Constitutional Confrontation in Alabama   
By Phyllis Schlafly

 

            The secularists are gloating. They got a court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama courthouse and another court order to suspend Chief Justice Roy Moore who put it there.

            But anyone who thinks this confrontation in Montgomery is just about an inscribed rock and a defiant judge is out of touch with reality. The Ten Commandments dispute is the tip of the iceberg in the ongoing battle to obliterate every acknowledgement of God except behind the closed doors of churches.

            The goal of the secularists and the atheists is to treat religious people like smokers. You can continue to exist only if you are out of sight, out of hearing, and out of smell.

            The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and other anti-religious groups and atheists have instigated scores of lawsuits all over the country demanding that judges banish God from all public forums. The ACLU lost its efforts to remove the Ten Commandments from courthouses in Kentucky and suburban Philadelphia, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation got a federal judge to ban a Ten Commandments monument from a public park in LaCrosse, Wisconsin even though the city had sold the land it sat on to a private group.

            The city of Everett, Washington is being sued by Americans United for Separation of Church and State to remove a Ten Commandments monument from city property. It is one of many Ten Commandments monuments donated to cities during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

            The ACLU has already forced the removal of the Eagles' Ten Commandments monuments from eight Utah cities and has announced a scavenger hunt to track down a ninth which the ACLU thinks exists but can't find.

            The ACLU intimidated the National Park Service into removing plaques from the Grand Canyon that contained verses from the book of Psalms. It was agreed that the Park Service can continue to use the names of Hindu gods for some of the trails and canyon formations.

            The ACLU got the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to let stand a federal district court decision banning grace before meals at Virginia Military Institute. The Citadel then announced that it, too, would eliminate prayers before meals, and you can bet that the ACLU will now target prayers at our military and naval academies and on board ship.

            The atheists and secularists are on the warpath to stop the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance because it contains the words "under God." Atheist Michael Newdow was successful in the Ninth Circuit, the ACLU won in Colorado, and we can expect similar lawsuits in all the 33 states that require recitation of the Pledge in public schools.

            In Pennsylvania, a federal judge voided a state law that required teachers to lead students in reciting the Pledge or singing the National Anthem each morning. The animosity against the National Anthem is probably because its fourth stanza includes the words "our motto: 'in God is our trust.'"

            Suing on behalf of agnostics and lesbians, the ACLU got a judge to banish the Boy Scouts from a San Diego city park where they have met since 1920. The Scouts' offense was that they include God in their membership oath.

            The attempt to remove God from all state constitutions is at the heart of the Montgomery dispute. Judge Moore took an oath to uphold Alabama's constitution which, in order to "secure the blessings of liberty," invokes "the favor and guidance of Almighty God."

            The silliness of the arguments against Judge Moore's Ten Commandments rock is shown by the repeated assertion that he is trying to establish the Christian religion. The secularists seem unaware that the Ten Commandments predate Christianity.

            When chief antagonist Barry Lynn was asked on television how he could oppose the Ten Commandments monument in Montgomery when the U.S. Supreme Court building shows the Ten Commandments on its walls, he said that's different because the Supreme Court also shows the Code of Hammurabi. But Judge Moore's rock likewise displays several other quotations from historic documents.

            The secularists and the atheists seek out judges who pretend to find rights in the U.S. Constitution that no one else has seen for over two centuries. The federal judges who believe they can make law, and punish, fine or imprison those who challenge their tyranny, display arrogance like King Louis XIV's famous words, "L'etat, c'est moi" (I am the state).

            The American people don't have to tolerate the federal judiciary's totalitarian grab for power. When Congress returns to Washington after Labor Day, its first order of business should be to use its Article III, Section 1 power to pass a law withdrawing jurisdiction from all federal courts over whether an acknowledgement of God violates the First Amendment.

            The solution is really that simple. It's not only perfectly constitutional; it's Congress's constitutional duty to stop the out-of-control federal courts.

 

Phyllis Schlafly is the founder and president of Eagle Forum. For more information about Eagle Forum go to Eagle Forum's web site at www.eagleforum.org or write to them at Eagle Forum, PO Box 618, Alton, IL 62002. You can also contact them by calling (618) 462-5415.