Moore wins award for refusal to move display from court.
By Michael Brumas
News Washington correspondent.WASHINGTON — Etowah County Circuit Judge Roy Moore continues to garner support from the media and supporters of his cause.
A conservative religious group announced Monday that Moore's refusal to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom has won him its Christian Statesman of the Year Award.
The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship will bestow its second award on Moore at a ceremony here Wednesday night....
The Birmingham News, Tuesday September 9, 1997.
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 22:23:13 0500
To: Rob Weinberg
From: Frank Grose
Subject: Address
Rob,
I checked out your web page. It is a great site with lots of useful links. I particularly liked the Gateway Bible site. I am a Christian and do a lot of Bible study and teaching. Are you into Bible study? I've learned some amazing things lately that I never knew before.
Do you know what the status of the Judge Roy Moore case? I have tried to follow that one closely, but there hasn't been much news of it lately. I was so proud of the Governor for taking such a positive and correct stand on this issue. His speech last spring was brilliant! I hope it doesn't come to it, but I am afraid it will come to a standoff at the courthouse in Gadsden between us and Federal agents. If it does, I hope there will be so many good citizens that will stand between the Judge and the Governor, that the Feds wouldn't dare try to push the issue. For my part, this is where the line is drawn!
Best Regards,
Frank
Date: Thu Sep 18 09:16:38 1997
To: Frank Grose
From: Rob Weinberg
Subject: Bible Study
At 10:31 PM 9/17/97 0500, you wrote:
I checked out your web page. It is a great site with lots of useful links.
Thanks.
I particularly liked the Gateway Bible site. I am a Christian and do a lot of Bible study and teaching. Are you into Bible study?
Not much. My wife is though. A voracious reader of books on religion and history.
Do you know what the status of the Judge Roy Moore case? I have tried to follow that one closely, but there hasn't been much news of it lately.
Not much to report on that. It's been briefed, and the next step will be to see whether the Supreme Court will grant oral argument.
You and I part ways on this issue. I'm speaking personally here, not as a representative of the Attorney General's Office. I think the governor is wrong and Judge Moore is wrong. And I think Jesus would be ashamed to see the use of Judge Moore's public office to make his public display of his "faith."
I agree that many of the problems in our country can be attributed to the moral decline of the nation, to the lack of values in our children that have been traditionally instilled at home and in church. But I can never agree that it is government's role to instill religious values in the citizens. Religion's reliance on the government to "protect" it, or "promote" it, belittles spirituality by regulating it. And contrary to the way Judge Moore and the governor portray it, religion itself has never been under attack.
I am not a Christian, I'm a Jew. I've grown up having to live with, and still face, the religious intolerance and bigotry of *well meaning* Christians. From my perspective, it is a question of respect and tolerance for my beliefs. It is no answer to say, "But, we're a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles." The truth is, that's a legal fiction and historically irrelevant. Consider this: In the same way you do not want your local tax dollars to fund a lawsuit you do not believe in, I do not want my tax dollars to fund the promotion of religious ideology I do not subscribe to.
But it's more than that, because it can never be about who is wrong and who is ultimately right. When government stands up with the Bible (not the same one I read, BTW), the outcome is inevitable divisiveness among the citizens. How can that be good? There will never be a way for Judge Moore to do what he does that does not make a little Jewish (or fill in your religion of choice) girl or boy feel like she or he is a second class citizen. There's a reason religion and politics are forbidden topics at the dinner table in some homes. Together, they don't mix, like oil and water; even separately, they are guaranteed to engender hard feelings. The rights contained in the first amendment are couched in terms of, and have been interpreted, as absolutes, because it is logistically impossible to reach a compromise on the subject. Government is simply not equipped to handle religion to the satisfaction of all people.
My 2 cents worth. 'Hope I didn't offend you. It's a subject I've thought about for over three decades, and maybe I've given you another perspective.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Take care. Rob
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