By Dipo Ola

August 2003

It is ironic that the final stand against the tyranny of the judiciary is being held by a Judge, specifically Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Supreme Court of Alabama. For years Americans have watched the Judiciary, egged on by the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, gradually eviscerate the name of God from every aspect of American life. They have done this under the guise of obeying the first amendment, and they have done so with minimal verbal resistance from the public. Until now, that is.


The liberal judges who have driven out the name and presence of God from schools and other institutions have very conveniently overlooked the fact that the

constitution mandates freedom of religion. Specifically, the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the

Government for a redress of grievances.”  Thus every American is entitled to the free exercise of religion, and the manner in which this free exercise of religion proceeds, should obviously be left to the individual concerned, and in public matters, to the American public. The fact that the Ten Commandments Monument was in a State building is not in itself indicative that Congress is making a law establishing religion, as prohibited by the first amendment.  Clearly, in this case, neither the Monument nor Congress is establishing religion, but is merely reflecting the faith of the vast majority of the citizens of Alabama.


The fact that there are some people in Alabama and in other parts of the country who do not worship God (or revere the Ten Commandments) should not in itself deprive the God fearing majority of the right to reflect and express their irreverence for the laws of God. Democracy anticipates Majority rule and not Minority rule, and it is the very troubling trend of modern Western Society that this fact is increasingly overlooked. These days, even to acknowledge Christmas is considered oppressive of the minority non-Christians, and so the term ‘Merry Christmas’ has officially been replaced with the politically correct term: ‘Happy Holidays’. Students are no longer allowed to pray in schools because such prayer would be oppressive of the minority non-Christian population. No one asks: ‘what about the majority??’ It almost seems as if it is alright to oppress the majority and deprive them of their faith, simply because they are the majority. Sadly it would appear that a huge segment of t he Christian majority has bought into this politically correct pathos that dictates that they must subsume their faith to the emerging demands of ‘modern’, ‘diverse’ society. People have grown to regard Christianity as a dirty word, and Christian faith as a symbol of intolerance. Even those who call themselves Christians, are often so ignorant of the core of Christian faith and precepts, that they undermine their professed faith, politically, socially, and in almost every personal sense.


The American Judiciary, Executive and Legislature are supposed to act as checks and balances on each other, but over the past several years, the American Judiciary seems to have come out on top, appropriating the role of both the Legislature and the Executive, substituting its will for the will of the American public on a host of issues ranging from the old issue of Abortion, to the present issue of religion. In order to do this the Judiciary has simply interpreted the constitution in whatever way suits it, finding justification for crushing the rights of the people, in the constitution that was meant to enshrine those very rights.


And so the wave of de-Christianizing a society that was built on Christian values has continued, block after block of faith being dismantled. Until now.  The ACLU, the Americans united for separation of Church and State, and the Judiciary may have finally awoken a sleeping giant by their latest attempt to wipe out the name of God. People in Alabama are standing up and refusing to have their faith swept under the rug.


There is an American saying that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, and there is a large number of people in Alabama and elsewhere who believe that completely erasing the name of God from all aspects of their life, IS suicide because God protects those who revere him, and neglects or rejects those who avoid him. Those people rightly feel that their faith is under attack, and they are going to stand up to defend it, because by doing so, they are defending themselves. More importantly, they are bringing this issue to the national spotlight, so that the American public is being forced to confront it. Every person who considers himself or herself a Christian is now being forced to ask the difficult internal questions: ‘Is the State entitled to deprive me of my faith?’ ‘Am I myself culpable if I stand by and say nothing?’  These people understand that as Winston Churchill pointed out during the second world war: ‘evil triumphs when good men do nothing.’  They are ready to confront that evil now. Even if they lose their present battle to keep the monument where it is, there is a strong likelihood that their actions have alerted the sleeping public to the long term war they will have to fight, to keep their faith. Hopefully that public will understand that while today the issue may be taking down a Ten Commandment monument, tomorrow it might be an issue of prison time for praying in public, or possessing a copy of the Bible. And once they understand this, it would be a mistake to underestimate their will or the long term significance of the present standoff at the courthouse.

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