Posted on 08/21/2003 4:38:28 PM PDT by Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS
Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court refused to back down from his defense of a Ten Commandments display Thursday despite a decision by his eight judicial colleagues to move the 2.5-ton monument.
"The fight to defend our constitutional rights to acknowledge God must and will continue," Moore told a crowd of supporters. "Very soon, we will file a petition for writ of certiorari before the United States Supreme Court to resolve clearly our inalienable rights to acknowledge God under the First Amendment."
Earlier Thursday, the eight associate justices of the Alabama Supreme Court voted to have the monument removed by the judicial building manager. The justices, who have the power to override Moore's administrative decisions, took the step after a federal judge threatened to fine the state $5,000 per day.
Republican Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Bill Pryor, both defenders of the Ten Commandments monument, hailed the justices' decision.
"Although I fundamentally disagree with what the federal courts have ordered, the state Supreme Court was correct in unanimously voting to uphold the rule of law," Riley said in a statement.
The governor, who is grappling with a budget deficit, said the fines could have added up to $1 billion within four months.
Pryor immediately filed the justices' order with the U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson, who set a deadline of midnight Wednesday for Moore to remove the monument. The deadline expired without much incident, although about 20 people were removed from inside the courthouse after refusing to leave.
The Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, was among those arrested. He said it's never a pleasant experience to be detained by police, but this particular situation warranted such a stand.
"I'm certainly ready [to be arrested again] if that's necessary," Schenck said. "The Commandments are still on public display. No appears to be moving them or attempting to move them. But there are plenty of people now - scores of people - who are willing to risk arrest."
Schenck has teamed with the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, to coordinate events in Montgomery throughout the week, including round-the-clock prayer vigils.
Defenders of Moore strongly objected to a decision made earlier in the day to shield the monument with a screen. Moore reportedly left a funeral to see that it was removed.
Later Thursday morning, the eight associate justices made their decision asking that that monument be moved from public view. Moore has dismissed suggestions that he place the monument in his office to comply with the court order.
In their order, the justices stated: "The refusal of officers of this court to obey a binding order of a federal court of competent jurisdiction would impair the authority and ability of all of the courts of this state to enforce their judgments."
Despite their defense of the Ten Commandments monument, Riley and Pryor condemned Moore for refusing to obey the law.
"The rule of law means that no person, including the chief justice of Alabama, is above the law," Pryor said. "The rule of law means that when courts resolve disputes, after all appeals and arguments, we all must obey the orders of those courts even when we disagree with those orders."
Alabama political observers like Johnny Green, who taught political science at Auburn University, said Pryor and Riley have taken a safe route by defending the monument while still vowing to uphold the law.
President Bush nominated Pryor for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, although Democrats have singled him out and raised objections to his so-called extremist views.
As for Moore, Green said this is likely the beginning of a quest for higher office. With Riley hurting politically because of an unpopular tax proposal, Moore could situate himself nicely for a run at governor in 2006, Green said.
Green said the state is split over the Ten Commandments question, but he said voters knew what they were getting by electing Moore to office. He has made clear his strong religious beliefs as well as his distaste for federal involvement in state issues, Green said.
"Remember, this is a place where they believe in states' rights," Green said. "So anytime the federal government tells Southerners what to do, they vehemently reject that and despise that. Alabamians would rather get a gun and fight than sit down at the table and discuss it sanely."
Sorry. That alone won't get you into heaven. I will be praying for you, asking God to grant you the peace that can only come from a relationship with Jesus Christ (who, by the way, loves you very much). Your life has been full of opportunities to accept this love but you have turned away from it. I pray that you will make a choice that will affect the rest of your life on this earth as well as your life in eternity. I pray that you will have the wisdom and desire to make this important decision. However, as you know, God has given us free choice, so he will not force you to believe in Him or to accept Him and His love. The decision is yours. You can continue to rationalize and explain away the existence of God. Unfortunately for you, you are wrong. Please do not respond to this message with anger or derision. If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't write it. I have never met you and probably never will. Just think about it----please.
If the left follows the EU to pagan narcissism, the weakest and the most innocent (or, as the opposition would say, "women and children"...) will be hurt the most. God, family, America - no more.
The Decline of a Nation expounds upon your comment.
And conveniently ignore the fact that we would have virtually no charities, hospitals and institutions of higher learning without Christians because Christians are the ones who founded those institutions and continue to fund them in large part.
How many atheist or agnostic charities, hospitals or universities can you name? Case closed.
Detailed in What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?
I hate to tell you but when I was 12 years old I actually read the bible and as they say "No book created more Atheist than the Bible"
The Father's Love Letter with audio.
I'm not religious - I do support Moore. Just remember history - the last time the Christians lost was not a pretty picture. It's no doubt in my mind that the anti-Christians think they are so superior to the Christians. My advice is to RESPECT HISTORY!
Yours is the 3rd comment made by people who are not religious, yet support Federalism. The Founders accommodated those with your view.
FT April 2003: The Faith of the Founding
It is important to pause here and take in Madison’s point. The relation of an individual to his Creator is precedent to his entering into civil society; it arises from nature itself. Yet this view of nature is in fact derivative from an expressly Christian view of the world expressed in philosophical rather than in exclusively theological or scriptural terms. In Madison’s view, by nature an individual is "a subject of the Governor of the Universe." On that fact, deep and inviolable, his natural right is grounded.
Continuing to quote from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Madison attempts to ground the fundamental equality of all individuals, considered as subjects of the Governor of the Universe.
If "all men are by nature equally free and independent," all men are to be considered as entering into society on equal conditions; as relinquishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of their natural rights. Above all, are they to be considered as retaining an "equal title to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience." Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offense against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.
[…]
Only Judaism and Christianity have a doctrine of God as Spirit and Truth, Who created the world in order to invite these creatures endowed with intelligence and conscience to enter into friendship with Him. Only the Jewish and Christian God made human beings free, halts the power of Caesar at the boundaries of the human soul, and has commissioned human beings to build civilizations worthy of the liberty He has endowed in them. So high is this God’s valuation of human liberty of conscience that, even though He has launched a divinely commissioned religion in history (in two Covenants, Jewish and Christian), He would not have either of these religions imposed by force on anyone. So devoted were the American founders to this understanding of religious liberty that, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography (1821), the authors of the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom refrained from mentioning the exact name of the "holy author of our religion." Here is Jefferson’s explanation for the omission:
Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the words "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion"; the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.
You are correct, of course. But never underestimate the human ability to make venal short-term decisions without due regard for the long-term consequences.
When a court should issue an order contrary to the Constitution and the rights that inhere me, it is my solemn duty is to disobey that order. Why? Because I fear God more than the edicts of man. For me there is an absolute sense of right and wrong that guides my path.
The First Question - Whether subjects are obligated to obey rulers who issue commands contrary to the law of God. Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
Mornay concludes his work with a strong plea for resistance to tyranny:
religion commands us to maintain the Law of God and to defend the church; justice commands us to use force against the tyrant who subverts the rights of a commonwealth; charity commands us to relieve the oppressed and to lend a helping hand. To deny these duties, then, is to will the extinction and removal of religion, justice, and charity from our midst.21
Vindiciae, therefore, does not argue for anarchy. It recommends resistance to tyranny based upon the authority of lower officers of the state. As such, it should be considered an argument for a conservative revolution.
President John Adams and his political theory have acquired new relevance as American evangelicals ponder afresh the relationship between Christian faith and the responsibilities of citizenship. For his own generation he brought to light the riches of reformational political theory. As Christians encounter increasing church / state conflict and the demands for loyalty from the modern secular state this reformational heritage needs another look. It is no longer tolerable for Christians today to cite Romans 13 as the sum total of biblical political theory--Romans 13 must be balanced by the teaching of Revelation 13. When the state usurps all authority--even that belonging to God--an altogether different response is needed. A Footnote to the Political Theory of John Adams Vindiciae contra ...
English Common Law predates Christianity in the British isles. The oldest written records came from the Romans and Christian missionaries, who themselves noted that the Common Law was already ancient when they got to the isles. English Common Law originates deep in pre-history, and while it has been influenced by Christianity in later years, it is by no means established as a Christian tradition.
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