No single instance that I mentioned attached sectarian beliefs to the concept of God, Moore did by posting the tenets of Judeo-Christian beliefs, and claiming that it was his "duty under the Constitution is to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian God, not the gods of other faiths." while in his Courtroom, and that "we are not a nation founded upon the Hindu god or Buddha."
Roy Moore staged this whole thing, and he is using the word of God in an attempt at furthering his political career.
Another opinion on how the ACLU is damaging our country ...
http://www.foe.com/neweagletalk/_disc3/000001d7.htm It seems to me that the ACLU once again mistakes "liberty" for License. And though I respect the minority and their "natural right" to speak I can choose not to listen. When I go to a government building and I see the ten commandments I might ask myself - is the person (s) who put this here a Catholic, a Greek Orthodox, a Jew, a Lutheran, an Episcopalian, a Methodist, a Mormon (etc...)but I do not. Instead I think about what the ten commandments stand for... the underlying principle for social well being and Law.
Thomas Hobbes might say that we should have a guillotine on every corner because only fear can rule us... This leaves to a very unproductive people as can be noted by the consequences experienced in Eastern Europe during the cold war and more recently in countries like Iraq.
Sadly, we may someday be ruled by fear as people trying so hard to render in two the primary social fabric that allows us to live as good neighbors accomplish their agenda. But with hope out of Pandora's box we can work toward thwarting such a terrible fiat.
Locke may say that a group will join together to protect their economic interests in a state of nature... wouldn't it be terrible if we had to do this to protect ourselves from a selfish minority?
Perhaps we should re-read Tocquvilles "Democracy in America" and determine if our representative Democracy/Republic is best served by those who wish to take away the opportunity to view a representation of a document many would say is one of the earliest documents providing a foundation of Law for a broad base of cultures that has essentially lasted for centuries. Would his basic premise that the many self-interests that each of us possess and come together to share and to debate be served by the removal of such an object. I say NO!
Perhaps the next thing the ACLU will ask is that we live as a homogenized society that has its freedom from such things as Justice, Truth, Liberty and Equality and instead must abide by the whims of the minority. Instead of fearing the "Tyranny of the Majority" we can begin to fear the "Tyranny of the Minority" by the simple process of precedence established by a judge. The balances and counter-balances being determined not by our working together as self-interested people with our differences and our like interests but by an agenda of a few.
What a pity it would be if we did not have St. Patricks day, Cinco de Mayo, Kwanzza, Orthodox Easter, Bar Mitzva's, Martin Luther King Day, Flag Day, Memorial Day, Labor day, Rosh Hashana, New Years Day simply because these days offended a few people for one reason or another or because someones agenda does not allow for such diversity. Perhaps we should ask the ACLU to pursue a policy of absolutely no Holiday's or Holiday pay for anyone who works for the government. Only x number of days off.
I believe that removing the ten commandments is foolish.
As Abe Lincoln once said" Let us have Faith that Right makes Might and in that Faith let us Dare to do our Duty as we Understand it." But without Faith what is your Duty. Does it become a selfish pursuit of something that is not yours to have?
Perhaps it is time that we celebrate our differences in opinions, (as Tocqueville so eloquently wrote of his observations in the United States) and allow for history to show itself at our government buildings. To paraphrase John Stuart Mills in a positive approach to freedom of speech... when you begin to regulate it, it becomes a slippery slope to denying people their liberties. Could not the same thing be said of religion? The ten commandments sitting on public property is not like yelling "Fire" in a movie theater.
The ACLU does some good things but they should be more careful that in their pursuit of one man's liberty they do not enslave an entire society.