I come from an era where cat-calls and taking advantage of women was part of what we all went though. I know many women who were abused and taken advantage of.
I do not like Judge Roy Moore as he is the antithesis of what I believe. However, the law in the United States says we are all innocent until proven guilty.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in a tweet: "Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections. I believe [Moore accuser] Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside."
Moore's tenure in the courts of Alabama was questionable at the very least. Way back in 2001, he was elected as chief judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama. A few years later in 2003, he lost his position because he did not remove the Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery.
Most people would have no objections to the Ten Commandments being displayed, as they are the basis for Christianity. However, as a former mental health practitioner working with adults who were abused as children, I believe the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or courtroom is problematic. One of the Commandments says: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you."
This sounds great, unless you are suing your father or mother in court of law for prior abuse, and it is a concern if the judge believes the Ten Commandments over your story. The issue is not only the establishment of religion, prohibited by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." But it could affect legal cases coming before the court, and the Ten Commandments would interfere with the prosecution of a bad parent.
Alabama is a state with its own view of the world; however, Roy Moore again defied the federal judicial process by asking that probate judges not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
In February 2015, Judge Moore wrote a six-page letter to the judges that was reported by USA Today: "Issued hours before same-sex marriage was expected to become legal in Alabama, the letter says 'no probate judge shall issue or recognize a marriage license that is inconsistent with Article 1, Section 36.03, of the Alabama Constitution or § 30-1-19, Ala. Code 1975.' … Moore's order comes as a stay of Granade's decision was set to expire. Early Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the stay."
Moore also sent letters to the governor of Alabama at the time, saying the federal courts had no jurisdiction. Moore, himself ran for governor in 2006 and 2010, but he lost in the primaries.
Roy Moore pulled the religious card and said recently: "I've been mischaracterized in the press saying that I hate people because of their beliefs. I don't hate anybody. I'm a Christian. … That's why I'm speaking at the American Christian Academy here. Christians don't hate people. We don't hate gays, we don't hate people – we hate sin. That's something biblical. I stand for principles ... but I don't hate people, and I don't hate them because of their religion or anything else. Freedom of conscience is something that I spoke about today. ...The freedom of conscience allows people in this country to worship as they will, but that freedom comes from God."
Most of us have seen religious people say they get their mission and energy from God. I hope they are right, but there are many different religions with differing viewpoints.
As of Saturday, a former colleague said it was common knowledge that Moore dated teens when he was in his 30s. Dating is not the same as sex and abuse and then lying about it.
Although, the Internet shows ways around a polygraph (lie-detector tests), the powers that be in the Republican Party should not call for Moore to drop out of the race for the Senate but to ask him instead to take a polygraph test. That would go a long way toward proving his guilt or innocence.
We all have a right to run for office, but we don't have a right to lie. There should be a push for a lie-detector test, and Moore should not drop out of the race before he submits to one.
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