'Tear down the wall!' (Alabama officials against separation of church and state and religious plurality)(Cover Story)

Fob James doesn't think much of the

separation of church and state or of courts

that enforce that principle.

"This phrase," the Alabama governor

thundered, "does not appear in the U.S.

Constitution. It did appear in the

constitution of the former Soviet Union. So

these judges use a phrase from the Soviet

constitution--separation of church and

state--to strike down prayers and Bible reading

in American schools."

Addressing an April 12 rally in

Montgomery, Ala., James said, "The Supreme Court's

`wall of separation' as they call it

reminds me of another wall of separation to

protect communist regimes so evil they

had to erect walls to keep their people in.

On one side of the Berlin Wall was

freedom; on the other tyranny. We have a

wall of separation in America erected not

by the American people but by a few

elitist judges on the Supreme Court."

The James screed was interrupted at

that point by rally attendees chanting,

"Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!"

Continued the Republican official,

"Behind this judicial wall of separation

there is a tyranny of lies that will fall as

surely as the wall in Berlin fell. I say to

you, my friends, let it fall!"

If anyone in America still doubts that

the Religious Right and its political allies

have a radical agenda that includes the

repeal of church-state separation and other

fundamental individual liberties, the "Save

the Commandments" rally in Montgomery

should end all doubts.

Spurred by conservative religious

broadcasters and their political machines,

thousands of people gathered at the steps

of the state capitol last month to vent their

hostility toward secular government and

support public officials who want to

undermine it. Waving Confederate battle

flags and large cardboard replicas of the Ten

Commandments, the throng cheered for

God and those who claim to represent God

in American political life.

The event was billed as a way to back

Gov. James and Etowah County Judge

Roy Moore, who have vowed to ignore a

court decision requiring Moore to remove a

Protestant version of the Ten

Commandments from his courtroom wall

and discontinue Protestant prayers before

jury sessions. Defying the courts and the

American Civil Liberties Union, James has

threatened to call out the National Guard

and state troopers if necessary to keep the

government-sponsored Christian religious

expressions in place. (See "Armed and

Dangerous," March Church & State.)

Although defiance of the courts is a

radical concept, rally organizers had the

enthusiastic support of a broad range of

Religious Right groups. Among the

cosponsors of the event were TV preacher

Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition and his

legal arm, the American Center for Law and

Justice. Also participating were the

American Family Association, Concerned

Women for America, the Eagle Forum, the

Rutherford Institute and the Alabama

Family Alliance, a state group aligned with

radio counselor James Dobson's Focus on

the Family.

The rally drew the presence of several

top orators of the Religious Right,

including the Christian Coalition's Ralph

Reed, the American Family Association's

Donald Wildmon and 1996 presidential

candidate Alan Keyes.

A few minutes after James' tirade

against church-state separation, Reed

stepped to the microphone to celebrate the

governor and Judge Moore. Although Reed

has repeatedly assured the national media

and civil liberties groups that he supports a

separation of church and state that is

"complete and inviolable," the Robertson

lieutenant promised

to join with die rebellious

state officials in their religio-political

crusade.

""I am here to tell you,

Gov. James and Judge

Moore, on behalf of the two

million members of the

Christian Coalition that

you do not stand alone,"

Reed said. "As long as there

is breath in our bodies the

Ten Commandments will

never come down from this

courthouse."

Blasting "unelected

judges who answer to no

one," Reed ticked off a list

of Supreme Court decisions

he doesn't like, including the 1962 and '63

decisions barring government-sponsored

prayer and Bible reading in public

schools, the 1980 decision stopping the

state-mandated display of the Ten Commandments

in classrooms, a 1985 decision

limiting religious displays at government

buildings and a 1991 appellate court 

decision against a student who wanted to

write a religious essay.

"We say to the federal courts, we say to

the liberal media and we say to the ACLU:

you have gone this far and no further,"

Reed blustered. "You will not, you will

not drive faith in God out of our homes, out

of our churches, out of our synagogues,

out of our courtrooms; and out of our public

schools ever again."

Reed cited a recent U.S. House resolution

calling for the display of the Ten

Commandments in all public buildings

and noted that it passed by a two-thirds

margin ("enough to override Bill Clinton's

veto"). He insisted the Religious

Right will continue to work for a sweeping

constitutional amendment proposal now

pending in Congress that would rewrite

the constitutional provisions governing

church and state.

"You have my word on this," he said.

"We will not rest at the Christian Coalition

until we pass an amendment and ratify it in

all the states to give us this right in the

Constitution of the United States."

Charging that opponents "seek to undermine

and destroy our faith in God,"

Reed said, "We will stand in the gap and

will not let them do so."

Other speakers were equally bombastic.

Alan Keyes, a 1996 Republican presidential

candidate, said elected officials

who fail to support prayer in schools and

other items on the Religious Right agenda

should be kicked out. Judges who fail to

issue proper decisions, he said, should be

impeached.

Keyes, who now heads a group called

the Declaration Foundation, said the United

States must return to dependence on

God. Relying on the religious language in

the Declaration of Independence, he said,

"Me Declaration is the bridge between the

Bible and the Constitution. We need no

bridge to the 21st Century [a swipe at

Clinton's '96 campaign metaphor] as long

as we stand on that one."

Alabama state officials joined in the

rhetorical rampage. Attorney General

William Pryor lambasted the "anti-American

Civil Liberties Union" and insisted

that he became a lawyer "because I wanted

to fight the ACLU." Describing himself as

the son of Catholic school teachers, the

James appointee bitterly denounced the

Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion

rights decision "that ripped out the life

of millions of unborn children."

Pryor said much larger issues are at

stake than just the posting of the Ten

Commandments. "God has chosen

through his son Jesus Christ this time, this

place for all Christians--Protestants,

Catholics and Orthodox--to save our

country and save our

courts," he said.

Judge Moore also

placed the Ten Commandments

battle in a wider context.

Calling the wall of separation

between church and

state a "misleading metaphor,"

the official said,

"We must, nay we will,

have God back in America

again."

Moore, a Southern Baptist,

lamented court rulings

barring school-sponsored

prayer and Bible reading

and even took a swipe at the teaching of

evolution in science classes. "A nation

founded upon the principle that we were

created by an almighty God, we teach our

children that they evolved from reptiles

and animals," he observed, "and then we

wonder why they act like animals."

Returning to the courtroom conflict,

Moore concluded,"The ACLU began this

controversy. With God's help, we will

finish it."

One of the most obscure speakers on

the platform was George Grant. Identified

in Montgomery as "a Tennessee historian

and director of the King's Meadow Study

Center," Grant is better known to observers

of the Religious Right as a representative

of one of the movement's most radical

wings.

An author and political activist with

ties to the right-wing U.S. Taxpayers Party,

Grant is aligned with Christian Reconstructionism,

the most extreme component

of the Religious Right. Leaders of

Reconstructionism want to scrap democracy

and replace American secular government

with a theocratic regime that enforces

the harsh legal code of the Old

Testament. (Christian Reconstructionist

founder R.J. Rushdoony calls for the death

penalty for 18 categories of offenders including

adulterers, witches, homosexuals,

incorrigible juvenile delinquents and

those who worship false gods.)

Americans United informed the news

media in Alabama of Grant's 1993 book,

Legislating Immorality, which said God

requires the death penalty for unrepentant

homosexuals. Citing a long history of state

executions of gay people, Grant concluded,

"Sadly the 20th century saw this remarkable

2,000-year-old commitment

suddenly dissipate."

At the rally, however, Grant masked

his most extreme views and stuck to a

celebration of the Ten Commandments,

which he called the "cornerstone against

which the Bill of Rights is secured." He

also attacked the "simpering, whimpering

ACLU" and the liberal media.

Although Grant's words at the rally

were no more radical than these of Reed

and others on the platform, his presence

was a reminder of the extremist fringe

elements participating in the Alabama

event. In addition to the better known rally

backers, the official sponsor list included

Randall Terry, the fiery founder of Operation

Rescue who served prison time for

defying a court order not to show a fetus to

then-presidential candidate Clinton.

Although notorious for his anti-abortion

zealotry, Terry appears to have adopted

a sweeping agenda that reflects Reconstructionist

influence. At a 1993 rally in

Willoughby Hills, Ohio, he insisted, "We

must have a Christian nation built on

God's law, on the Ten Commandments.

No apologies."

Terry's 1995 book, The Sword, gives

the "biblical foundation" for overthrowing

the government. In one section, Terry

argues that "lower magistrates" (state and

local officials) may "raise a revolution"

against a "wicked, unrepentant" central

government that refuses to enforce "God's

law." Some observers believe this "lower

magistrates" theory may be the unspoken

doctrine held by many involved in the

James/Moore crusade against the courts.

Terry's long-time allies certainly

played a large role in the rally, trading on

the Commandments issue for a new level

of respectability with the public. The Rev.

Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense

Coalition was "coordinator of national cosponsors"

for the gathering. He was scheduled

to speak at six pre-rallies at churches

around Alabama to build support for the

Montgomery event. Keith Tucei's Life

Coalition International was a rally co-sponsor.

Rob Schenk's National Clergy

Council was a cosponsor and organized a

Moore visit to Washington, D.C., and a

media tour.

An additional cosponsor of the rally

had an equally sinister agenda. The Council

of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a St.

Louis, Mo.-based organization founded in

1988, carries a history of racially charged

rhetoric. It also has been criticized for

links to anti-Semitism.

The Citizen In former, a newspaper affiliated

with the group, has published essays

questioning government-forced

"race mixing" that could lead to a "mongrel 

race." It also celebrates "Southern

heritage" and defends the display of the

Confederate battle flag. According to the

Mobile Register, CCC head Gordon Lee 

Baum is a former field director for the

Citizens' Councils of America, commonly

known as the White Citizens Councils.

Although the group's literature seems

obsessed mostly with race, its website also

featured a link to the "Fenix Conservative

Shopping Mall," an Internet site whose

vendors sell Holocaust denial books, as

well as Adolph Hitler money clips and

mugs and swastika-laden mementoes

from Nazi Germany. On its website, CCC

leaders said they do not endorse the other

sites listed but "recommend [them] for

further study."

The day after Americans United notified

the news media of the group's record

and articles appeared in state papers and

the Associated Press, the CCC dropped its

cosponsorship of the rally (and later discontinued

the website link to the Internet

shopping mall), insisting that it is neither

racist nor anti-Semitic.

Rally organizers, however, seemed

somewhat indifferent to the group's presence

on the sponsor list. When first informed

of the CCC's activities, chairman

John Giles told the Register he was unfamiliar

with the organization. He added,

however, that the CCC's endorsement of

the rally doesn't mean rally organizers

endorse the CCC.

"We're wanting to have this as a very

positive, family-oriented rally," he told

the paper."This is mainstream American;

this is about people joining around a common

cause. This is not about everybody

endorsing everybody else's agenda."

Before the CCC pulled out, a spokeswoman

for Gov. James told the Register

she didn't think the group's cosponsorship

would pose a problem for the governor.

Rally organizer Tom Blackerby of the

American Family Association of Alabama

said he would be concerned if the

group were racist. "We checked them

out," he observed, "and they were not a

political organization or a militia organization."

Although they were not formal sponsors,

militia organizers were enthusiastic

backers of the rally. John Hassey, self-described

commander of the Alabama

Constitutional Militia, said 2,000 of his

members would attend the event.

"We are a Christian militia," Hassey

told the Huntsville Times. "We believe

that our country was founded on the belief

in Christ and God. When you're taking our

very own foundation apart, what's there

left to stand on."

Militia members were advised by their

leaders not to wear uniforms or carry arms 

so "no one can find a thing to add to fuel the

fire and use this against [Gov. James] who

is standing up for what he believes in."

Organizer Blackerby told the Times he

had no objection to militia members' attendance

as long as they act like other

citizens. "There are a lot of people who

believe what we believe on this issue who

we don't agree with on other issues," he

said. "It's a free country."

Judge Moore himself stiffed concerns

about the rally's extremist elements when

he appeared as a guest April 8 on Pete

Peters' "Scriptures for America" radio

program. Peters is a leader of the virulently

racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity 

movement.

According to Klanwatch, an Alabama-based

group that monitors racist groups,

Peters' controversial views came up during

the interview. Moore noted that he

limits prayers in his courtroom to only

those addressed to the "Judeo-Christian

God of the Holy Bible."

Responded Peters, "Oh, God. Well, I

don't know about the Judeo part, but

hopefully .... Are you talking about Jesus

Christ? ... Are you Christian?"

Moore law clerk Scott Barnett said he

set up the interview with Pete mi but didn't

"know much of his background and didn't

ask." During the interview, however,

Klanwatch says Moore told Peters,

"You've got some very good teaching

points."

Moore's sectarian approach to prayer

in his courtroom also surfaced during his

March 20 visit to the U.S. Capitol. The

judge appeared at a ceremony and press

conference sponsored by do National

Clergy Council and members of the Alabama

congressional delegation (and paid

for by Amway executives). He told a questioner

he would welcome Christians and

Jews to give the invocations, but not Muslims,

Buddhists and others.

"Somebody in my courtroom would

not offer a Muslim or Buddhist prayer," he

said. "They do not acknowledge the God

of the Holy Bible upon which this country

was founded .... I invite pastors in to acknowledge

the God upon which this nation

was founded. It's not a Buddhist nation.

This nation was not founded upon

Buddha. We are one nation under God."

That exclusionary approach to religion

by a public official has provoked comment

from both religious and civil liberties leaders.

At a press conference in Huntsville,

Ala., the day before the rally, local clergy

and others released a "Statement of Concern"

about Moore's views. Sixty-one

community leaders from a dozen Christian

denominations as well as the Jewish

and Muslim faiths said Moore's stance

"has profound implications for the administration

of justice."

"If any judge `prejudges' that certain

persons do not have the correct God," the

statement observed, "will that judge assure justice

or also be inclined to prejudge 

them guilty and perhaps even give them

harsher sentences? Judges have the responsibility

to be fair and impartial to all

citizens of all religions, including Buddhists

and Muslims or citizens of no religion

at all.

"People may debate whether and what

kind of prayers may be publicly offered in

our courtrooms, but any and all persons

can pray privately in those courtrooms,

and genuine prayer from the heart is the

kind of prayer all major religions concur

that God most desires." (The statement

also insisted that Muslims do worship the

same God that Jews and Christians worship.)

Because of the NASA Space Flight

Center and other enterprises, Huntsville

has a much more diverse religious population

than the rest of Alabama, which is

heavily Baptist. The Rev. John C. Busch,

a statement organizer, said local clergy

acted after a Muslim imam expressed fears

about the judge's comments.

Americans United also issued a press

statement before the rally. AU Executive

Director Barry W. Lynn said, "The organizers

of this rally are courting anarchy

and promoting theocracy. Many Christians

have been fooled into thinking this

rally is about support for the Ten Commandments.

In fact, it's about the rule of

law and church-state separation. When

public officials threaten to defy lawful

court orders and vow to enforce their personal

religious agenda, the American form

of government is placed in jeopardy."

Rally organizers professed themselves

to be ecstatic over the event, but the turnout

fell far short of expectations. Despite a

full-scale promotional effort by the Christian

Coalition, the American Family Association

and James Dobson's ample media

resources, the event drew only 6,000 to

10,000 attendees. (Organizers claimed

20,000 to 25,000, but objective observers

discounted that figure as grossly inflated.)

Rally sponsors tried to cast a religious

mantle over the politically oriented event,

and it sometimes did have the flavor of a

tent revival. The concluding speaker was

the Rev. Stephen Hill, a Pentecostal evangelist

who has been leading wildly successful

revival services at the Brownsville

Assembly of God in Pensacola, Fla.

Church leaders claim 1.5 million people

have crowded into the sanctuary over the

past two years. The services are marked by

charismatic exuberance with participants

crying, dancing or falling on the floor

unconscious.

According to the Associated Press,

Hill's sermons target for conversion

"Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and cult members,"

as well as homosexuals and others.

Hill brought the same emotional level

to the Montgomery rally, calling on participants

to fall on their knees in repentance.

Many, weeping with emotion, did so.

The religious fervor is in keeping with

the tenor of the James administration. The

New York Times reported in March that

First Lady Bobbie James allegedly ordered

paintings of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson

Davis and other historical figures removed

from the governor's mansion because

her religious advisor thought the

pictures were "demonized."

The Montgomery Advertiser subsequently

reported that rumors circulating in

the capital indicate that a statue of the

Greek goddess Atalanta, four cherubs and

two cast-iron whippets also were banished.

Mrs. James, who avoids media interviews,

hosted a reception for rally speakers

and others on the lawn of the governor's

mansion. She joked to a Mobile

Register reporter that "it's always so much

fun to feed God's people with taxpayers'

money."

Mrs. James told the paper that a copy of

the Ten Commandments etched in deer

hide hangs at the top

of the stairs at the

governor's mansion.

"We take the Ten

Commandments seriously

in this

house," she observed.

James staffers

were pleased with

the outcome of the

rally. The governor's

communications director

Alfred Sawyer,

an Episcopal

priest, told Dobson's

Family Issues Alert

that a "spiritual crisis"

has gripped the

nation and it can only

be solved "by people

repenting to God on

their face and turning

to Him."

He added, "There

was a great spirit of humility and repentance

and worship at the rally. It wasn't a

political atmosphere .... It was an atmosphere

of `we had better return to God.'"

Others saw something else. Americans

United Atlanta Chapter President Skip

Evans attended the event as an observer.

Talking with rally-goers, he found several

who opposed church-state separation and

thought religious tests for public offices

were a good idea. Some were on the margins

of politics. Evans photographed a

man stamping on a United Nations flag.

But the AU activist found that most

were ordinary Americans who have been

misled. "My overall impression that I got

early in the day and that sank in deeper and

deeper as the afternoon wore on," Evans

said, "was that these were, mostly, decent

people. But Ralph Reed and the rest of the

Religious Right's leaders have spoon fed

them a carefully calibrated diet of fear and

misinformation until they really believe

we want to bum their Bibles and tear down

their churches. It's all incredibly sad."

Evans said he fears the escalating rhetoric

will force some people over the edge

into violence.

"For this reason," said Evans, "I think

it is very important for us to work harder to

oppose the Religious Right and to wake up

more Americans to the danger the movement

poses. We have got to spread the

message."

Now that the rally is over the dispute

about the religious practices in Judge

Moore's courtroom moves back into the

legal arena. An array of Religious Right

legal groups are filing briefs at the Alabama

Supreme Court in defense of

Moore's religious displays. (The lower

court order against Moore is on hold pending

appeal.)

On the other side, Americans United

Legal Director Steven K. Green and attorneys

for other groups that support church

state separation are working on briefs defending

a strict application of the First

Amendment's religious liberty provisions.

Meanwhile, Alabama legislators are

locked in a partisan battle over a proposed

state constitutional amendment that

would require public schools to set aside

time to read prayers from The Congressional

Record and discuss topics such as

the history of the Ten Commandments in

civil and criminal law and ceremonial

prayer at the Supreme Court.

The proposal (S. 503) is sponsored by

Democrats in the legislature.

If enacted, it

would have to be

placed on the ballot

for voter approval.

Republicans, suddenly

on the defensive

in the state's religiosity 

competition,

say the measure is an

unnecessary stunt in

advance of the 1998

elections. A referendum

would, they

note, cost $2 million

to carry out.

Some news media

commentators view

the whole conflict as

political posturing.

Mobile Register columnist

Frances Coleman

noted that Democratic

Sen. Pat Lindsey 

voted for the bill

in committee even though he questioned

its wisdom.

"I don't want anybody to think I'm

against this," Lindsey said, "because if

you are, you're unpatriotic, a communist

or an atheist."

Observed Coleman, "In the Heart of

Dixie, being any of those things is to

commit political suicide. The state senator 

and his cohorts have just enough religion

to make them recognize the value of

prayer, but not enough to make them defend

it from the whims of shallow politicians."

The same could be said about other

elected officials as well.