PUSH HAS COME TO SHOVE

Beyond the fight-or-flight reactions to the Alabama Ten Commandments controversy, questions about strategy have gone undebated-here's a start ... | Marvin Olasky

Deadline day in Montgomery, Ala., was polarizing: Federal judges on Thursday, Aug. 21, were persisting in their order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Police were handcuffing and leading away demonstrators defending the monument. Eight of the nine Alabama Supreme Court justices agreed to comply with the federal order. They directed the building manager to "take all steps necessary to comply ... as soon as practicable."

But on one sentiment many from all sides could agree: Say what you will about the ninth justice, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, he does know how to restart a vital national debate that had been stalled. Facing head-on the problems inherent in removing reverence from public spaces, two years ago he dropped into that rotunda the 2.5-ton block of granite topped by an etched copy of the Ten Commandments.

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August 30, 2003, Vol. 18, No. 33

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