Out of the Dark, Into the Light Goes Roy Moore's Commandments Monument
by Allie Martin
July 20, 2004
(AgapePress) - The Ten Commandments granite monument that was the centerpiece of a battle over the public display of God's law last year is now out of the closet.
Top view of the Ten Commandments monument
that begins a national tour later in July
Last August, a federal judge ordered Roy Moore, then chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove the 5,280-pound monument from the lobby of the state judicial building. Moore refused, and the monument was eventually removed and locked in a closet in the building.
But last week, Moore signed a contract with American Veterans in Domestic Defense (AVIDD) to take the monument from the courthouse and take it on a tour of America. Moore says while he is sad the monument is leaving, he believes the time is right for a national tour.
"I'm happy ... that people will finally be able to see what has so offended the ACLU and Southern Poverty and Americans United for Separation and State, [and] what so offended justices that they put a shroud the monument," Moore says. The ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Americans United were among the groups that initiated the lawsuit that eventually got the monument removed.
American Veterans Standing for God and Country, which is part of AVIDD, is handling the arrangements for the tour. AVIDD member Wiley Drake, a pastor, says the tour will make a major statement.
"It's very important because we have the precedent back in the Old Testament when God's people had the Ark of the Covenant; the Ten Commandments were a part of the Ark of the Covenant," he says, "and it was the presence of the Ten Commandments that made God's people successful. We believe that is much needed today."
"We need now to bring back into public view the Ten Commandments as the basic principle of God's Holy Word and the basis for which our justice system was founded," Drake continues. "This nation was ... founded for the advancement of the Christian faith."
The monument, removed from Montgomery's judicial building on Monday night, will tour the country through October. The tour is slated to begin later this month in Tennessee. According to Drake, the tour could wind up at a Christian rally on the National Mall in the fall.
