ten Commandments Judge."
>    Elected Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court in 2000, he set out to
> amplify what he considered to be his Godly crusade. On his own authority, 
> at
> his own expense, and in the dead of night, he installed a 5,280-pound
> granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state
> Judicial Center. He unveiled his Biblical assault vehicle in August 2001,
> announcing his purpose as clearly as he could:
>
>    May this day mark the beginning of the restoration of the moral
> foundation of law to our people and a return to the knowledge of God in 
> our
> land.
>
>    Not everyone agreed.
>
>    "This is a monumental violation of the US Constitution," countered the
> Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of
> Church and State. "The Ten Commandments is a religious code, and should 
> not
> be promoted by the government - Moore is obviously working tirelessly to 
> use
> the government to promote religion."
>
>    Together with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama ACLU,
> Americans United took Moore to federal court, where they won both at trial
> and on appeal. The federal judges had no problem seeing the monument as an
> attempt by a state official to promote his particular religious beliefs in
> direct violation of the First Amendment and its prohibition against any
> establishment of religion.
>
>    District Court Judge Myron Thompson then ordered Moore to remove the
> monument, and - true to his cause - Moore refused. Where Alabama Governor
> George C. Wallace had once stood in the schoolhouse door to keep black
> children out, the state's chief justice was now standing in the courthouse
> door fighting to keep God in.
>
>    "A federal judge has no right to come in the state of Alabama and say 
> we
> cannot acknowledge God," said Moore. "It's indeed an intrusion into our
> state sovereignty."
>
>    Moore launched several more legal appeals, including to the US Supreme
> Court, which refused to hear his case. "God is sovereign," he replied, 
> "and
> shall remain so despite what the Supreme Court and federal district courts
> of this land say."
>
>    Finally ousted from office for refusing to obey a federal court order,
> Moore now leads in public opinion polls as the favorite among GOP voters 
> to
> become Alabama's next governor. And he has turned the Ten Commandments 
> into
> a potent battle flag, as he and his fellow evangelicals launch a new
> offensive against the independence of federal judges and the separation of
> church and state.
>
>    They could win, not the least because the Ten Commandments have
> political appeal. Even non-evangelicals often agree with Moore when he
> presents the Ten as the basis of American law. Clearly, his history needs
> help. A longtime lawyer, he should know that English common law provides 
> the
> foundation of our legal system, and - as Thomas Jefferson pointed out to a
> friend in 1814 - the common law began in England well before Christianity
> took hold. In Jefferson's word, "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a
> part of the common law."
>
>    According to the polls, most Americans see the Ten Commandments more as
> a cherished symbol of universal morality than as a statement of religious
> belief. Yet, in repeated tests, few seem to know very much about them - or
> about the religious and political conflicts they inevitably invite.
>
>    To begin with, they resonate mostly with Jews and Christians, and - to 
> a
> limited degree - with Muslims. They largely exclude Americans who follow
> other religious traditions, such as Buddhists and Hindus. They also 
> exclude
> a growing number of pagans, polytheists, and non-believers, such as 
> myself.
>
>    Even more troubling, the Old Testament itself includes three different
> versions of the Decalogue - two in the book of Exodus at Chapters 20 and 
> 34,
> another in Deuteronomy. All together, they offer many more commandments 
> than
> the ten we see in most representations.
>
>    Different religious groups use different combinations. Most Protestant
> denominations include "Thou Shalt Not Make Graven Images." Catholics and
> Lutherans never mention graven images, which has fueled a long history of
> bitter anti-Catholic attacks from many Christian evangelicals.
>
>    Jews have a different set, with an entirely different first 
> commandment,
> which is more an affirmation of belief: "I am the Lord thy God, Who 
> brought
> thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage."
>
>    In his monument, Judge Moore attempted to produce a Judeo-Protestant
> version, which has given him eleven commandments rather than just ten.
>
>    Depending on the version, several of the commandments are undeniably
> religious:
>
>    I Am the Lord Thy God . (an affirmation of a deity)
>    Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me (a step toward monotheism)
>    Thou Shalt Not Make Graven Images
>    Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord in Vain
>    Remember the Sabbath, Keep It Holy
>
>    Even the ban on adultery, which might include homosexual relations, has
> different meanings to different religious groups. Some, on the fringe, 
> have
> called for making adultery and other transgressions capital offenses.
>
>    In their wisdom, the Founding Fathers foresaw the conflicts that
> government involvement in such questions would bring. Which is why, 
> despite
> their personal religious convictions, they set out to keep God and
> government out of each other's way.
>
>    Over succeeding generations, religious believers like Judge Moore have
> slowly broken through the wall of separation, as during the Cold War
> hysteria of the 1950s, when Congress put the words "under God" in the 
> Pledge
> of Allegiance and made "In God We Trust" the national motto. Each 
> succeeding
> generation of militants then uses the earlier breakthroughs to justify far
> more, all in pursuit of what Judge Moore call "a Christian nation."
>
>    But not all believers go along. Writing to the Huntsville Times, a
> reader who described himself as "a Conservative Christian" summed up his
> feelings in pointed terms:
>
>    Moore indicates to me that, while a devout Christian, in essence he
> would like his religion to be the state religion of Alabama, his religious
> interpretations accepted as the norm and his monument reflecting his
> religious beliefs placed in a public building.
>
>    Moore was, said the believer, "just another ayatollah wearing Christian
> garb instead of Muslim."
>
>    A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly
> Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a
> magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France,
> where he writes for t r u t h o u t.
>
>
>
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