"In God We Trust” that there will be a separation of
church and state. This seemingly inextricable contradiction has
become the loophole through which the American people feel
justified in spreading the image of God within our secular
government.
Just last week, a monument displaying the Ten Commandments was
ordered to be removed from the Alabama Supreme Court building. And
of course, the command was followed by the usual
“pro-God” frenzy of protesters, hell-bent on glorifying
the name of God at the cost of justice.
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has come out as the main
proponent for the statue. He defends it by claiming it is merely an
acknowledgement of the moral foundation of America’s legal
system and a right, under the First Amendment. His defiance of the
federal court order to remove the monument has resulted in his
suspension. In fact, it was Moore who had the tribute
installed in the courthouse in 2001 in the first place, without the
consent of the other justices.
First off, Moore fails to mention that America’s legal
system was as much influenced by Moses as it was by other less
statue-worthy candidates such as Confucius and Hammurabi. The
Supreme Court even recognizes this fact by depicting the figures of
Moses, Confucius and Solon in sculpture-form, floating together in
harmony, thereby removing religious connotation.
This subtle distinction is what Justice Moore has failed to
grasp. There is no room for an unquestionably Judeo-Christian
monument to be placed in the middle of a public courthouse and no
secular justification for it when it has etched on it the holiest
of decrees from God.
Moore’s Judeo-Christian bias bleeds through, and it is
exactly this partiality the writers of the Constitution sought to
avoid. He gives himself away when he says he would be against
a monument for the Koran, another important religious document,
granted, from a less-accepted religion. Moore seems to be all for
religious expression, but only if it’s of the right kind.
Under Moore’s rationale, a Koran monument should also be
protected on First Amendment grounds and be allowed in city hall as
a social reminder of all the Koran means to America. Doing him one
better, I suppose a Mormon monument depicting polygamy would be
fine too.
The reason any particular religious monument is not allowed has
nothing to do with the 99 people who will not have a problem with
it, but the one person who might. If people feel the government
places more importance on a particular religion (perhaps by
installing a 5,300-pound monument), they are stripped of their own
security. The mere fact the statue was there suggested a
governmental authorization for it, and it empowered some at the
expense of others.
On an even more fundamental level, the whole issue seems to face
squarely against Christian beliefs. The monument, being placed in
an open space, seeking out attention, brings no glory to God. God
emphasizes a quiet, humble spiritual relationship, saying
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen (Matthew 6:5).” Unseen, in this
sense, seems closer to a private room in Moore’s home than
the rotunda of Alabama’s Supreme Court building. If Moore is
trying to make this a battle between God and the heathen
government, he has already lost. Religious conviction is not the
issue here. Freely living in a country where we recognize the
Court’s supreme decrees over constitutionality, Moore had no
right to disobey the direct order to remove the monument. Give
to the Courts (or Caesar) what belongs to the Courts and give to
God what is God’s. This is perhaps as clean of a separation
as our government can allot.
Although hard to tell, I am a Christian, and I have never
understood the insistence of extremists to do wrong to make
right. Modern hypocrisy has always been a stumbling block for
would-be followers and should be an embarrassment for those who
would tout conviction instead of humility. Treading ever so
lightly, this is the same kind of lawless fanaticism being
displayed in bus explosions as well as peaceful protests. What
should be private is made public with little regard for the
consequences.
Judeo-Christianity is obviously the most popular belief system
in America. But what made the United States different was the
freedom to freely reject it. This means not having to look at a
massive memorial for God every time you get a parking ticket,
whether you wish to or not.
Moon is a second-year business economics student.