c. 2003 Religion News Service

(David P. Gushee is the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)

(UNDATED) Despite his best intentions and the correctness of many of his convictions, Judge Roy Moore has done the cause of church-state relations more harm than good in his two-year battle to keep a Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building.

It is important to draw a distinction between two aspects of this case: the meaning of the Ten Commandments, and Judge Moore’s defiance of current federal law. Judge Moore is right about one and wrong about the other.

As a Christian, I certainly believe in the Ten Commandments. These 10 laws _ four of which relate to our responsibility before God, six to our responsibility before our neighbors _ are a fundamental aspect of God’s revelation to humanity through Scripture.

In their original context, these laws were given by God to govern the life of the people Israel. They formed the foundation of an elaborate set of case laws that were intended to cover every aspect of life. Israel was a community governed by a covenant with God and the laws that God had revealed. All Israel was responsible for keeping this covenant.

If we interpret Christianity rightly, we understand that the Ten Commandments, and the principles behind them, remain binding on all Christian believers. Faithful Christians and Jews both believe that God has forbidden belief in any other god, idol worship, the defamation of his name and violation of the Sabbath.

They believe that parents are to be honored, and that murder, adultery, theft, false witness and covetousness are wrong. There are some differences of opinion related to the interpretation of some of the commandments, but they continue to teach the basic principles of a binding morality.

Roy Moore is also correct in believing that law has a moral foundation. It is hard not to see the connection between the second “table” of the Ten Commandments and the laws of our land. Murder, certain sexual acts, theft and perjury are banned by law.

Most people in most places refrain from these banned acts not simply because the law requires them to but also because they recognize that these acts are morally wrong. Human law thus ratifies and reflects a prior law that is written on our hearts and written into the structure of the universe.

Judge Moore is right about one other thing _ the Judeo-Christian roots of American culture. It is true that American culture has certainly been made up of many strands, not just biblical faith. The influence of Enlightenment rationalism on the founding generation, for example, is obvious.

But at the time of our revolution and the crafting of our foundational documents, most national leaders believed that essential biblical moral principles dovetailed with the insights that could be derived from reason. Both shaped our founding principles and laws.

The founders also wisely recognized that ours was a deeply religious nation. They wrestled with the problem of how to respect the religious convictions of the American people while avoiding sectarian strife and religious persecution.

Their ingenious solution was the First Amendment. It established the principle that the federal government would not permit the establishment of any particular religion in American “public space” but would work diligently to protect the free exercise of religious convictions of all types.

Judge Moore secretly installed the Ten Commandments tablet in the Alabama Supreme Court building and kept it there despite both the ruling of a federal judge last year and then, more recently, the unanimous vote of his colleagues in the Alabama Supreme Court.

It may be that those decisions were wrong. It is possible that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that Ten Commandments displays do not violate the First Amendment. But until that time comes, Judge Moore’s defiance of current law was an act of civil disobedience on the part of a leading public official in the state of Alabama.

There are certainly times when civil disobedience is morally permissible, but the general principle established in Scripture itself is that the laws of the land are to be respected and obeyed. Respect for law is undermined when any law is flouted. If people believe that a law is wrong, they must employ all means available within the structure of the law to get it changed. If instead they choose the path of public defiance, they should expect to bear the consequences, including loss of position and even loss of freedom.

That is where Judge Moore went wrong. He chose the path of civil disobedience when legal means to press his case were still available to him.

KRE END GUSHEE