Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Judge embroiders Ten Commandments on judicial robe
Seemingly in the spirit of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, another Alabama judge has embroidered the Ten Commandments on his judicial robe. The linked report from al.com says,
"Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan showed up Monday at his Covington County courtroom in Andalusia wearing the robe at the start of a week of jury trials of cases that were being appealed from lower courts - mostly cases like driving under the influence and possession of marijuana."
The Southern Poverty Law Center (the same outfit that successfully brought suit against Roy Moore) is looking to sue Judge McKathan. WSFA TV reports,
"Of course, the embroidered robe is not as big and as conspicuous as the two-and-a-half ton granite monument. However, Richard Cohen with the Southern Poverty Law Center was shaking his head as he saw the robe for the first time in our story. He thinks what the judge is doing is against the law because he says it appears he's doing it for religious reasons. "I think it's outrageous. Much more outrageous than I realized. He made a display of his private religious beliefs in his courthouse. He's not wearing it on his jacket that he wears out in public. He's not embroidering it on clothes that he wears in other places where he appears as a private citizen. He emblazoned it on his robe that he wears as a public official.""
Richard Cohen and his ilk are now waiting for someone to step forward and sue Judge McKathan so they can get involved.
NPR's Debbie Elliott has a report at NPR.org. In the report Judge McKathan said among other things that, "the Ten Commandments are the link between law and truth."
Law and Truth
Judge McKathan understands a basic human problem. Any law or regulation we think up on our own is arbitrary and at the mercy of our ever changing society and culture. Take for example the abortion issue. At what point does a "fetus" become a human baby? Is it the 1st trimester, 3rd trimester or birth? At what point does abortion become murder? When Scott Peterson murdered his wife he also killed their unborn baby, and was held accountable for the murder of that unborn person. Was the end result of his action any different then that of a doctor performing an abortion? When is a baby a baby and when is the baby legally protected? Any law concocted by man to answer this final question is arbitrary because the answer can (and does) change from one society to the next.
Law can not stand on its own, but must have an unshakable foundations. What I have defined as an arbitrary law is a law not founded on eternal morals and truth. Mankind by himself is fickle, unstable, unreliable, mortal, evil and altogether unfit to rule himself successfully. We can not in ourselves find the answer because we are the problem. No just and righteous law will ever come from mankind-- it must come from another source.
In America, we live in a society that is based on Judeo-Christian values that have existed since our beginning over two hundred years ago. This great country exists today because many of our founding fathers did not rely on themselves for solutions but on God. Read my earlier post on the First Prayer of the Continental Congress of 1774. Part of this first prayer says,
"Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation."
As representatives in the First Continental Congress, these men recognized their own limitation as humans. They knew that the answers they were seeking would not come from themselves, but from God. If the founding fathers recognized and called on God for wisdom and direction, why is it wrong for Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan to publicly recognize the same source of eternal wisdom and truth?
"Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan showed up Monday at his Covington County courtroom in Andalusia wearing the robe at the start of a week of jury trials of cases that were being appealed from lower courts - mostly cases like driving under the influence and possession of marijuana."
The Southern Poverty Law Center (the same outfit that successfully brought suit against Roy Moore) is looking to sue Judge McKathan. WSFA TV reports,
"Of course, the embroidered robe is not as big and as conspicuous as the two-and-a-half ton granite monument. However, Richard Cohen with the Southern Poverty Law Center was shaking his head as he saw the robe for the first time in our story. He thinks what the judge is doing is against the law because he says it appears he's doing it for religious reasons. "I think it's outrageous. Much more outrageous than I realized. He made a display of his private religious beliefs in his courthouse. He's not wearing it on his jacket that he wears out in public. He's not embroidering it on clothes that he wears in other places where he appears as a private citizen. He emblazoned it on his robe that he wears as a public official.""
Richard Cohen and his ilk are now waiting for someone to step forward and sue Judge McKathan so they can get involved.
NPR's Debbie Elliott has a report at NPR.org. In the report Judge McKathan said among other things that, "the Ten Commandments are the link between law and truth."
Judge McKathan understands a basic human problem. Any law or regulation we think up on our own is arbitrary and at the mercy of our ever changing society and culture. Take for example the abortion issue. At what point does a "fetus" become a human baby? Is it the 1st trimester, 3rd trimester or birth? At what point does abortion become murder? When Scott Peterson murdered his wife he also killed their unborn baby, and was held accountable for the murder of that unborn person. Was the end result of his action any different then that of a doctor performing an abortion? When is a baby a baby and when is the baby legally protected? Any law concocted by man to answer this final question is arbitrary because the answer can (and does) change from one society to the next.
Law can not stand on its own, but must have an unshakable foundations. What I have defined as an arbitrary law is a law not founded on eternal morals and truth. Mankind by himself is fickle, unstable, unreliable, mortal, evil and altogether unfit to rule himself successfully. We can not in ourselves find the answer because we are the problem. No just and righteous law will ever come from mankind-- it must come from another source.
In America, we live in a society that is based on Judeo-Christian values that have existed since our beginning over two hundred years ago. This great country exists today because many of our founding fathers did not rely on themselves for solutions but on God. Read my earlier post on the First Prayer of the Continental Congress of 1774. Part of this first prayer says,
"Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation."
As representatives in the First Continental Congress, these men recognized their own limitation as humans. They knew that the answers they were seeking would not come from themselves, but from God. If the founding fathers recognized and called on God for wisdom and direction, why is it wrong for Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan to publicly recognize the same source of eternal wisdom and truth?
