Posted on 08/27/2003 8:59:09 AM PDT by NWO Slave
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A chorus of demonstrators joined an irate man in screaming "Put it back!" Wednesday morning after a monument of the Ten Commandments was wheeled away from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.
"Get your hands off our God, God haters!" yelled the wildly gesturing, red-faced man who initiated the chanting.
Workers used a dolly to move the 5,280-pound granite marker from the rotunda to another, undisclosed place in the courthouse building.
Meanwhile, a Wednesday afternoon hearing to consider a lawsuit to keep the monument in the rotunda was canceled.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Mobile on behalf of a Christian radio talk show host and a pastor, says forced removal of the monument would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.
Christian Defense Coalition Director Patrick Mahoney told the crowd of demonstrators that he wasn't told where the monument had been taken.
Because of its size and weight, the marker was presumably moved to another location on the ground floor of the building.
Mahoney said the monument would not be covered, and that he would be allowed inside to see it once it was moved. Mahoney said he was informed of the plans by building manager Graham George.
Mahoney didn't know whether the monument's new location would be accessible to the public.
The federal court had said the monument could be in a private place in the building but not in the highly visible spot in the rotunda directly across from the building's entrance.
Protest organizers asked the crowd outside not to rush the building or do anything else except pray. Some people seemed to be listening, with dozens kneeling, bowing or lying face-down in prayer in front of the judicial building and on the steps before and after the monument's removal.
The marker was wheeled away in a matter of minutes.
A federal judge in Montgomery ruled last year that the monument, which Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (search) installed two years ago, violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion and ordered its removal by Aug. 20. The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear Moore's appeal.
But Moore refused to comply. Eight associate justices voted Aug. 21 to remove the monument, and Moore was suspended the next day.
Attorney General Bill Pryor, defending the associate justices, filed a motion Tuesday afternoon to dismiss the latest lawsuit, saying the Mobile court lacks jurisdiction and the complaint lacks merit.
About 150 monument supporters marched on Pryor's office Tuesday, demanding he resign for supporting the associate justices' decision. Seven representatives were allowed inside to meet with Pryor's chief deputy for about 20 minutes. The rest remained outside, chanting, "Resign now! Resign now!"
Gatherings of pro-monument demonstrators outside the judicial building have grown each day in the past week to at times number in the hundreds.
People seeking removal of the monument from its public site had said they were grateful that it was finally being moved, a week after the deadline set by a federal judge.
"This is a tremendous victory for the rule of law and respect for religious diversity," the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said before the monument was rolled out of the rotunda. "Perhaps Roy Moore will soon leave the bench and move into the pulpit, which he seems better suited for."
Lynne's organization was among groups suing to remove Moore's monument, which he installed without telling the other eight Supreme Court justices.
Demonstrators promised to keep up their protests of the removal.
"If it takes 75 years to reclaim this land for righteousness, God find us and our children and our children's children ready," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the national clergy council.
Affirmative Action Judge Opposing Judge Roy Moore
This is ridiculous. The guy is an ordained minister.
?????? we have been advised to increase our limits of liability "just in case the pastor preaches something in the pulpit that another may find offensive."
What church is this? What would be offensive?
I didn't say you were "atheism" did I?
Nevertheless, why are atheists not content to keep their convictions to themselves as they so often council theists to do? Because of the inherent assumption of superiority coming from the conviction that theists are irrational and they themselves are rational.
Explain it any way you like, but atheists credit themselves as intellectually superior, though the educated ones will admit when pressed, they have no more positive basis for their convictions than the theist.
Good. I was hoping for some context too. For example, was the child reading the Bible while the teacher was on another subject? If so, the teacher would have been correct in removing the bible from the child. Just as the teacher would be correct if the child was reading a comic book during math lessons...
The difference being is that we now have the NEW Testament which means we are no longer under the same penalty for sin as delineated in the Old Testament.
Bill and Hillary think so. They ain't too partiklar 'bout the rest, either.
I agree. I didn't put it in the last post, but one of the two or three men trying to keep this plaid shirt guy back from the steps of the Courthouse told him something like, "The Ten Commandments aren't God." I can't be sure if that's an exact quote, but it's close. I also doubt if the plaid shirt guy heard him--he was that out of control. If they hadn't stopped him, I'm sure he would've charged the door or even gone through the plate glass window. I do remember hearing him continuing to yell and scream while Mahoney and others tried to speak.
Conversely, why are religious folk not content to keep their convictions to themselves?
Well, apparently Moore erected the thing in the courthouse in the middle of the night--for some reason. But my point is that because of the influence of the Separatists in this country, we have the laws that keep religion and government apart. That's how it should be, for the good of government, but more importantly, for the benefit of faith and religion. Moore may have thought that erecting that monument in the courthouse was the right thing to do, but he was very misguided.
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