James L. Evans makes some excellent points in this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There is a long registration process to view it so I've pasted the whole thing here:
In his new book, "So Help Me God," former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore makes the claim that he is bound by his oath as a public official, by the words "so help me God," to acknowledge God as the foundation of our government. The failure to do this, he argues in his book, erodes the "moral foundation of law."
Moore, who lost his job in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state court building, writes that such erosion is already at work. Godless atheists and secularists have been busy for 50 years trying to remove God from the public sphere. In Moore's view, they have succeeded.
The removal of prayer and Bible reading from schools are symptoms of God's absence from our public lives, according to Moore. This has resulted in increased crime, a rising drug problem, unwed mothers and an overall decline in the moral fabric of our society. Until we return God to the center of our public lives, he says, this decline will continue and get worse.
Such claims have been in the air since the Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that teacher-led prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment. There are many faithful Christians who believe there is an undeniable link between this ruling and every social ill that has appeared since.
But if we blame all of our country's current problems on the failure of the state to acknowledge God, what does that say about the church?
After all, isn't the church a public acknowledgement of God? When congregations pray, aren't they engaged in public prayer? When the Bible is read, doesn't that count as Bible reading?
Is the church such an inadequate institution that if God is not acknowledged in the courthouse and schoolhouse, then he is removed from the public sphere?
People of faith who accept these arguments need to realize how they demean the role of the church in the world. Wasn't it the faith community that was ordained by God to provide settings for worship, instruction and for breaking the bread of Communion? And can you really acknowledge God properly without these things?
This diminished view of the church is evident in Moore's book. In the one and only paragraph in the book that approaches any traditional Christian testimony, Moore says he "walked the aisle" and later met with the preacher for two hours. That's it; that's all we get on the role of the church in Moore's spiritual pilgrimage. From there his life is heavy on the Founding Fathers but light on the teaching of Jesus.
I am not suggesting that Moore is not a Christian or that his Christian experience is not valid. What I am suggesting is that his views are part of a growing trend in evangelical Christianity that seems to say that unless the state acknowledges God, God has not been acknowledged. Such a notion invalidates the role of the church entirely.
Where this takes us, of course, is where we are. The acknowledgement of God that takes place week in and week out in local faith communities is discounted. Meanwhile, there is weeping and wailing because a monument of the Ten Commandments is not on display at the courthouse.
Jesus said on the occasion of establishing the church that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. I guess we'll have to hold our breath and hope he was right.
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