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Alabama's Justice Roy Moore and His Graven Image

By Bob Minor
Minor Details

Justice Roy Moore's graven image of the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court

It's now up to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether a 5,280-pound graven image of the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments will return to the rotunda of the State Supreme Courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Right-wing Christian, Chief Justice Roy Moore, formerly of Etowah County, Alabama declared its display his personal line in the sand and refused to bow to a federal court's decision.

Good ole boy Roy orchestrated the whole controversy. His election to Supreme Court justice was a result of him riding on the issue. Without it, he was an undistinguished, little known circuit court judge in Gadsden, Alabama who had left the state only for military education and service.

But when he posted a hand-carved wooden plaque of the Protestant Ten in his local courtroom, he became a right-wing hero, famous enough among conservatives to win the chief Alabama Supreme Court seat in November 2000. Less than a year later, in early August 2001, he smuggled the monument into Alabama's state judicial building under the cover of darkness. Moore supervised the workmen who did the work, which took six hours.

So far federal courts have declared this display an establishment of religion. Moore's eight fellow justices unanimously separated themselves from him and ordered its removal. Republican Governor Bob Riley supported the eight justices, saying, "By not complying, the state stood to incur some of the most expensive fines ever imposed on Alabama." A state judicial board suspended Moore on August 22.

Moore and his supporters declare that the display isn't an establishment of religion but a monument to the nation's foundation on God. In that case it's a "graven image" that should be forbidden by the second commandment: "Thou shalt not make for yourself a graven image…."

Yet, even that's not always true. The second commandment is not the same in the Protestant version Moore wants to post as in those of Judaism and Roman Catholicism. There are different versions of the list based upon Exodus 20:1-17. So, deciding which version to post is choosing among religious options, establishing a single version.

In the Jewish version the first commandment is what Christians regard as merely a prologue: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." That places the Ten in a specific and central context important to Jewish identity -- the Exodus from Egypt.

The Protestant second commandment is merely the second part of the Jewish second commandment, which begins with the Protestant first. The prohibition against "graven images" isn't included in the standard Roman Catholic summaries at all. In their version the tenth Protestant commandment is split in two.

The question for Moore is, which version of the commandments should be displayed by government? Answering that question is to choose one sectarian version over another. It's to take sides in centuries-old battles between Protestants and Catholics as well as in the history of anti-Semitism.

And even then, the Protestant Ten Commandments are never displayed as they really are in the Bible. They're edited. The tenth, usually posted as "Thou shalt not covet," is never presented fully: "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

The complete version makes it clear what historians know. The Ten Commandments are based upon the idea that the man is the owner of his property, and that a man's property should never be violated. The tenth commandment defines his property as his slaves, his animals, his land, and also his wife.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery," the seventh in the Protestant version, sixth in the Catholic, is also about property, not monogamy or faithfulness. One should never, it taught, have sex with someone else's property. It's okay to have sex with your own but not another man's daughters, wives, or slaves.

And in a society where its heroes were polygamists - think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Kings David and Solomon, and on and on - these commandments, not surprisingly, say nothing about being monogamous. Seen in their full versions and in their historical context, they are about women treated as property and protecting the property of men.

But no one wants to talk about that, particularly out loud. Posting the Protestant or other Ten Commandments is a historic reminder of masculine dominance in world and U.S. history. It reminds us of the days when only white males could vote, when women and slaves of both genders were the property of male bosses.

And then there's the Protestant third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" which in its unedited version continues "for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." What more unspiritual, vain place to put God's name than on money!

King Solomon

If there's anything our religious traditions have taught, it's the incompatibility of serving God and "mammon." So, it's likely that since in 1864 "In God We Trust" was first inscribed on our money, our nation has been disobeying this commandment. Apparently in our thinking our cash must be sacred objects. Otherwise we'd have doubts about desecrating God's name by putting "God" on our Almighty dollars.

On February 19, 2003 Justice Moore met with a Soulforce delegation on the anniversary of a case denying custody of children to their lesbian mother. Moore had argued that "the lifestyle should never be tolerated." Moore then told the delegates that he was bound to enforce the current discriminatory laws, but that if the laws were changed, he'd enforce the change.

But none of this really matters to true believers who want to push their version of right-wing Americanized, Protestant Christianity on the nation. And Moore's refusal to obey higher judicial decisions opposed to posting the Protestant Ten Commandments indicates that he'd probably be just as defiant on LGBT issues. Justice Moore's speech and actions, after all, tell us he's one of the convinced.

Robert N. Minor, Ph.D. is author of Gay and Healthy in a Sick Society due out November first, and Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to be Human (HumanityWorks!, 2001), and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He may be reached at www.fairnessproject.org .

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