By Staff
None of us should be surprised.
After years of watching Roy Moore use the Ten Commandments to get media attention and gain political power, his announcement this week that he's running for governor next year came as no surprise.
Like Wallace in the early 60s, Moore is banking on one issue to get him to the governor's mansion. Wallace had race, Moore has the Commandments.
The former chief justice of the state Supreme Court – sworn to uphold and enforce the law – lost his job when he failed to comply with a federal court order to remove his monument from the court building in Montgomery. His announced 2006 plans have drawn much attention.
Derek H. Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University, wrote about Moore in Friday's Dallas Morning News, contrasting the his actions with those of Jesus, who unlike Moore, didn't call for public prayer, large (or small) displays of the Ten Commandments, accept speaking fees or try to change government. Instead, Jesus told people to pray in quiet, accepted only enough money to meet essential needs, and worked to save souls one by one.
Davis went on to suggest that there is a simple solution for those who worry the Commandments are not in public places. Memorize them, he said, and keep them in their hearts and minds, where they can be easily used.
Meanwhile, just when I thought Moore couldn't get any more offensive than he already had, the Associated press photo accompanying his announcement was among the most shocking things I'ver seen: Moore was autographing a Bible for a young admirer.
Has Roy Moore's name become so synonymous with th Ten Commandments that people have begun to believe he is the author?
Does he confuse himself with the Commandments' author, God, and messenger, Moses?
I hope fellow Alabama voters found this photograph as offensive as I did.
We don't need a governor who thinks he's God.
Michele Gerlach can be reached at michele.gerlach@brewtonstandard.com or 867.4876.