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In April President Bush nominated Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor for a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Since then Pryor, 41, an outspoken opponent of abortion, has found himself under attack from the left and the right.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in June sharply questioned Pryor about whether he could set aside his deeply held religious beliefs and apply the law fairly. Although Pryor, a staunch Roman Catholic, said he could, Senate Democrats set up a filibuster to deny him a vote for confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Although agreeing with Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore that Moore's 5,280-pound Ten Commandments monument could legally remain in the state judicial building, in August, following a ruling by the same 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Pryor ordered it removed from public view. Some defenders of the monument lashed out at Pryor, calling for his resignation. Moore, meanwhile, was suspended from his office for disobeying a judge's order.

Stan Guthrie, Christianity Today's associate news editor, interviewed Pryor.

Why didn't you support Judge Moore on the Ten Commandments controversy?

I have long supported displays of the Ten Commandments as a source of our laws. I have explained on many occasions that I think the Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of our legal heritage and can be displayed constitutionally, as they are in the U.S. Supreme Court building. When the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Chief Justice Moore and the case came back to the district court and an injunction was issued without any kind of stay of that injunction, it is my position that whether we agree with that order or not, as public officials, we have an obligation to follow the court orders.

As a Christian I know from 1 Peter and Romans 13 that we have an obligation to obey governing authorities. We have an obligation as Christ taught us to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. And I think that as a public official, I have an obligation to follow a court order, even when I disagree with that order.

Now there can be occasions when disobedience is appropriate for a Christian. If you are ordered to do something as an individual that is immoral, then you may have an obligation as a Christian to disobey that law. But that does not apply to a public official. If you are a public official and you are being ordered by law to do something that you believe is immoral, then you should resign from office.

There have been arguments here recently that Dr. [Martin Luther] King's case for civil disobedience was somehow applicable. That's not true. Dr. King argued persuasively that black citizens in the Deep South did not have recourse other than civil disobedience to change an immoral and unjust system. They were not able to vote. They were not able to assemble and speak freely in the political arena. And he argued that as a result of the racist system of government that existed in the Deep South, black citizens had no choice but to engage in civil disobedience. None of that has been applicable to what has been going on here in Montgomery.

Your critics have said that you might not be able to overcome your closely held religious beliefs while serving as a judge. Would your actions in this case provide any answer to that?

I've been attorney general for almost seven years now, and I believe that my consistent record in office shows that I follow the law, whether I agree with it or not. That is my obligation as attorney general—to uphold and enforce the law.

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September (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47