Republicans Battling Republicans Over Ten Commandments

Social and political conservatives are generally supportive of Judge Roy Moore's efforts to use the power and authority of government to promote the Ten Commandments. Others, however, are less happy with him and his extremist supporters - in large part because their extremist, black & white thinking has led them to turn on Republicans as well.

They have called for the resignation of Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, a darling of the Religious Right, because he has chosen to uphold his oath of office and obey the law, as Phillip Ralws explains for the Associated Press:

Some of Moore's supporters are calling for the resignation of state Attorney General Bill Pryor and threaten to retaliate at the ballot box against Pryor, Gov. Bob Riley and members of the Supreme Court -- all but one a Republican -- creating a prickly dilemma for the GOP. "I would never vote for any of these people ever again. I hope they are never again able to hold any office," said Robert Reed, pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Coden. ... "We should be offended when the elected representatives of this state, the governor, the attorney general, and the justices of this court fail to acknowledge God as the basis of our justice system," Moore said.

Republicans need to learn that these people are extremists - they may be Republican extremists right now, but their first and only loyalty is to their ideology. They are not loyal to the Republican Party or to conservatism generally - as soon as they think that the Republicans are not 100% behind every bit of their theological agenda, they will turn around and bite the hand that has been feeding them without the slightest hesitation.

They won't compromise, as a responsible political party knows it must occasionally and as responsible Republicans are quite willing to consider. Such compromise is, however, anathema to every extremist of every era and of every persuasion. Political parties have long tried to make use of extremists in order gain or hold on to power, but it is a deal with the devil and can be very dangerous.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Ten Commandments
• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right
• Christian Extremism
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry