- By Rick
Scarborough
President
and National Co-Chairman,
Vision
America
The Separation of God and State
In 1776 fifty-six courageous men signed the
Declaration of Independence, which at the time was an act of treason
against England. The second paragraph of the Declaration begins by
stating.....�We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men
are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator�..�
References to the Almighty are included throughout the
document. That they believed in God, there can be no doubt. And it wasn�t
just a ceremonial belief, but one which they held so deeply that they
declared they were willing to��.�pledge our lives, our fortunes
and our sacred honor�, to uphold. A price they subsequently were
required to pay.
The Declaration listed 26 grievances against King
George, whom they accused of demonstrating a �history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these states.�
Rereading the Declaration of Independence in
preparation for this article reinforced my belief that the Courts in
general, and particularly an elite group of activist Federal Judges, are
now once again perpetrating tyranny upon the states. In 1776 the evil
was perpetrated by a King. Today, it is done by an activist Judiciary,
who are usurping power that is not granted by their respective State and
Federal Constitutions. Increasingly this nation is looking less and less
like the country our Founders fought to create and it will take the same
resolve they demonstrated to reverse the moral freefall of the past four
decades. If the courage that our Founders exhibited in 1776 can�t be
found in leaders today, the culture war is lost.
Fortunately, for us, there are some Judges standing
for traditional values who will not bow to these self appointed arbiters
of the new morality. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is
the brightest star in the firmament. He began his uphill battle to honor
his God as a Jurist eleven years ago as a Circuit Judge and has become
known as the �Ten Commandments Judge�, but as he is quick to point
out, his battle is not about the Ten Commandments, but about whether or
not the state will acknowledge God as God.
The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court was
elected overwhelmingly by the Alabama voters, who knew how deeply he
felt about the right of all Americans to freely pursue their faith in
the public sector. He has been under continual assault by the ACLU and
other groups dedicated to dismantling the true meaning of the First
Amendment for more than a decade.
Chief Justice Moore has the responsibility and the
authority to decorate the Alabama Supreme Court Building under the
Alabama Constitution. Included in the items he selected for the building
is a beautiful two and a half ton monument containing the Ten
Commandments and selected quotes from our Nation�s history. It is the
belief of Chief Justice Moore, as well as most other Americans, that the
foundation of all Law is the Ten Commandments which God gave by
revelation to Moses and recorded in the Bible.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals assigned a three
Judge panel to hear arguments regarding the removal of the monument
after a complaint was filed by the ACLU. On July 1 they issued their
ruling which was adverse to Chief Justice Moore. The Chief Justice was
then given twenty one days to appeal to the entire Eleventh Circuit. As
of this writing the Chief Justice has made no indication that he will
appeal
Because Chief Justice Moore cannot in good conscience
remove the monument without compromising his strongly held faith, he
will be in technical violation of a court order. This will trigger an
investigation by the State Judicial Inquiry Commission. If they find
that the Chief Justice has acted improperly, they have the power to
remove him from the bench, while he appeals his case to the United
States Supreme Court.
Please don�t overlook the reason Chief Justice Moore
is in jeopardy of being removed from an office in which a majority of
Citizens of Alabama elected him to serve; for refusing to remove a
monument which contains the Ten Commandments. And why will he not remove
them? Because he TRULY believes that God has revealed the foundation of
all law through them and that to remove the monument would be to deny
the God who is the revealer of the Ten Commandments. For Chief Justice
Moore, this is a First Amendment issue.
Why does the Court take the position that the monument
must be removed? Because the Chief Justice is exercising his faith in
the public sector. He has abridged the �separation of church and
state.� For the Eleventh Circuit Court it is a First Amendment issue.
What does the First Amendment say?
�
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
�
Look for this phrase �separation of church and state� in the
First Amendment. It is not there. If you concede that the First
Amendment contains the principle of separation, when did church become
God? We now see the Judiciary systematically removing God from the
public sector in case after case.
No reasonable American could conclude that Chief Justice Moore is in
violation of this first article of the Bill of Rights. The Federal
Judiciary has turned this Amendment on its ear to provide cover for its
assault on people of faith which began in earnest in 1947. They have
been successful because no worthy opponent to their philosophical
atheism has been willing to confront them, without regard to the
personal cost it might extract. Many well meaning Christians have agreed
to accept the crumbs which have fallen from the gods of the Federal
Judiciary�s table who occasionally allow God to be acknowledged, but
only as long as it is ceremonial in nature. Under such a view, we still
have �In God we trust� on our coinage, but does anyone doubt that
Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, would
allow school children to hold a dollar in their hands if he thought the
children might take that phrase to heart? The reason the Eleventh
Circuit is so adamant about the removal of this monument is that Chief
Justice Moore has made it very clear in the hearings that he takes God
to heart. And so do millions of other Americans.
Chief Justice Moore�s case brings the entire Culture War of the
past four decades into one issue. In the Court record of the hearings
the presiding Judge articulated the issue: ��the issue is can
the state acknowledge GOD.� God in His infinite wisdom has
accentuated the real issue in the very setting of the hearings, for on
the fa�ade of the Federal Court building where the case has been heard
is a sculpture of the Grecian goddess, Themis. I wonder why the ACLU,
Southern Poverty Law Center or Americans United for Separation of Church
and State, never sued for the removal of Themis? Could it be that no one
takes Themis seriously?
To the question, �Can the state acknowledge God?� Judge Moore
says not only �Yes!� But more importantly, �It must!�
He realizes that to fail to do so wipes out hundreds of years of Western
civilization based on the rule of law and ushers in an age where the law
is whatever the presiding judge says it is. Just look at Supreme Court
Judge Sandra Day O' Connor's flip flop on sodomy between 1989 and 2003.
Our nation�s morality isn�t being destroyed by �Activist Judges�;
it is being destroyed by �Atheist Judges�, and it is time for
God-fearing Americans to stand up and say��.Enough is Enough!
On August 16 at 10:00 am Vision America 21 will be sponsoring a rally
on the steps of the Supreme Court building in Montgomery, Alabama at
10:00 A.M. Thousands of Pastors, God-fearing Americans and elected
officials will be there to express their support for Chief Justice Roy
Moore. More importantly, we will be acknowledging our firm belief that
the God of Chief Justice Roy Moore is our God as well, and the
Constitution of the United States has not authorized Judges to forbid
Americans to acknowledge Him in the public sector. �
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