BBSNews 2003

BBSNews - 2003-09-01 -- Religious fundamentalists protesting the removal of the granite monument depicting one version of the Ten Commandments in Montgomery, Alabama are misguided and misled by leaders who claim this issue is any way like Rosa Parks and the very real struggle for black folks prior to the Civil Rights Act(s). A church can be opened easily, even in a run down strip mall in Milwaukee like Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, where an 8 year-old boy recently died from suffocation while a minister tried to banish a "spirit" from the boy that turned out to be autism. Religious fundamentalism gone fatally awry.

"Focus on the Family" founder Dr. James Dobson said Thursday to a rally in Montgomery "It can be said that people of faith are being sent to the back of the bus," Dobson said. "And we're not going to go there."

Dr. Dobson, you are not "there." Reasonable and thinking Americans can tell the difference between an entire race oppressed and religious fundamentalists grandstanding for political gain.

It is readily known that "Focus on the Family" misleads Americans on the issue of drug policy; medical use of marijuana in particular. Repeated tries by BBSNews to get this group to factually update misleading and non-factual innuendo about drug policy from their rhetoric has finally run into the following non-response, "we have [n]either the time or the manpower to become experts in areas as specialized and as scientifically demanding as the medical ramifications of marijuana use." And then BBSNews was told this was their "final word on the subject."

One wonders how they feel "expert" enough to keep copiusly commenting on an issue they readily admit they know nothing about.

This is bad enough in the face of almost three quarters of a million arrests for marijuana each year that mis-perceptions extolled by their literature helps propagate, including Dr. Dobson's own written words on the subject such as "Needle Park", but it simply flies in the face of reason that these folks, with James Dobson as the front man, would try to claim that they are in any way persecuted for their religious beliefs in the ways that America not that long ago had separate drinking fountains, separate eating accomodations, segregated schools, lynchings, public harrasment and debasement and other unconscionable acts of indecency against black folks.

It is an insult to the very concept of the Civil Rights Movement.

The fact is, Roy Moore can put that granite monument in his front yard and he can be assured that no one will come along and burn a cross to protest it's presence. Nor is he likely to face any threat from being considered "uppity." He is free to buy any piece of property that he can afford and install the monument there. He is also free to retire from the bench (if he does not get removed first) and start a church and place it there as a centerpiece for his ministry.

The line is drawn at the courthouse door for very fundamental and important reasons. All faiths or the lack of faith or religion is to be respected when someones freedom or rights are at stake.

That's really all there is to it. Standing in the court house door and defying the rule of law is the antithesis of what the Civil Rights Movement was and is about and Moore's stance, and the people who currently support him, look more like George Wallace standing in the school house door rather than persons taking an actual principled stand protecting religious diversity for all.

Someone of other than the Christian faith, for instance the 37 million Americans who adhere to no religion, should not have to be fearful that their legal judgement will be handed down by someone doling out their particular brand of law according to their own personal religion. And this judge Roy Moore was wont to do, in the most glaring of ways. The Christian Coalition of Alabama in March 2002 proudly recounted Chief Justice Roy Moores diatribe quoting him variously against a lesbian woman and homosexuality in general, where Moore wrote "I write specially to state that the homosexual conduct of a parent - - conduct involving a sexual relationship between two persons of the same gender - - creates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone is sufficient justification for denying that parent custody of his or her own children or prohibiting the adoption of the children of others. In this case there is undisputed evidence that the mother of the minor children not only dated another woman, but lived with that woman, shared a bed with her, and had an intimate physical and sexual relationship with her. …But Alabama expressly does not recognize same sex marriages or domestic partnerships. …Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated. Such conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws of this State and is destructive to a basic building block of society – the family. The law of Alabama is not only clear in its condemning such conduct, but the courts of this State have consistently held that exposing a child to such behavior has a destructive and seriously detrimental effect on the children. It is an inherent evil against which children must be protected.”

This entire opinion is a must read for those who would like to get a feel for Moore's legal arguments about religion being directly applied to law. Moore is apparently obsessed with homosexuality.

Dobson himself uses perjorative language about the users of currently illicit drugs calling them "druggies." This in itself establishes a trend of intolerance by these folks who claim they are defenders of family and truth in America. Dobson misrepresents Swiss drug policy as well as American drug policy and now apparently supports ignoring federal court orders.

Religious thoughts and beliefs are the most personally held human possession and they should not be subject to enforcements by a court of law. The other alternative, a theocracy based on some particular brand of religion is completely abhorrent to the principles that Americans and the world in general, once held about America. This was prior to September 11th, 2001. Prior to the War on Terror, the Afghan and Iraq war and the increasingly obvious failure to address realistically the Palestinian Occupation by Israel. Now people are ever more quick to jump to the 'you're with us or agin us' attitude led by the current administration itself. Fear is a great motivator and an effective political tool.

This is why Thomas Jefferson and his wall of separation, the foundation of the real legal reality of the United States is thankfully the fact of the matter. The fundamentalists are entitled to their opinion yet they cannot spin their way out of the facts. When Jefferson put the "eternal" separation of church and state into words he did so in that famous letter to the church in Danbury, Connecticut:

Jefferson and the Republicans did not agree with the mixing of religion into politics; Jefferson refusing to issue religious proclamations such as Thanksgiving or fasts at the time was giving the Federalists a lot of political fodder with which to try and paint Jefferson with an atheist brush. And even Hutson notes that "Jefferson apparently made these changes because he thought the original phrases would sound too antireligious to pious New England ears." BBSNews July 7th, 2002 - Thomas Jefferson: The Wall of Separation between Church & State.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" thus building a wall of eternal separation between Church & State. Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even those occasional performances of devotion, practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect..."

Claiming that the concept of separation of church and state is a myth is untrue. Thomas Jefferson considered it "eternal."

Fundamentalists should be careful what they wish for. Do they really want the federal government deciding the validity of Catholicism over Protestants? Jews over Church of Christ? Satanists versus Wiccans? Church of the Brethran against the Quakers?

Other interesting claims heard from Moore supporters include "In God We Trust" appearing on American currency as proof that the United States is a Christian country. The United States was almost 90 years-old when "The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins." Paper money did not have the motto until 1957 and it wasn't until the mid-sixties that common paper denominations contained the official US motto, adopted during the Mcarthy era at the height of the "red scare" - the ever present fear of the "red menace." Mushroom clouds and hiding under the school desk. Again, fear is a great motivator.

Judge Roy Moore came to the Supreme Court of Alabama with a ready made legal defense fund from old friend Coral Ridge Ministries.

In an editorial August 20th, 2003 the Washington Post opined: "...depicting himself as the "Ten Commandments Judge" and a defender of Alabama against moral decline, Mr. Moore advanced his political career in 2000 by winning an election for the chief justice post. And shortly after he settled in at the state courthouse -- and in the dead of night after his fellow justices had left the building -- Mr. Moore had the granite monument installed in the rotunda, with the entire episode recorded on film by an evangelical Christian media organization. That the organization, Coral Ridge Ministries, has used the proceeds from the sale of the film to pay Mr. Moore's legal expenses tells a story in itself about the extent to which he would exploit the Ten Commandments for his personal ends."

According the an article in the Anniston Star this relationship goes back to 1995. "The footage of the installation in the State Judicial Building was included in one of Kennedy's weekly TV shows. Video cassette copies of that show are offered by Kennedy's organization for a suggested donation of $19.

The relationship between Moore and Kennedy, a Presbyterian minister and televangelist, has been growing since 1995, when Moore was a circuit judge in Gadsden and got sued for displaying a homemade wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Coral Ridge Ministries' Web site notes that it donated $130,000 to help cover Moore's legal expenses stemming from that litigation and an investigation by the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission."

More recently the groups Web site says "Coral Ridge Ministries has given $150,000 this year to aid Moore’s legal defense, bringing to $375,000 the total sent since he was sued in October 2001."

Moore's monument was clearly exclusionary, [Larry] "Darby, who serves as State Director of the Atheist civil rights and state-church separation group, had contacted Moore and requested equal access to the building's rotunda. A group of mostly-black legislators had earlier also attempted to place a memorial to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, but were turned back in their efforts by a phalanx of security police."

And there may be ethical problems in excluding media organizations and entering an exclusive deal with Coral Ridge Ministries for a video currently on sale for a "donation" of $19.

Alabama's State Ethics law includes this paragraph "No person shall solicit a public official or public employee to use or cause to be used equipment, facilities, time, materials, human labor, or other public property for such person's private benefit or business benefit, which would materially affect his or her financial interest, except as otherwise provided by law."

Judge Roy Moore has a ready made legal defense fund and network of people provided by at the very least Coral Ridge and his whole campaign to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama was based upon his Ten Commandments stance. The law also contains this paragraph "A conflict of interest shall exist when a member of a legislative body, public official, or public employee has a substantial financial interest by reason of ownership of, control of, or the exercise of power over any interest greater than five percent of the value of any corporation, company, association, or firm, partnership, proprietorship, or any other business entity of any kind or character which is uniquely affected by proposed or pending legislation; or who is an officer or director for any such corporation, company, association, or firm, partnership, proprietorship, or any other business entity of any kind or character which is uniquely affected by proposed or pending legislation."

Roy Moore may not be a board member of Coral Ridge Ministries but he sure is reaping a grass roots benefit from them as they are from him in their quest to create an American theocracy. Now is a good time to review some self-evident truths. Society does not benefit from a lack of science and reason in public policy and fares even worse when historical revisionism is applied to mask political ambition.