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In the late 70s, when Eddie Lee and Larry Larson performed outrageous satires on Atlanta’s stages, they poked fun at people who believed in a secret brotherhood called The Illuminati. In some circles today this is no laughing matter. Rather, it’s a consistent and growing conspiracy theory concerning a powerful cabal with a master plan to rule the world.  On the website of a man running for governor of Alabama is a lengthy video exposing how The Illuminati plan to ruin our health with antibiotics and vaccines, thereby weakening us and keeping us subjugated. They say that Al Gore is a member of this power-hungry, slavering cabal.

The gubernatorial candidate of mention here is Roy Moore. He was briefly the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court until he defied an order from the U.S. Supremes and refused to remove a granite Ten Commandments from the state’s judicial building. His supporters are almost universally Christian, and their wishes for his success (on his MySpace page) universally include the words, “God bless you Roy Moore.”

Lest someone object and call me the worst possible epithet in Alabama’s vernacular – an ATHEIST –  I want to state for the record that I have no quarrel with Roy Moore holding his personal religious beliefs. Au contraire. I just have quarrel with the general tone of cuckoo-headedness that prevails wherever his followers gather.

To be ousted from the high court for insubordination might quell a lesser man’s political ambitions. But Moore is guided by a power higher than man’s laws, he says.

It is a refrain with some miles on it, by now, having started in the mid 1990s. At the time, Moore was a district judge in Gadsden, Ala., where he posted a small, homemade plaque of the Ten on his courtroom wall, and he ordered juries to pray with him before trials. The prayers were Christian prayers that ended with “In Jesus’ name…” Moore seemed oblivious to the fact that Gadsden was home to several other faiths, including Hinduism and Islam. A couple of those pesky minority members filed a lawsuit against Moore. Money began to pour into Moore’s hands in small contributions from well-meaning Christian citizens across the nation.

As a reporter who covered Alabama for the much-loved-and-missed regional desk of the AJC, I sat down with Judge Moore for a talk. He said he had no political agenda nor plans to run for office any time in the foreseeable future. He said that the money coming in from supporters was going to the Roy Moore Legal Defense Fund. I asked him who his legal team was. I called the legal team.

What to my surprise! His lawyers told me (proudly) that they were working pro bono because they believed in Moore’s cause. Free legal aid? Then where was all that money going? Estimates by those closely watching Moore put his “defense fund” at several hundred thousand dollars. There were “Save Roy Moore” rallies.  He was before the news cameras or microphones daily; he was a welcome guest speaker at religious and political events. He became a marquee name at revivals.

I cannot say whether Roy Moore began as a publicity seeker, but once he had a taste of the adulation and limelight, how could he go back to being a judge in a tiny Alabama courthouse, carrying a brown sack lunch, working in obscurity?

For the next 15 years, Roy Moore continued to run for various offices. In 2010 he’ll run for governor for the second time. His platform includes posting religious symbols wherever people gather. Separation of church and state is a foreign concept to his followers. They are truly one nation under God, and that God is a new testament God that loves home schooling but abhors antibiotics and vaccinations, abortions, gay marriage, the One World Order, Trilateral Commission, Illuminati, mosques, immigrants, sex education and Proctor and Gamble.

Moore has positioned himself as The Candidate for Governor Who Can Best Defeat the Radical Obama Agenda in Alabama.

He may not win his party’s gubernatorial primary because a number of big name Republicans will share the field in 2010. Some of those are kin to former governors or are longtime, lesser officeholders. 

But what Moore does, each time he runs, is move the tenor of debates further to the fringe Right. No other candidate wants to be seen as less Christian than Moore or less upstanding. By being allowed to frame the issues and, to some extent, quash rational discourse, the former judge makes Alabama a little poorer, a little sadder.

While candidates for governor in other states discuss economic growth, social justice or funding for education, Alabama’s policy makers ignore many such crucial issues (its  anachronistic 1901 Constitution, for one). Instead, they are forced into debates about religious symbols and protection from the Illuminati.

1. Cliff Green says:

   October 20, 2009 at 8:40 pm

   My family abandoned Alabama in 1957. Now you know why.

   Reply
2. Terri Evans says:

   October 20, 2009 at 10:25 pm

   Thank you for illuminating us on the Illuminati. By all means, please keep us up to date on Roy Moore. Great piece.

   Reply
3. Michael Ham says:

   October 21, 2009 at 7:19 am

   Roy Moore, those that support him and his agenda and those with similar plans of religious takeover are a more dangerous threat to America than any other.
   It is of utmost importance that those of us who want to protect rather than destroy religious freedom speak up. Thank you for this article.

   Reply
4. Bill Keller says:

   October 21, 2009 at 7:55 am

   I’m beginning to see “No Moore” bumper stickers around Birmingham. Thank God, I say, no irony intended. What’s dangerous about the man is not only the damage he brings to Alabama’s political discussions, but the support he receives around the nation from the cultural subset who subscribe to the conspiracy theory of the week, so to speak. Why he even draws crowds of enthusiastic supporters when he speaks in Georgia.

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5. Michael Garbutt says:

   October 21, 2009 at 8:47 am

   I had almost forgotten about the Reverend Dr. Moore, though I well remember the brouhaha of this issue in the 90’s. Time will tell if his candidacy is successful.
   But I would recommend to him that perhaps the Sermon on the Mount as well as the Beatitudes are far more explicit on how to treat our fellow citizens than the Old Testament Ten Commnandments.
   Excellent article!

   Reply
6. Mary Beth Myles says:

   October 21, 2009 at 9:18 am

   I want the “No Moore” bumper sticker! Anyone know where I can find one?? And don’t forget how the same people who wanted the 10 Commandments in the courthouse flipped out when people wanted Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech posted… Alabama at it’s best –FAIL!!

   Reply
7. Frank Povah says:

   October 21, 2009 at 11:06 am

   As an Australian recently arrived in the USA and even more recently in Kentucky, I recall the publicity Moore’s efforts on behalf of the Ten Commandments got back home, prompting the LnCR (Loony neoChristian Right) over there to push for the same thing. The LnCR is fast gaining a foothold in Australia and influences both Government and Opposition and, in some notable instances, carries out covert muckracking operations for one or the other or both, depending on the perceived threat. One of the main perceived threats in Australia (apart from the anti-Christ, the Asians, Muslims and anyone else without Western European antecedents) is one Bob Brown. Not only is this dangerous and seditious Member of Parliament the leader of the Australian Greens, he is also openly homosexual (I’m still searching for a way to type that word with pursed lips or fingers). The fact that no-one has dared mention this last fact in open debate speaks volumes. I find the great irony of the LnCR lies in that they constantly exhort the rest of us to follow Jesus while at the same time defending the death penalty, intolerance and their God-given mission to exact vengeance and retribution on all who beg to differ. Shoot a leftie then honk if you love Jesus.

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8. skd says:

   October 21, 2009 at 11:46 am

   might I suggest adding a link to the video mentioned?

   Reply
9. Gita Smith says:

   October 21, 2009 at 5:51 pm

   The video is on Roy Moore’s MySpace page. http://www.Myspace.com/roymoore2010

   On his campaign web page, Moore lists several of his positions. Two of them sound pretty good but are not within the purview of a governor in Alabama, because they contravene the Alabama Constitution. Maybe his supporters don’t know that. The first position he says he will take is to not hold a session of the Legislature every year. The second is to impose term limits on the members of the Legislature. Now, for Moore to be able to accomplish these, he would need Constitutional amendments, which have to be ratified by the voters at the next general election. However, and here is the sticking point, the good men and women of the Legislature first have to send the questions to the voter by a two-thirds majority vote. How many of them are going to vote for term limits? How many are going to agree not to meet every year, when they get paid nice per diems for meeting?
   Mmmmm.. I’m guessing not two-thirds.

   Reply
10. CB Hackworth says:

    October 24, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    LTNS, Gita!

    I think that link is to a very different Roy Moore…

    Reply
11. Gita says:

    October 24, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    Right you are, CB.
    The correct URL is: http://www.myspace.com/roymoore2010
    (Note to self: You are too old to recall URLs from memory.)

    Reply
12. Ron Taylor says:

    October 24, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Folks, the URL is now correct in both places.

    Reply
13. Lee Leslie says:

    October 25, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    Sorry we’ve has some site issues which have affected commenting. I believe they are now fixed. Please let me know if you encounter any problems. Thanks.

    Reply