Screaming Penguin

Supreme Justice Roy Moore of the great state of Alabama (both oxymoron\'s there) has defied a federal court order to remove a monument to the ten commandments from the supreme court building of Alabama. This is not really surprising, the judge is an incredible zealot who doesnt really understand democracy or freedom or the point of a courtroom. To him its about imposing his religious views and not fairness or impartiality and he has even ruled on many cases citing god and the bible. So again the fact that the judge would defy the ruling is not surprising, what is interesting is the virtual potpourri of stupidity that has rallied around him. Supposed "states rights" groups with Confederate flags, folks from the "Pro-Life" movement and even the "Christian Coalition". Regardless of the furor over all of this, what side you are on or whatever, it struck me the other day "what does God think about all this crap (should a "God" exist which is another discussion). If the Judeo-Christian modern image of an all knowing and all powerful and wise deity in the sky is correct then does this God really give a flip if there is a monument to some list of rules in the courthouse? Would it at all matter to such a God if the monument wasnt there, would the rules still apply, or is the symbol and marketing of Christianity really more important? Now this battle could get even more interesting. The "supporters" of Judge Moore are many in number and are vowing to keep a 24 hour watch on the monument. They aint gonna let no damn commie atheist remove that darn thing no matter what. The federal judge whom ordered the monument removed (and did so because its clearly unconstitutional) has threatened to hold Moore in contempt of court and fine Alabama $5K a day. That judge is probably himself a religious man, but he still did his job as it is defined and correctly. He is there to rule on the LAW, not make up new laws as he goes along (thats the job of the executive branch according to an actual quote from W). Lately I hear a great deal of talk from the extreme right about the US being a Christian nation that was founded based on the laws of God. I actually heard Judge Moore say this on Bill Oreillys show and then Oreilly AGREED WITH HIM! I was amazed that any level of intelligent person would think this REGARDLESS of your religious views, its absolutely NOT what the founding of the United States was about. Quite the contrary. The framers of this nation and the constitution CLEARLY wanted church and state separated for MANY good reasons. Discrimination chief among them. You cant pick one religion over other religions and have anything fair about a system. You also cant put the religious above the non religious. Which despite the spin modern right wing "conservatives" put on things many of the framers were (that is they were NON religious or even atheists, read Common Sense by Thomas Paine, one of the most important founders of this nation). The constitution of the United States of America does NOT HAVE THE WORD "GOD" IN IT. And also it clearly states "CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION". These are not unclear or ambiguous terms, no religion is part of government, period. Now dont get me wrong here, I dont have anything against religion in general and think it has done a lot of good in the world in some areas. But that said it should not be imposed on anyone, especially but a public institution of any kind. The federal courts have not made an affront to God as the religious zealots would lead people to believe, on the contrary that have simply said God doesnt belong in the business of the state because your God might not be the same God as someone elses. They have simply said religion is not a part of government, they have in no way said anything about religion itself outside of government. Also the argument that morality is based on God or the bible is flat out bunk. Again dont get me wrong Jesus is a great role model and there are many moral views in the bible but morality comes from within and an understanding of right and wrong. Morality based on punishment is one of the lower levels of moral development and that is what Christianity is based on. Read Kohlbergs stages of moral development for more. An intelligent self actualized person does not need a "higher authority" to decide for them what is right and what is wrong, again, thats simply hogwash. (And in total proof of that there are many atheists that are very moral, in fact MORE MORAL than may Christians, we need not look very far around us to see supposed moral Christians that commit adultery, robbery and so on, and many atheists that DO NOT.) The bottom line is that seperation of church and state is correct and true and logical and fair approach and thats why the constitution was written in that manner. What Judge Moore and the other zealots are doing is trying to impose their own will on others and thats just plain wrong. These are people that completely do not understand America or what Freedom and Democracy mean.