Moore to Appear at Ten Commandments Rally

Aug 31, 2004 09:39 PM EDT

Although it will be nearly a year this November since former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was ousted from his office after refusing to remove a Ten Commandments display, supporters of the issue are still trying keep the issue alive.

Twenty-one Alabama delegates, who focused on that issue in their campaigns for a spot at the New York convention, said that the Republican party’s platform, which was ratified on Aug. 30, did not take a firm stance on the public display of the Ten Commandments.

"Any time our party begins compromising and saying we shouldn't take a stand because it offends someone, we drift far away from what our party has stood for for years," said one of the delegates, state Sen. Bill Armistead.

Armistead and the others wanted the Republican platform to officially endorse a bill that would outlaw court rulings abridging a public "acknowledgment of God,” according to Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Moore plans to appear at a Ten Commandments rally in Winder, Georgia, to fundraise for Barrow County’s defense in a Ten Commandments lawsuit. The 5,280-pound monument is currently being displayed in various cities in a national tour sponsored by two veteran groups. The tour for the display will conclude on Oct. 22 in Washington D.C. where its supporters hope to find it a permanent home.

While awaiting to hear if the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his appeal to be restored back to his position, Moore announced on Aug. 26 that he will write a book, titled “So Help Me God!”, in which he explains, including his Ten Commandments fight as an example, why acknowledgments of God by public officials are both legal and necessary.

The book is slated to release in March by Nashville, Tenn.-based Broadman and Holman Publishers.

"It is time that the American people awake to the true meaning of separation of church and state and our unique relationship to God as a nation," Moore said in a statement.

The U.S. High Court will inform Moore by early November on whether it will hear his case.