Let’s face it: The constant arguments concerning separation of church and state can be likened to beating a dead horse. Yet, the issue still remains and will probably remain as long as America is a free nation. The latest problem that has come up is in Alabama.
No, I am not referring to the State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore who placed a monument of the Ten Commandments in the Judicial Building’s lobby. Apparently, this state has a few other controversial figures, and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is the latest target for the organization American Atheists.
His crime? Bible studies in public, Capitol offices. An Associated Press article on Thursday reported, “Gov. Bob Riley and his staff have begun weekly Bible studies in his Capitol office, a move critics decry as a troubling display of religion in the halls of state power. Riley, a Southern Baptist, holds Bible study classes with Cabinet members and his senior staff each Tuesday morning. Other staffers attend a Wednesday morning session.”
However, Larry Darby, the Alabama director for American Atheists, claimed that there is no way the classes can be truly voluntary as long as the governor is involved.
Now, OK, I can deal with that. Such a position is not unique. Yet, what Mr. Darby later said is: “It’s a form of Christian terrorism.”
On the other hand, Rob Boston, spokesman for the group “Americans United for Separation of Church and State,” said there is nothing illegal about the Bible classes – something that appears to be in contrast to the group’s statements in the past. Other people involved in the same cause have said the same thing in regard to Gov. Riley’s Bible study.
It should be a non-issue, but we can’t forget Mr. Larry Darby, whose organization is obviously staunchly anti-Christian and has taken that position in politics through church and state separation. And, once again, in Alabama.
Yet, Toby Roth, the governor’s chief of staff, said no state business is discussed during the classes, and he told the AP that he “makes sure Cabinet members have plenty of other meetings with the governor so that they don’t feel the need to attend simply to have a word with the boss.”
In fact, out of the 55 staff members, only a mere 11 attended the Bible study on Wednesday.
Last year, I noticed the headline “ACLU goes to bat for Satan.” In January 2002, the union threatened a lawsuit against the mayor of Inglis, Fla. – a town with the small population of 1,400. She had the audacity to officially proclaim the banishment of Satan within the city limits from the posts at the town’s entry points. Mayor Carolyn Risher insisted that she didn’t wish to offend anyone, but was simply praying for the community. It would be instructive to see how Satan and the American Civil Liberties Union formulated their case.
And Americans United for the Separation of Church and State were upset when the House of Representatives and the United States Senate passed legislation allowing the use of the Capitol Rotunda for prayer sessions. “If members of Congress want a religious service, they can go to their houses of worship. The U.S. Capitol is not a revival tent,” they whined.
I bring forth these instances (and there are many others) not to make another claim for allowing morality and religion in government, but to show the anti-American, anti-morality, liberal groups that are out there not simply trying to uphold and defend the Constitution, but to continually attack conservative, Christian ideas and values – the very ideology that gave them the freedom to allow their off-base pursuits.
