http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200402/NAT20040206a.html
Ten Commandments Return to Alabama Judicial Building
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
February 06, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - The Ten Commandments have returned to the Alabama Judicial
Building, but this time, they don't stand alone. The Commandments are part
of a larger display of historical documents.
"It gives me great pleasure...to see the constitutional public display of
the Ten Commandments back in the Alabama Judicial Building," said John
Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
He praised the Alabama Supreme Court for returning the moral foundation of
U.S. law to the public square.
Unlike the stand-alone Ten Commandments monument, removed by court order
last year, the current display contains wall-mounted photocopies of the
oldest known manuscript of the Ten Commandments, along with the Magna Carta,
the U.S. Constitution, and five other documents. A booklet containing the
text of all eight documents is also included in the display, which is found
across the rotunda from where the earlier, more controversial monument
stood.
The Christian Coalition of Alabama was among the groups that staunchly
defended former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in August 2003, when a court
ordered Moore to remove a massive Ten Commandments monument he installed in
the Alabama Judicial Building.
Moore resisted what he called an unlawful court order.
The Christian Coalition of Alabama supported Moore in his position that the
state can acknowledge God and that this acknowledgment does not constitute
the establishment of religion.
The group organized rallies and even came to Washington in a show of support
for Moore, the Ten Commandments, and the role of religion in public life.
While the new display in the Alabama Judicial Building passes legal muster,
it does not please Justice Moore.
"First, they hid the word of God in a closet; and now they tried to hide it
among other historical documents. Neither is an acknowledgment of God,"
press reports quoted Moore as saying.
'One nation under God'
The Christian Coalition of Alabama, energized by its Ten Commandments fight,
is now rallying around a different cause.
The group announced it will come to Washington, D.C., in March to defend the
"One nation under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on March 24th in
a case brought by an atheist who says the phrase "under God" should be
stricken from the Pledge, because it violates what he calls "the separation
of church and state."
"This is one of the most important cases in recent history, potentially
impacting future generations and the course of our nation. We can not stand
idly by and not participate in the process," said Giles.
"We are going to our nation's highest court and encourage other Alabamians
to join us on the trip."
The CCA demonstration will include a prayer vigil on March 23 and a rally on
the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court the following day while the case is
being heard.
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Atheism teaches that there is no God, hence no God-given rights. That
ideology coupled with a system that believed in the superiority of the state
at the expense of the individual was murderously synergistic.
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