Rally For Judge Becomes Battle Against Devil

Thousands of people, including Christian families and longhaired bikers for Jesus, rallied Saturday to support a judge who refuses to remove a display of the Ten Commandments over his bench.

The demonstration for Judge Roy Moore turned into a litany against liberal courts, abortion, television and civil libertarians.

“We are drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘Devil, you’ve taken enough from us!”’ the Rev. Clifford Terrell shouted from the white marble steps of the Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was born and voting rights marchers rallied in 1965.

With Confederate flags and countless posters of the Ten Commandments waving overhead, Moore told the crowd, “Your presence today will send a message across this nation. That message is clear: We must - nay, we will - have God back in America again.”

An Alabama court has found that Moore’s display of the Christian tenets violates the Constitution by promoting one religion in a government setting. Moore is appealing, and Gov. Fob James has threatened to call out the National Guard and state troopers if anyone tries to remove Moore’s plaque.

“By defending his liberty we preserve freedom for all Americans,” James said at the rally.

The judge, a Baptist, invites others to pray with him in court - as long as they’re not Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. “We are not a nation founded upon the Hindu god or Buddha,” he said earlier.

Organizers said Capitol police estimated the crowd at 20,000 to 25,000.

A handful of opponents who accuse Moore of fostering religious intolerance debated his supporters, who carried signs with slogans like “We Want God in America Again.”

Truck driver Wayne Willis said the judge’s fight is making it tougher to be one of only a handful of Jews in the southeast Alabama town of Troy.

“Just last week a boy held my boy’s arm behind his back and tried to break it. He said he did it because he was Jewish,” said Willis.