http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?030908ta_talk_menand
September 4, 2003
The New Yorker
The Talk of the Town
MOSES IN ALABAMA
By Louis Menand
<snip>
Roy Moore and his defenders and apologists have been advancing the
same argument--that God's laws (the Christian God's, that is) are the
foundation for, and are therefore entirely congruous with, man-made
American law. As a national platitude, at the "In God We Trust" level
of things, this seems unexceptionable to everyone except those who
might be called card-carrying atheists, people who become litigious
every time they hear a reference to God in a public place. What makes
the Roy's Rock story so bizarre, though, is that the Justice's chosen
symbol completely subverts the point it is supposed to make. Of the
Bible's Ten Commandments, only two (VI and VIII) proscribe activities
that secular law regards as criminal. It is not illegal in the United
States to: have another god before Yahweh; manufacture graven images
(for instance, pieces of granite with Scriptural texts carved on
them); say "God damn it" when you spill the ketchup; go to "Terminator
3" on Sunday; abuse (verbally) your parents; engage in extramarital
sex; or (except under oath) tell untrue stories about your neighbor.
And if it were a crime to covet the ass parked in the driveway of the
people next door, it is hard to know how capitalism would survive.
Coveting asses is the whole basis of our prosperity.
Full: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?030908ta_talk_menand