Movers Haul Away Ten Commandments in Montgomery

FOXNews.com ^ | Wednesday, August 27, 2003

[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

[MineralMan]

""Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother." "Do Not Bear False Withness Against Thy Neighbor." And others. These are laws the Taliban would enforce? Are you INSANE?

"

Actually both of those commandments exist in the Quran as well as in the Bible.

[Woahhs]

No wonder the Press is winning...fools fall for the ploys...

Someone gets it!

[rwfromkansas]

That statement was very disturbing to me as well.

But, this is no small issue. It is a major Constitutional matter.

That said, that guy, if he actually meant that literally (don't think he did), is an idolator.

[vikingcelt]

"Oh my bad. I guess it wasn't the fundamentalist Muslim countries that stone women to death for adultery, and kill people for speaking against Mohammed, cut off hands for stealing and cut out tongues for lying. Maybe I am insane, because I've heard these facts for most of my life. I even hear them on Fox News. Maybe it's the voices in my head."

What on earth are you talking about? The Ten Commandments say none of these things. The Ten Commandments give us "commands" to live by. Nowhere does it say anything about stoning women to death for adultery, killing people for speaking against G-d, cutting off hands for stealing or cutting out tongues for lying." You apparently ARE insane and you do obviously have some rather strange (and lying) voices in your head.

[Lazamataz]

That was the comment I was replying too. 'the law'...no context, just 'the law'.

Fair enough. I clarify: Western law.

[rwfromkansas]

The monument does not violate one whit of the Constitution and should not have been moved.

[MineralMan]

"I guess it wasn't the fundamentalist Muslim countries that stone women to death for adultery, and kill people for speaking against Mohammed, cut off hands for stealing and cut out tongues for lying. Maybe I am insane, because I've heard these facts for most of my life. I even hear them on Fox News. Maybe it's the voices in my head."

Time for a re-reading of Exodus and Leviticus, there. You'll find the death penalty for adultery in there, too, along with the death penalty for lots and lots of things, some of which you've no doubt done yourself. If you're going to talk about scriptures, you might want to get familiar with your own.

[curlewbird]

"They have been raising taxes without cease. Seems like we should have less poor. We don't."

We don't because they keep raising taxes, therfore, creating more poor, therefore, raising taxes to pay for the poor, etc...etc...etc.... Keeps them in business!!

[jwalsh07]

The code of Hammurabi is religious based.

Evict.

Next.

[rwfromkansas]

If he meant that literally (I actually think he was referring to a general belief that God is being removed from the public square everywhere), he is an idolator. Even if he isn't, he needs to watch his statements. One could easily interpret that as a statement referring to the Ten Commandments as god.

[Boxsford]

Yours has to be the most ignorant, idiotic comment ever posted here on FR.

[AmericanInTokyo]

In setting your alarm clock tonight before bed, you have expressed faith in the objective expectation, i.e. the belief, in such an unfathomable phenomenological mystery that [sure enough] as you are busy sleeping through the darkened hours, our Earth will indeed continue its usual orbit around the sun, and will end up on it's axis where started 24 hours earlier, and that you can base your life on that cosmic certainty. you set your alarm clock.

How is it, then, you can have such faith and belief in such a grandiose and almost unfathomable concept as Celestial Order (enough to base your daily life upon it), yet you or others cannnot somehow grasp the concept or take into objective consideration the existence of a Being, an Entity, which created these huge celestial realities which you live your life on, out of a state of pre-existing nothingness?

How can you emotionally argue, with such passion, against those who DO have such a belief? Is it anger or malice or dislike?

[PleaseNoMore]

No one is coming for the bible? I suggest you consider what is going on in Houston then.

[Sir Gawain]

William Rehnquist totally destroys "Separation of Church and State" myth

[RoughDobermann]

"I think that is quite a stretch..." I don't.

I'm not surprised.

[MineralMan]

"No one is coming for the bible? I suggest you consider what is going on in Houston then."

I don't live in Houston. Suppose you briefly explain what is "going on" there.