God in government

The dramatic showdown over a Ten Commandments display in the Alabama Judicial Building highlights a split among evangelical Protestants over whether -- and exactly when -- to practice civil disobedience.

While they are sympathetic to the cause of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, some influential conservative thinkers have also taken him to task for failing to respect the legal system.

The Rev. Richard Land, social issues spokesman for the 16.2 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, said he agrees with Moore that Ten Commandment displays in public buildings are legal under the U.S. Constitution. But he was sharply critical of Moore's behavior.

"I am dismayed at the prospect of a judge defying a court order," Land said in the denomination's Baptist Press service, which is tracking the dispute. "One of the foundational principles of American law is that we believe in the rule of law."

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice -- a group founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson -- also questioned Moore's legal tactics on his syndicated radio program.

Like Land, Sekulow supported the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays. But he said Moore's defiance of a federal court order "puts the state of Alabama in a very difficult position" and creates a "very serious" constitutional problem.

Two years ago, Moore installed a 5,300-pound granite marker engraved with the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the judicial building. He contends it represents the moral foundation of American law, and has refused a federal judge's order to have it removed.

"I will never deny the God upon whom our laws and country depend," Moore said Thursday to the cheers of supporters. Moore's eight colleagues on the state Supreme Court issued an ordering directing that the monument be removed, though it was still in place Friday.

Moore does have evangelical supporters, including another group founded by Robertson, the Christian Coalition of America.

Roberta Combs, the group's president, called Moore "one of America's most courageous leaders" and said that "the federal court has no jurisdiction, power or authority to remove this public acknowledgment of God."

Among Moore's other supporters are such conservative heavyweights as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. D. James Kennedy of the Center for Reclaiming America and Alan Keyes, the conservative Roman Catholic and one-time presidential candidate. The Rev. Rick Scarborough of Vision America, a Southern Baptist clergyman, organized pro-Moore rallies this week.

Long disagreement

James L. Guth, a Furman University political scientist who follows conservative Protestantism, says evangelicals have long disagreed about civil disobedience.

White evangelicals largely opposed the 1960s civil rights protests led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Guth said. But in the 1980s, militant opponents of abortion decided that was a mistake and turned to civil disobedience as a political and moral tool.

Evangelical opposition to civil disobedience is based largely on the Apostle Paul's New Testament directive: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. ... He who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed" (Romans 13:1-2).

"Evangelicals generally tend to take Romans 13 very seriously. They want to abide by the laws of the state," Guth said, while "mainline" and liberal Protestant activists are less hesitant to use civil disobedience tactics.

Land said that nonviolent civil disobedience may be a last option for believers, but only after all legal remedies have been exhausted, and protesters must be willing to pay the consequences for breaking the law.

Guth said Ten Commandments conflicts have erupted all over the country the past couple years because the displays are "the last vestiges" following the "constant tendency of courts the last 40 years to push religious expression out of formal governmental settings. There's not a lot left."

WHAT THEY SAY

The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20: 2-17.

Here's what they say based on the King James Version of Scripture.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor they father and thy mother.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet.