Speakers Urge Dallas Ten Commandments Rally Crowd to Action

by Allie Martin
April 5, 2004

(AgapePress) - This past weekend the president of a ministry that seeks to call America back to its godly heritage was in Dallas, Texas, along with other prominent speakers, for a rally to defend religious liberty. Saturday's four-hour Ten Commandments rally drew thousands of concerned Christians to the Dallas County Convention Center for speeches, music, and seminars, all aimed at equipping Christian activists for the culture war.

Dr. Rick Scarborough, founder of Vision America, who opened the rally, explained it is the first step in a project that will span several cities across the country in an effort to restore religious liberty and judicial restraint in the U.S. Vision America's leader says it is time for U.S. Christians to stand up and speak up.

"I'd say this is a good place to use that verse, 'Be angry but sin not.' I think righteous anger is justified by what's happening now -- if it's channeled and produces righteous action," Scarborough says.

The ministry founder says members of Congress tell him they are being besieged by homosexual groups and other liberal activists, and getting constant pressure from their grassroots movements. Those who want to limit religious expression and push an atheistic agenda on America are clamoring for the attention of the courts and Congress.

However, the legislators say they are not hearing from "God's side,' which they must if they are to restrain activist courts. "We must make the calls, we must write the letters, and we're going to put in their hands [those at the rally] the tools to do it," Scarborough says.

Christian radio stations in the Dallas area teamed up with local and national Christian and pro-family groups to help sponsor the rally. Now, as Tom Dooley with Dallas station KVTT says, the event must be followed up with sincere prayer -- an aspect of spiritual warfare that Dooley feels is often neglected. "I've been talking to people and finding out that very few Christians actually say a prayer for our president, for our vice president, for a congressman," he says.

Dooley notes that many believers do not take time to learn who their leaders and lawmakers are, much less spend time in prayer for them. "If you talk to most American Christians, unfortunately they really don't even know who their congressman is," he says, "so we need to find these things out and remember to pray for our nation. It really does make a difference."

Rally Speakers Call for Courage, Action
Among the speakers at the rally was Dr. Alan Keyes, founder of the Declaration Foundation, who encouraged Christians to vote not according to their pocketbook, but according to biblical principles. And Gina Parker, who is running for chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party, also took the stage, which was flanked by huge replicas of the Ten Commandments, to encourage those attending the rally to stand up for God's truth.

Parker told the crowd that when ordinary Christians stand up and "have courage to say 'This is what I sense' or 'This is what I believe in,' people will follow our leadership."

And another featured speaker, Judge Roy Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court, told the rally participants that, when it comes to acknowledging and showing reverence for God, an out-of-control judiciary has turned the intentions of the country's founding fathers upside down.

The Alabama judge has become prominent in the fight to preserve the right to acknowledge God in the public sphere, especially since his highly publicized fight over a Ten Commandments monument he placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court Building not long ago. Moore was stripped of his position as the chief justice of Alabama's high court for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove the monument.

'Ten Commandments Judge' Calls for End to hypocrisy
During his speech this past weekend, Moore told the crowd that U.S. courts are mistaken when they issue rules barring the public recognition of God. He feels there is great hypocrisy in the nation today.

That hypocrisy becomes plain, Moore says, "when judges take their oath on this Bible and end their oath in 'So help me God,' when they open their courts with 'God save the United States and this honorable court,' when they accept their pay in money marked 'In God we trust,' our national motto, and their first act in office is to say you can't acknowledge God."

The impassioned speaker emphasized the need to resist this hypocrisy and alluded to Texas history, speaking to the crowd of William Barrett Travis, a hero in the fight for the state's independence. Travis was a commander at the famous Battle of the Alamo.

Moore compared the uncompromising stance of Travis, as well as his own struggle in Alabama, to the nationwide effort to resist judicial activism. In a rallying cry that drew together past and present, he said, "This is Texas. What did Travis say? 'Don't cross this line.' He said, 'If you're with us, cross over.' And I'm saying to you today, a line was drawn in Montgomery, Alabama, and we will not be moved."

The Alabama judge added that only God -- not any particular individual, group, or minister -- will change America's situation, but "He waits for you to stand up in faith and say 'Enough is enough.'"

Moore says Christians must become informed about judicial activism and demand that Congress do something about activist judges who try to legislate from the bench.