In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

Moving Company Workers Remove Ten Commandments Monument From Judicial Building in Alabama

A 2 1/2-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments that became a lightning rod in a legal storm over church and state was wheeled from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building Wednesday as protesters knelt, prayed and chanted, “Put it back!”

Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who installed the engraved set of tablets two years ago and risked his career to keep it there after a federal judge ordered it removed, said he would take his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge,” he said.

To the dismay of scores of supporters who had held a weeklong vigil outside the front doors, the 5,280-pound monument was jacked up by a work crew and taken away to a back room with a heavy-duty hydraulic hand truck.

Its two engraved tablets were removed from the block-like base. Building officials did not immediately say where the two parts would be stored or whether the public would ever be allowed to see them.

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Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, a Republican, defended the court-ordered removal of the monument and is overseeing the prosecution of Moore on the ethics charge, which will be heard before the seven-member Court of the Judiciary. It has the power to discipline and remove judges.

Moore contends the federal judge has no authority to tell Alabama’s chief justice to remove the monument.

Republican Gov. Bob Riley said in a statement that he hopes the monument’s removal is “brief and temporary,” with the U.S. Supreme Court ordering it moved back. He said he will file court papers supporting Moore.

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Filed under: Law