Backers guard Ten Commandments monument

AP | 8/22/03 | BOB JOHNSON

[kattracks]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — About 40 supporters of an Alabama judge's Ten Commandments monument stood watch over it early Friday, hoping to keep anyone from removing it from the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Chief Justice Roy Moore went home after spending much of Thursday vowing to do everything within his power to keep the monument in place. His eight colleagues on the state Supreme Court had ordered the monument taken out early in the day after a federal judge's midnight removal deadline passed.

Moore's supporters kept vigil Friday morning from their sleeping bags and bedrolls strewn across the rotunda floor.

The Rev. Herman Henderson of Believers' Tabernacle in Birmingham opted to nap on the concrete with his head resting on sheet music for the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved."

They remained quiet throughout the night, prompting police to retreat to their post across the street.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson set the midnight deadline after deciding that sitting in the public rotunda, the monument violated the Constitution's ban on government promotion of a religious doctrine. Thompson has said it could be moved to a private place still within the building.

The judge had threatened $5,000-a-day fines if Moore left the monument in the rotunda.

Building manager Graham George was instructed by the state's high court to "take all steps necessary to comply" with the removal order, justice Gorman Houston said. George declined to comment when asked when, how or where the monument would be moved.

Moore condemned his fellow judges for their orders. In their ruling, the Alabama justices stated they were "bound by solemn oath" to uphold the law.

"I will never deny the God upon whom our laws and country depend," Moore said Thursday in defending the 5,300-pound granite marker, which he installed two years ago and contends is representation of the moral foundation of American law.

"Not only did Judge Thompson put himself above the law, but above God as well," Moore told supporters.

The chief justice had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the removal order, but the court rejected it Wednesday. Moore said Thursday he would file a formal appeal with the high court soon "to defend our constitutional right to acknowledge God."

"I cannot forsake my conscience," he said.

Richard Cohen, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center — which sued along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State — praised the eight justices.

"Their courageous actions reflect that Justice Moore is a disgrace to the bench and ought to resign or be removed from office," Cohen said.

Still, protesters outside the building said they were willing to stand in the heat and risk arrest for days or weeks to keep the monument inside. Twenty-one were arrested Wednesday night on trespassing charges.

Stephen Hopkins, pastor of Burnet Bible Church in Burnet, Texas, was one of those arrested. He said he was willing to be arrested even though he has 10 children.

"This is a great hypocrisy," Hopkins said. "This is an assault on God. They're saying we're going to cover up God."

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Stephen Hopkins, pastor of Burnet Bible Church in Burnet, Texas, was one of those arrested. He said he was willing to be arrested even though he has 10 children.

"This is a great hypocrisy," Hopkins said. "This is an assault on God. They're saying we're going to cover up God."

Idolatry in action.

[bets]

"This is a great hypocrisy,"

The hypocrisy he's referring to is that the Alabama State Constitution mirrors and supports things like the 10 Commandments. This is why the Judge is so adamant about his position and his right as a judge to uphold his state's constitution which he swore to protect.

They can't keep the State Constitution and get rid of the tablets. What they're counting on is that we/you the people don't know what's in your State Constitution. They're using your ignorance against you. Get educated and read it. Then you'll see why this judge is fighting their actions, and why their actions are illegal.

[ovrtaxt]

Idolatry in action.

Yes, the idolatry of atheism and state worship by those who seek to remove it.

[R. Scott]

First, I firmly believe the monument should stay where it is. We need reminders that there are some standards of conduct that we should be expected to observe. I don’t care if the reminders come from the Decalogue, the Koran, Vedas and the Upanishads or the Four Noble Truths.
What I don’t accept in these discussions is that our law is based on the Ten Commandments. Only four of the ten are incorporated in law, and those four express Universal Proscriptions.
For those who haven’t read it lately:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10.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.

[Edmund Burke]

Perhaps the Alabama House of Representatives could vote to withdraw from the United States. This would send a pretty strong message. The State Senate could refrain from taking action on the bill until the Feds back off.

[Henk]

And maybe the supporters can strap explosives around the chests and blow themselves up in support of their religious beliefs. Oh, wait, that's a different religion.

[Texas_Dawg]

Idolatry in action.

No kidding. Can any Christian here tell me what changes about the message of Christ and their ability to spread it to anyone they wish in Alabama or America, if this monument is removed?

I respected his right to seek to have a monument at the court, but there have been rulings, and he lost. What's going on now is just a chance for people to feel like they are doing something for God (gain celestial bonus points, you know).

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..idolatry in action...

Trolls put you on the dawn shift, Chancey?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

We trolls operate on the TQM system of management. In our organization, if there is a job that needs doing, we hop to it, and don't worry about shifts, per se. We're also on flex scheduling.

[Texas_Dawg]

We trolls operate on the TQM system of management. In our organization, if there is a job that needs doing, we hop to it, and don't worry about shifts, per se. We're also on flex scheduling.

Quit giving them our business secrets.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..what's going on now is just a chance for people to feel like they are doing something for God...

'Doing something for God.' How shocking.

[Texas_Dawg]

'Doing something for God.' How shocking.

"feel like they are"

[Byron_the_Aussie]

....and who are you doing it for, Doggie? You're lined up on this one with the ACLU, militant gays, liberals and anti-Christians. Does that make you feel uncomfortable, or do you fit right in?

[50sDad]

"We shall overcome."

[50sDad]

So the civil rights rallies against perfectly legal (at the time) "Jim Crow" laws were just to make people feel good about themselves?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..we trolls operate on the TQM system of management...

...well, okay. But how come you get the late and early shifts, and the clever ones are on in primetime? After your fiftieth 'idolatry' post, I'm starting to miss Luis.

Can't you reschedule the timetable, or something?

[BamaG]

That doesnt' sound like idolatry to you? Funny how all the Moore supporters want a statue of the ten commandments, but none want to follow it.
]

Thou shalt not make any graven images.....remember that one?

This nutcase from texas calls covering the statue covering up God?

or this article about your boy Roy's idol:

"The monument is such a hit with some Christians that many have arrived by the busload to view it, with some kneeling and pray before it like a holy shrine.
"

here's the complete link...

http://www.datelinealabama.com/article/2002/11/01/3184_alumni_art.php3


Neither God nor Christianity need showboating politicians, or gullible candle holders to protect them. This is about the ego of a politician, that quite frankly you out of staters know nothing about.

---

[kegler4]

Let's see, the judge says "To do my duty, I must acknowledge God." So did God come to him and tell him the he must set up a 5,000 pound monument or he'll burn for not acknowledging God? Has he ever heard of quietly acknowledging God wihtout raising a public ruckus? I just don't understand.

In another story he also says, "If the rule of law means to do everything a judge tells you to do, we would still have slavery in this country." Gee, maybe the lawyer for the next felon up before Moore's court can use that argument to get his guy out of prison. Works for me.

Moore needs to be removed from the bench.

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

"Idolatry in action."

Do you have a problem with God?