We who embrace reason over superstition have so little to cheer about in today's American society. So it's with a happy heart that I comment on events in Alabama this past month.
Way back in 1998, I said that Judge Roy Moore should be removed from office for refusing to heed a court order instructing him to remove a Ten Commandments plaque from the State Courthouse Rotunda.
And now, five years later, he has been. Better late than never.
Moore refused to remove the plaque because he's a deeply religious fellow. And while he certainly has every right to be, he crossed the line when he allowed his faith to interfere with his job. His job is (was) to support the Constitution, a thoroughly secular document. And that includes the First Amendment. Having the Ten C's in a government building violates that Amendment. And that's something he did not have the right to do.
Moore, like many Christians, sees this ruling as being a slap in the face of God… another case of persecution against his faith. All he says he was doing was "acknowledging God."
That's a bunch of crap, and he knows it. It goes well beyond "acknowledging God" and lands squarely into violating everyone's right to freedom from religion in a government setting.
The pathetic thing is that Moore can't see how his faith interferes with his job. After his removal, he said, "To acknowledge God cannot be a violation of the Canons of Ethics. Without God there can be no ethics."
Now, what he's basically saying there is that anyone who doesn't believe in God (and by this he means the Judeo-Christian god) cannot have ethics, cannot engage in ethical behavior. To Moore, anyone who doesn't believe in his god is pretty much guilty from the get-go, whether he'd come right out and say this or not. Certainly, they wouldn't be worthy enough to serve on a jury or stand as a witness in a case.
Sorry, Roy. You're blinded by your faith, as are so many. Fortunately, you're no longer in a position to harm others with your blindness.
