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As fight continues, so will media commentary
It may appear that the church vs. state battle in Alabama is over. Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument, moved yesterday from the state judicial building's rotunda, sits in a locked storage room. Alabama's attorney general says it will be removed from the grounds by the end of the week. In addition, a federal judge in Mobile has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington.

But Moore says the fight isn't over. Protesters are still holding prayer vigils. Supporters wearing Ten Commandment shirts plan to stand where the monument was. James Dobson and Alan Keyes are expected to speak today at a noon rally on the building's steps. And the Christian Defense Coalition plans to refile its suit today, saying that the monument's removal violated freedom of religion.

There's also no indication that this issue is going to go away in the media anytime soon. It's hard to count all the headlines on the monument's removal yesterday. (But one thing you can count is the number of major articles quoting media darling Barry Lynn: Four.) Opinion pieces on Roy Moore's church and state battle may outnumber the news stories. And look for commentary on church/state matters to continue now that it is at the forefront of media attention.

Most editorials decry Moore's defiance and congratulate Alabama's stand against blurring church and state lines. Alabama papers Mobile Register and The Birmingham News seem relieved that the monument is gone and Moore is no longer standing in defiance. The News says, "The pivotal question in this dispute wasn't whether the monument was wrong or right, but whether Moore would obey a court's command. Moore failed the test."

The Misguided Editorial of the Week award goes to Eric Mink of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mink starts by noting that most of the protesters in Alabama are not from the state but have traveled in to support the fight. This, he says, is happening at the same time as Islamists are streaming into Iraq to wage holy war on the United States.

Mink admits that this is a bad comparison. "It would unwise, not to mention unfair, to compare too closely the radical Islamists, who have come to Iraq to kill and maim combatants and innocents, with the fundamentalist Christians of good conscience peacefully protesting in Montgomery."

But then he spends the rest of the column doing exactly that. He argues that both groups of "crusaders" believe that anyone holding different views are not mistaken but are simply infidels. While he argues that the spirit of tolerance and freedom of choice is not present in the Alabama protests, isn't that what the Christians there are arguing for?

In the Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman writes that if Alabama were really to enforce God's laws, there would be a lot of changes.

Most of the problems would be with breaking the First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me." Admiration for legendary coach Bear Bryant would be targeted first. In fact, "a systematic campaign of prosecution may be needed to rid the state of all basement shrines to Crimson Tide football, which apparently are considered as essential as indoor plumbing."

(See several other news and opinion articles on the Ten Commandments below.)

Charges dropped in ELCA youth retreat rape case
The tragic story of rape at a Lutheran youth retreat in Issaquah, Washington, just got even sadder. Prosecutors recently dismissed with prejudice charges against a 17-year-old accused of twice raping a 14-year-old Alaskan girl during the "Rainbow of Gifts" leadership conference attended by about 120 high school students.

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August (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47