Alabama Baptists Endorse Commandments Monument but Not Roy Moore
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
MOBILE, Ala. – Alabama Baptists endorsed the public display of a Ten Commandments monument but distanced themselves from the ousted state Supreme Court chief justice who disobeyed a federal court order in his fight to keep the monument in view.
The nonbinding resolution passed Wednesday by the Alabama Baptist State Convention was rewritten to delete a specific reference to Chief Justice Roy Moore after some church leaders worried that the denomination could be viewed as approving Moore's legal defiance.
Moore, saying he should be allowed to acknowledge God as a source of law, placed the 5,000-pound granite Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the state Judicial Building in Montgomery in 2001, then refused to obey an order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson to remove it.
Moore, a Southern Baptist, was removed from office Nov. 13.
Through a spokesman, Moore said it was "inconsistent theology" for pastors to support a public display of the Ten Commandments while upholding the right of a federal judge "to say that we cannot acknowledge God as a public official."
The Rev. Mike Blair, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dawes in Mobile County, said during a break at the convention that Moore should have worked within the framework of the law.
"He had a lot of other legal avenues available he didn't utilize. He still has to obey the law," Blair said.
© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Editor's note:
Get FREE traffic to your Web site INSTANTLY! Click here now!
