Back to the December 2003 Newsletter Index

10 COMMANDMENTS SUPPORTERS PROTEST AT SUPREME COURT

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., October 6 to demonstrate support for the public display of the Ten Commandments.

Many were part of a caravan organized by the Christian Coalition of Alabama that had traveled from Montgomery, rallying support in five states along the way.

They brought with them boxes containing 384,000 petitions asking the Supreme Court to hear the appeal of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Judge Moore petitioned the Supreme Court on September 26, appealing the lower court rulings ordering the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court building.

At the October 6 rally at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, dozens of police officers stood watch while leaders of several Christian groups spoke and prayed before an enthusiastic crowd.

Many supporters wore T-shirts proclaiming "Save the Commandments: Defend the Rock."

"We are here to speak out against judicial activism and tyranny," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition.

Mahoney and other speakers referred to the "fire lit in Montgomery" over the removal of the TenCommandments monument.

"When they rolled the monument out of the rotunda and into a closet, they were rolling it into the hearts and minds of millions of Americans," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, founder of the National Clergy Council.

"For almost 150 years the Ten Commandments have been on display in this court," said Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America. "To say that placing the Ten Commandments in a court forces a religion on anyone is nonsense."

In a fiery closing speech, Priests for Life Director Fr. Frank Pavone said, "We have a strange pretence in America--that it's up to us whether God is in America. But if you and I were not here today, the very stones in the buildings would cry out!"

Father Pavone pointed out that Alexander Hamilton said no human law has any validity unless it is based on God's law.

Therefore, he concluded, "We are not saying that laws taking prayer out of schools and court buildings are bad laws: we are saying they are no laws at all."

After the Christian Coalition-led group dispersed to visit their Congressmen, the Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America, conducted a demonstration in which he burned copies of various objectionable, religion-related Supreme Court rulings.