Panel Rules Justice Moore Failed to Respect & Comply with Law; Judge removed from Supreme Court

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

More to follow

[exmarine]

And by the way most of our founders were Deists by belief and nominal Christians because that helped keep the trash under control.

Is this the lie that you learned in school? I'll play - I just love unfounded assertions because I can then DEMAND evidence, which is what I am doing now. Give me thet names of at least 15 deists among the 250 founding fathers, and give me a quote from each that proves his deism. This tactic may work with others, but not me - I will make you provide evidence for your silly statements.

[TexasGunLover]

This is a nation of laws, not of men.

Absoutely correct. Remember the DIMRATS are the ones who violate the laws. We need to have the laws changed so that the monument can be kept in place where it was.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

He just said on TV that he has not thought of running for office. (He didn't say which office.) Although he said that if he is "forced" to that he would (reluctantly.)

Oh please, no one is going to 'force' him to run. How can he fit through a doorway with an ego that large?

[WackyKat]

But I'm quite certain that the MOST important thing he said was his comment that he'd make a "nationally" important announcement next week.

Ha!. I knew it! He's playing the "Moore Brigades" like a fiddle.

[Sonnyw]

Stop seeking pity when none is deserved and get back to Church, the only proper place for your spiritual rantings! I know one large organization of Christians who won't support your boycott, The Baptist Joint Committee. Here's what they say about the issue.

Where do the Ten Commandments belong?

By J. Brent Walker

In the emotionally volatile debate over whether “Roy’s Rock” should stay in the Alabama State Judicial Building, one supporter of the display vowed, “They’ll never be able to remove it from our hearts.”

That is precisely the point.

The debate that led to the Ten Commandments being moved is not about whether the Commandments teach sound theology or wholesome ethics. That is a given, particularly for Jews and Christians. The question is not whether the Commandments embody the right teachings; they certainly do. Rather, the question is who is the right teacher -- the government or the families, churches and synagogues? I can think of few things more desirable than for people to read and obey the Ten Commandments. I can think of little worse than for government officials to tell citizens to do so.

Indeed, writing the Ten Commandments “on our hearts” is the way to ensure that they will never be loaded onto a proverbial hydraulic lift and moved to a less visible place.

The Ten Commandments display in Alabama clearly violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. But important theological and practical reasons should convince people of faith to object to government getting involved in displaying, and thereby endorsing, holy writ.

First, it puts government officials in the role of secular high priests deciding which rendition of Ten Commandments will be enshrined as orthodox. Which one, Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5? Which version, Jewish, Catholic or Protestant? Which translation, King James, New International, or New Revised Standard? Families, churches, and synagogues, not Caesar, should make these fundamentally religious decisions.

Second, making such decisions will engender rivalry among religious denominations, sects and traditions. As has been recently demonstrated, governmental displays of the Ten Commandments is a quick way to generate a religious struggle that would make losers of us all. In our religiously pluralistic nation, the worst thing government can do is to take sides in matters of religion. One of the reasons we have had precious little religious strife -- despite our dizzying diversity -- is that government has remained neutral in such matters. This neutrality ensures a future where Christians and Jews will not have to abide the display of other faiths' religious documents in government settings.

Third, one cannot properly interpret a text, including the Ten Commandments, without considering the context. The First Commandment states that, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:2-3). Thus, the Commandments are part of a specific covenant between God and the Israelite people. The text is betrayed when we try to replace Moses and the Israelites with Chief Justice Roy Moore and the citizens of Alabama. The Commandments have fared quite well for several millennia without the help of American politicians.

Fourth, supporters seek to justify the displaying of the Ten Commandments by exhibiting them along with other secular documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. While this in some cases may shore up constitutionality, it’s terrible theology. Jews understand the Ten Commandments as a central tenet of their faith and their relationship to God. Christians highly respect the place of the Commandments in the Exodus story and the life of the church. To place the Commandments along side of and on equal footing with these secular documents depreciates the high regard placed in them by those in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Finally, it is quite proper for Americans – even American politicians – to “acknowledge God.” As Justice William O. Douglas wrote, Americans “are a religious people.” Our civil discourse is replete with religious talk. But, it is entirely something else for a government official (who must render justice to all citizens) to endorse a specific passage of Holy Scripture as orthodox and normative for all.

For those who take the Ten Commandments seriously, let us write them on our hearts, as the prophet Jeremiah instructed, instead of displaying them in government courthouses. Then we’ll be able to incarnate the love of God perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, and make a real difference in our world.

J. Brent Walker, an ordained Baptist minister and an attorney, is executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C.

August 28, 2003

[Belial]

None of this changes the fact that Galileo had the Christian worldview.

Most everyone paid lip service to Christianity while the theists were in charge. Otherwise, your book was put on the Index, you were put on trial and quite possibly tortured and murdered.

[exmarine]

Another vote for theocracy, I see. If some southern states still want to strike out, I say have at it. Enjoy Alabamistan.

Logical fallacy. Defiance of bad laws does not require a theocracy.

[m1-lightning]

He wilfully, publicly, and persistently defied the law and the rulings of courts with superior jurisdiction

He defied judicial fiat. He broke no state or federal law. There is a difference.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

I agree with you. What do we do?

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Judge Moore took the position that his office and oath required him to conduct himself as he did.

Judge Morre conducted himself contrary to his oath. He failed to respect and comply with the law.

[Porterville]

Pretty sick??? Yeah, I am pretty sick of the constant assault on everything I was raised to believe: The Constitution, the bible, and the family. I for one am sick of people justifying the ripping apart of these three pillars of the United States because of the false belief of "freedom from" rather than the correct rule "freedom to".... It is idiotic and treasonous to believe the US is based upon the idea of limited free speech.

[exmarine]

Most everyone paid lip service to Christianity while the theists were in charge. Otherwise, your book was put on the Index, you were put on trial and quite possibly tortured and murdered.

These scientists' religious views are no secret. Robert Oppenheimer (a non-Christian) said the same thing I am saying. The discoveries were made possible ONLY because of their Christian worldview: The universe is ordered and rational and can be understood becuase it was created by a rational God. That is precisely why almost all of the major breakthrough scientific discoveries were made in Reformation Europe or the United States. You need to study history without your secular bias. The truth is there for all to see.

[TheAngryClam]

let's just make sure all the fundie whackjobs find their way here...

[E Rocc]

This is such an outlandish statement, it bears further response.

As part of an effort to escape a religious Establishment.

It was Christians who established our nation on this continent,

Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Christ. Franklin confessed to doubts. Paine was contemptuous of organized religion. American liberty was by no means an exclusively a Christian effort.

it is Christinaity that gives you your freedom,

The Constitution does that.

it was Christians who abolished slavery (abolitionist movement),

Some "Christians" justified slavery using the Bible.

Christian scientists who made the biggest discoveries in history (Newton, Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Pasteur, Farraday, etc. etc.)

Copernicus didn't publish until he was on his deathbed. There's little doubt what he thought of the religious Establishment. As for Galileo......

Christian thinkers who had the greatest influence on our founders and founding documents (Locke, Montesquieu, Puffendorf, Grotius, Blackstone),

Paine, Frankin, Jefferson.....

Christians who first settled this land (pilgrims, puritans), Christians who started the first hospitals and orphanages, and on and on.

Puritans seeking religious freedom, Penn who was arrested for preaching in London, ......

-Eric

[concerned about politics]

It obviously upsets you to no end that non-Christians are treated as equal citizens in this society. Too bad for you

Not really. I don't like seeing any soul fall.
When they die of AIDs, it was their choice. No one else did it for them.
When they have so many children and no father to feed them, it's their call.
When they find themsleves in prison for rape, theft, murder - it's their call.
When they're imprisoned for purgery or slander, it too was their decision.
If they're run away teens living on the streets, they did it.
You see, those who chose to follow their own way will suffer by their own hand.
I don't make these people second class citizens. They do it to themselves. All I can do is watch them fall one right after the other. Today, falling into misery and dispare is politically correct. The new antiChrist law is on their side to help them.

[Porterville]

What do we do?

I don't know, we need to figure out how to hit these poliicians/lawyers/organizations with some form of boycott so they are starved of money and political power, but I am not sure what direction to move.

[c-b 1]

Before we start feeling too sorry for Moore, let me make a prediction:

I don't believe the Judge wants any sympathy from anyone. I don't feel sorry for judge Moore, I feel sorry for my country. This isn't about Judge Moore, or a monument, it is about "State's Rights," it is not the Federal Government's business how the State of Alabama decorates it's buildings. The lack of understanding of that by posters here on Freerepublic, by those who claim to understand the Constitution, is horrifying.