Opinion: Preaching bigotry from the bench

Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court is a man who thinks his bench is a pulpit from which to preach bigotry. He became a hero to religious fundamentalists when he refused to take down a copy of the Ten Commandments he had tacked on his courtroom wall. He was then elected to the state Supreme Court, where he continues to disgrace the judiciary.

In a recent opinion involving child custody, Moore wrote a diatribe against homosexuality. The mother of the three children at the center of the custody battle is a lesbian. She was challenging a custody order giving the father primary custody. A unanimous court granted continued custody to the father, but it was on procedural grounds not related to the mother's sexual orientation. Moore wrote separately, apparently to give full voice to his views of damnation.

In his opinion, Moore wrote that homosexuality is considered "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this nation and our laws are predicated." He said homosexuality is an "inherent evil against which children must be protected" and that gays and lesbians are "presumptively unfit to have custody of minor children under the established laws of this state."

You have to wonder how so much intolerance and prejudice can fit into such a small mind? If anyone is "unfit" in this case it is Moore, who has clearly demonstrated he cannot separate his religious views from his role as an officer of the court. He should be removed from the court.

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