Why there should be a wall between church and state �
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By Mitch Albom
SPECIAL TO MSNBC.COM�
� � Aug 6 � �I love the Ten Commandments. I can recite them. I don�t always succeed in obeying them, but I still try, and I think the world would be better if we all did. Having said that, I can still say this: The Ten Commandments do not belong in a state courthouse. But last week, in Montgomery, Ala., they arrived in a big way. In the still of the night, a 2 1/2-ton monument featuring the Ten Commandments was trucked in and positioned in the rotunda of the state�s judicial building. The building is home to, among other things, the Alabama State Supreme Court. �
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Go�
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�I am the highest legal authority in the state and I wanted it there.�
� ROY MOORE
Alabama State Supreme Court chief justice � � � �ROY MOORE is the chief justice.
� � � �He ordered the sculpture.
� � � �The next morning, he unveiled it in a small ceremony. �May this day,� he declared, �mark ...a return to the knowledge of God in our land.�
� � � �Wow. And I thought only Moses delivered the tablets.
� � � �When asked what gave him the right � without even consulting the other Supreme Court justices � to sneak a huge religious symbol into a clearly secular building, Moore, who helped pay for the sculpture, said, �I am the highest legal authority in the state and I wanted it there.�
� � � �Hmm. He must have missed the Bible study on humility.
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JEFFERSON AND THE �WALL�
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� Do you approve of an Alabama judge's decision to put a monument to the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building?
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� � � �Now, while I love and believe in the Ten Commandments, Moore is wrong to do what he did. Plain and simple. There is an accepted separation between church and state in this country � Thomas Jefferson demanded it be �a wall.�
� � � �Any Hindu, Buddhist or atheist entering the Alabama Judicial Building could rightly be squeamish upon seeing the words �I am the Lord, your God� or �Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.�
� � � �Which Lord? Which Sabbath? What if you don�t believe in God? Can you feel confident about getting a fair hearing when a top judge has hung his religion on the door?
� � � �Judges are supposed to be impartial, quiet and blind in their justice. But Moore told me, �it�s clear which god our forefathers referred to � the God of the Scriptures.� Hmm. That sounds a lot more like Sunday morning than Monday through Friday.
� � � �OK. By now, you already have taken sides. Some will defend Moore with standard arguments:
Our forefathers were Christians. That�s why they put �in God we trust� on the money.
� � � �Actually, that�s not true. Many of our forefathers were deists. And �in God we trust� is a fairly modern addition to currency.
You get sworn in on a Bible.
� � � �Yes, and many people feel uncomfortable with that, too.
Separation of church and state is a myth.
� � � �Sorry. Not only did Jefferson use those exact words, but John Adams, the second president, said, �The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion,� and James Madison defended �the total separation of the church from the state.�
It�s what the majority of Americans believe, so what�s the problem?
� � � �Ah. Now we�re getting somewhere.
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MORE WORDS FROM THE BIBLE
� � � �It is true, the largest percentage of religious Americans believe in the Ten Commandments. But with majority status comes a burden: being sensitive to the minority.� � � �A democracy works only if everyone is considered equal. You can�t say, �Well, most of us believe in one God, so tough on you.� That�s the mentality our forefathers were running from when they came here.
� � �It is not, as some of the majority feel, a persecution of their faith. Actually, Justice Moore is doing a disservice to his religion. He is making faith a wedge between people, instead of leaving it where it belongs, in the hearts of the practitioners.
� � � �No one can tell Jews and Christians not to believe. But Jews and Christians cannot tell others what to believe � or to believe at all.
� � � �Remember that the Ten Commandments never say �Thou shalt convert others.� But the Bible does say, �Judge carefully, for with the Lord there is no partiality.�
� � � �That�s in Chronicles, Justice Moore. But apparently not on your sculpture.
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�The Mitch Albom Show� airs Monday through Friday on MSNBC cable. This column is reprinted with permission of the Detroit Free Press. c. 2001, Detroit Free Press, all rights reserved.
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