3 cheers for religious bigotry

The government of the United States is not religious in nature. There seems to have been some confusion on this issue. So let me clear up any uncertainty that may be lingering in your mind. \nPick your chin up off the paper; you're smearing the ink. I understand how this might be a bewildering idea to wrestle with. I mean, when you have Bush saying, "I believe God wants me to be president," or the much earlier statement, "I could not be governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supercedes all human plans," it is easy to believe the opposite. Believe me, when the commander in chief refers to the War on Terrorism as a crusade, and the terrorists we happen to be hunting are overwhelmingly of the Islamic persuasion, I often think, "Gee, this sounds a lot like a Christian theocracy." \nIt doesn't help that I am from fantastic Columbus, Ind., (about 35 miles east of Bloomington) which has had a stone monument of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn for as long as I can remember.\nSpeaking of courthouses with monuments of the Ten Commandments, it seems that the chief justice -- make that former chief justice -- of the Alabama Supreme Court didn't realize the church and the state are supposed to be separate. This really gets to me, because he was ordered by a federal court to remove his beloved 5,280-pound chunk of rock (New York Times, Nov. 14).\nWell, for his failure to abide by a little thing we call the Constitution of the United States of America and the idea of the separation of church and state, good ol' Chief Justice Roy Moore got himself kicked out of his nice elected office. (That's right, in order to ensure that the decisions of Alabama's highest court are free from the corruption of politics and the interest group financing that accompanies the necessitated election, they have the chief justice run for office).\nThat's OK, though. You see, ex-Chief Moore is planning on appealing the ruling that ousted him right up to Alabama's highest court. You know, the one he was the chief justice of last week. So there is a chance, a very good chance, that his colleagues (a.k.a. buddies) might be forced to decide whether or not the actions of their former associate (read: comrade) really did constitute a breach of the ethical standards imposed on such a mighty public office. This decision could go either way. You see, there are some people who think flagrantly disregarding the law and refusing to abide by court orders is a fine thing to do. (Of course, a lot of them are only disobeying local court rulings, like orders for paying child support, not federal orders, like not disrespecting the foundations of our country's judicial system.)\nNow, Moore has some cheerleaders jumping up and down to show their support for religious bigotry in the courts. When he announced that the panel evaluating whether or not his spitting in the face of the law constituted an unethical act had given him the proverbial "boot," the crowd burst into chanting, "Roy Moore for Senate! Roy Moore for president!" (New York Times, Nov. 14).\nHold up. I think these people have missed the boat here. God wants Bush to be president.\nI know from time to time some people from the South can get things a bit muddled in their minds. (Think about those dudes with Confederate flags who ride around yelling "The South will rise again!") Maybe there's just something in the water.