Rodent Regatta

Montgomery, AL stands as one of our historic testing grounds for some of the most important legal decisions this country has faced in the past fifty years. Now, in 2003, the courthouse at Montgomery beckons a nation to take sides over the cornerstone of America’s laws, the Ten Commandments.

There’s quite a difference this time. We’re not seeking freedom for a single race, equal treatment for a people or a change in our thought processes. This time the stakes are much, much higher.

This time we must be very careful as we look to what our decisions really mean and what our choices may lead to. Now is not the time to get blindsided by the law of unintended consequences.

Because the Ten Commandments represent the underpinning of our rule of law, we must be very careful about how we determine whether they ”go or stay” in our legal endeavors. Without the moral certainties given it by the Ten Commandments, the law, which is already contested at every turn, becomes eternally pliable and no dispute ever ends. All decisions become purely secular negotiations and relativism rules over morality.

For these reasons, we should exhaust every one of the legal appeals which is available to show the strength of the system which was built on the Ten Commandments. We should use the same system that has helped Christians in so many other disputes. Christians ready to use civil disobedience had better be very careful. Is this the place and is now the time to take the ultimate stand? Are we being asked to deny our faith?

Judge Moore may have jumped the gun in deciding to use civil disobedience so quickly in this dispute. There are many legal appeals which are available.

There are facts about this country which cannot be disputed. There are facts about who founded this nation and why. There are facts about the lives and beliefs of the founders. There are facts about the influences in the lives of the framers of our original documents.

We stand now at a crossroads that could lead us away from the beliefs that founded the nation. Are we ready to do that? Is now the time and is this the place?