DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220321

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   75 lines

JUDGE FIGHTS COURTS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION

When Alabama Judge Roy Moore sat on his porch in Gallant, Ala., 17 years ago hand-carving a rendering of the Ten Commandments from a slab of wood, he had no idea the exercise would eventually provide him with his 15 minutes of fame.

But that's what happened last month when another Alabama Circuit Court judge ordered Moore to remove the plaque from the wall behind the bench in the Etowah County Circuit Court, where Moore presides.

Moore refused, the ruling was appealed, and the plaque still hangs on the wall, at least for now.

Moore has suddenly became the center of a religious and legal controversy that has generated national attention. His stand has made him an immediate hero to Christian fundamentalists, and a villain to those convinced that such displays violate the separation of church and state.

On Friday, Moore found an appreciative audience when he visited the Regent University Law School to discuss why he refused to let the court remove the carving.

It was not just Moore's stubborn streak that convinced him to defy the court order, he said. Instead, it was a decision based on his interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

``We have a right to acknowledge God,'' Moore ,50, told a gathering of about 100 people in the Robertson Hall Ceremonial Moot Courtroom. ``It is in the Constitution.''

The First Amendment, Moore explained, ``never, never forbade an acknowledgement of God.''

The underpinnings of his argument go beyond the Constitution. Moore made his point by quoting freely from Thomas Jefferson, Blackstone's Commentaries, and English Common Law.

All of those sources, Moore said, are central to the document that forms the heart of the American way of government.

Everyone knows what Jefferson said about the equality of men and that they are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, Moore said. What is less known, he explained, is that the Bill of Rights comes right out of Blackstone, and the importance of religious expression is at the heart of the Virginia Bill of Rights.

All of these, he said, are founded on an understanding of nature's laws, Moore said, something that was fundamental to life in America, circa 1776.

``Everybody in the Colonies knew about the laws of nature and of nature's God,'' Moore said.

Moore has gotten plenty of support since he first stood up for the Ten Commandments.

Alabama Gov. Fob James said he would use ``force of arms'' to block the order to remove the plaque. Rep. Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, introduced a resolution supporting Moore that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, 295-125.

Unfortunately for Moore, neither James' threatened use of force nor the resolution has any effect. But they both have given Moore encouragement and a renewed belief that U.S. courts are out of sync mainstream America.

In light of such support, Moore said, ``I find it ironic that in our society today we have cut God out.''

Moore compared the judges who make such decisions to the parable of the emperor with no clothes who was afraid to acknowledge that he was naked because he did not want to appear stupid or unfit to serve.

``It is embarrassing and offensive that a Christian nation has allowed the acknowledgment of God to be taken away from it by a king who thinks you are stupid or unfit for office if you acknowledge the existence of God,'' Moore said.

Currently, Moore's plaque remains in place because of a stay granted by the court. The court will make a final ruling in June or July, Moore said.

What happens if the court tells him to take the plaque down?

``I don't think I'm going to have to do that,'' Moore said. ``But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Judge Roy S. Moore addresses an audience at Regent University. Moore

is being sued by the ACLU for displaying a wooden plaque in which he

carved the Ten Commandments in his Alabama courtroom.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu