An Act of Faith December 8, 2004 Tonight's broadcast is different. In a way, it's not our traditional approach to a story where we pick a topic, do the research, find the storyline and then go talk to people on both sides of the issue. It's a broadcast about faith. We look at one act of faith and listen to the people involved. It's not a judgment, it's more of an observation of what the people we met think. Nightline anchor Ted Koppel once said of John Donvan, the correspondent who reported this story, "The reason you're a great reporter, John, is because you know when to shut up and just listen." That's exactly what John did for this broadcast.
In short, tonight's broadcast is about a man who has been traveling around the mid-West and South of this country with a granite replica of the Ten Commandments on the back of a truck. He drives around from community to community to talk about the role he believes the Ten Commandments should play in our society. Wherever these commandments show up, a crowd gathers and interesting discussions about faith necessarily ensue. Before I go on, there's a back-story to tonight's broadcast. John Donvan and our producer Elissa Rubin have been following the story of these particular commandments for a while. A few years ago, Alabama's Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, had a 5,280-pound Ten Commandments display installed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. The act got some people very upset about what, in their opinion, was an infringement on the separation of church and state. An ACLU lawsuit against the judge followed shortly. Judge Moore lost the suit and was ordered to remove the tablets. Moore refused to remove the display, and after several appeals, he lost his job. That's where Jim Cabaniss comes in. An evangelical Christian, he considers Judge Moore a hero. So Cabaniss took it upon himself to get that message out. He put Roy Moore's monument of the Ten Commandments on a flatbed and started driving it around. Our team saw his story and called him up to see if they could ride around with him. He agreed and the rest is tonight's broadcast. We don't do as much reporting on faith in this country as we probably should. And when we do, we report the story by talking to people on one side of the issue and then going over to other side for comment. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but tonight we wanted to try to explore the topic of faith in a different way, by just listening. We learned a lot, we hope you do too. We hope you'll join us, Gerry Holmes & The Nightline Staff ABC News Washington Bureau ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
