Freedom at Stake in Moore Fight

Fort Lauderdale, August 22, 2003 — When Roy Moore ran for chief justice of Alabama the centerpiece of his campaign was a pledge to restore the moral foundation of law--to display the Ten Commandments. After the voters overwhelmingly elected him to office, he kept his commitment. He installed a granite monument to the moral foundation of law--one that depicts the Ten Commandments and, on its sides, documentary evidence for the acknowledgement of God in American history.

But federal judge Myron Thompson, aided by some state officials, is about to overturn the will of the voters by removing the monument. This is a flagrant violation of their rights! The U.S. Constitution begins, "We, the people." But now, the principle that here, the people rule, is dismissed without a murmur from state officials who equate a judge’s opinion with the rule of law.

You would think they would know Alabama history better. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in 1963 in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, that "A just law is man-made code that squares with the moral law of God. Unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." That distinction is lost on those members of the Alabama legal establishment who have announced that, as Attorney General Bill Pryor put it, "My responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, and I will be doing my duty."

But how can he uphold the rule of law when he acts to gut its foundation--the recognition that man’s laws must conform "to the laws of nature and of nature’s God?" Let’s not forget that this country was founded when some very brave state officials gathered together to defy the "rule of law" of King George III. The Founders said his "rule of law" was aimed at "absolute tyranny" over the states. So they acted in a fashion consistent with a long Western legal tradition that dates at least to St. Augustine, who said, "An unjust law is no law at all."

After all, if law is only what men say it is, our freedoms are very much at risk, as the gruesome record of communist rule in Russia, Vietnam, North Korea, and, of course, Cuba, so amply testify. But when, as in America at its founding, the state recognizes a higher law--the "laws of nature and of nature’s God"--liberty endures, as our own history powerfully demonstrates.

It is certainly true that the edicts of federal courts--indeed all courts--must be obeyed. But, in the exceptional instance where a court usurps the will of the people and acts in a manner intended to destroy the foundation on which our freedom rests, it is the right, indeed the duty, of elected officials to call that act what it is, tyranny, and to refuse to obey.

Let us also bear in mind that the rule of law, as some term it, has given us federal court decisions that told us a man has the right to own another man (1857), and more recently, that killing unborn children is a constitutional liberty (1973), that state laws against sodomy are constitutional (1986), and, even more recently, that state laws against sodomy are unconstitutional (2003). This is the rule of law? This underscores why we as a nation must return to the recognition of Almighty God and His law. The almighty court and its law are leading our nation rapidly to ruin.

The core question to be resolved in this case is, as Judge Myron Thompson put it, "Can the state acknowledge God?" He answered, "no," as did the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, the people of Alabama, particularly its elected officials, must decide whether, more than 225 years after this nation was founded, they will cravenly submit as the foundation of freedom is taken from them-and from all of us in this nation.

For the last forty years or so, federal courts have eroded and almost eliminated the right to acknowledge God. They have progressively removed the principle that is at the foundation of our freedom. We may be at a final watershed. If we, as a nation, fully and finally dismiss God from public life-watch out. When we remove the source of our liberties, our freedoms cannot but soon follow.

Dr. D. James Kennedy is Senior Minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale and President of Coral Ridge Ministries, a Christian broadcast ministry that has assisted in funding the legal defense of Chief Justice Roy Moore.

To request an interview with Dr. Kennedy, please contact John Aman, Coral Ridge Ministries Director of Communications, at (954) 334-5330


© 2003 by D. James Kennedy and Coral Ridge Ministries. All Rights Reserved. www.coralridge.org

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook