Alabama seems to be having quite a time with issues of church and state right now.
Besides the controversy over the Ten Commandments monument, Governor Bob Riley is part of a dispute within his own Republican Party about the correct Christian position on taxes.
On the Ten Commandments front, the print edition of the Mobile Register of 08/24/03 carried a profile of State Supreme Justice Roy Moore, who was recently suspended from his judicial duties for refusing to obey a court order to remove the monument from state property.
The article, by Associated Press writers Jon Krawczynski and Allen Breed, has a couple of items about Moore that especially caught my attention.
He comes off as a rigid person who enjoys confrontations. The article portrays him as the son of a none-too-affluent "itenerant construction worker."
Moore seems to have grown up with a stern conscience of a highly religious cast. But, the authors say, when he was an officer with the Military Policy in the Vietnam War, "Moore's bible seemed to be the Army handbook." He earned the derisive nickname of "Captain America" because he insisted on "regulation haircuts and constant salutes."
They report that he was rigid to the point of almost getting "fragged" [assassinated] by his own men. One of them, Barney Hall, is quoted as saying, "His policies damn near got him killed in Vietnam. He was a strutter."
That latter comment suggest that his men had more serious complaints than a strict haircut policy. If he was considered a "strutter", it probably means his men thought he was taking needless risks without really knowing what he was doing.
The article also notes that he has been unusally outspoken for a judge on political issues.
The picture that emerges is that of a man who takes risks that make him look on the surface like a tough fighter, but without thinking through the damage he may be causing either to others or to himself.
In the same paper, editor Michael Marshall casts doubt on how great a role religious conviction plays for Moore in this show. He claims Moore is casting himself as a persecuted religious zealot. But he contends that Moore "is not a religious zealot." Instead, "He's just another media harlot."
- Posted by Bruce Miller 08/25/03
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