Proposed amendments to Alabama Constitution deal with Ten Commandments, sanctity of life

Proposed amendments to Alabama Constitution deal with Ten Commandments, sanctity of life

By Carrie Brown McWhorter
The Alabama Baptist

When Alabamians go to the polls on Nov. 6, two amendments on the ballot will be of special interest to many voters in the faith community.

Statewide Amendment No. 1 deals with displays of the Ten Commandments. According to a sample ballot on the website of the Alabama Secretary of State, the amendment will affirm that a person is free to worship God as he or she chooses and that a person’s religious beliefs will have no effect on his or her civil or political rights.

The amendment also makes it clear that the Ten Commandments may be displayed on public property so long as the display meets constitutional requirements, such as being displayed along with historical or educational items.

In support

Dean Young, an Orange Beach businessman who has promoted a Ten Commandments amendment for 17 years, says 73 percent of Alabamians support such an amendment. He is leading the movement to pass Amendment No. 1.

“It puts the Ten Commandments back into the school houses and gives the right to display the Ten Commandments along with other historical documents in the schools across the state of Alabama,” Young said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama opposes the amendment, stating that it “serves no useful purpose.”

‘One nation under God’

The Ten Commandments Amendment PAC disagrees. On its website, the organization promoting the amendment says that public display of the Ten Commandments serves “as a powerful reminder that the United States is indeed ‘one nation under God.’”

Debra Barnes, a member of Washington Park Baptist Church, Muscle Shoals, in Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association, agrees.

“Within the Ten Commandments are contained all the heart of our Father, so that our society can be blessed and have order, not chaos,” Barnes wrote in a letter to The Alabama Baptist.

Eric Johnston, president and general counsel of the Southeast Law Institute (SLI), a nonprofit organization that specializes in public policy issues including religious freedom and the sanctity of life, says he supports the proposed amendment but the religious freedom element of the text is not significant.

In an SLI Educational Update, Johnston wrote that “for some, the posting of the Ten Commandments continues to be an important issue, … [however] the fact that citizens of Alabama pass a constitutional amendment stating this right will not preempt the U.S. Constitution and its interpretation by SCOTUS (U.S. Supreme Court). … While (the amendment) may be an incentive for some public officials to make historical displays, it does not give them any greater rights than they have already.”

Statewide Amendment No. 2 deals with sanctity of human life.

The proposed amendment provides that it would be the public policy of the state to recognize and support the importance of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.

Amendment No. 2 would also make clear that the state constitution does not include a right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion using public funds.

Nikki Richardson, executive vice president of the Alabama Policy Institute (API), a conservative nonprofit research and educational organization that promotes limited government and champions strong families, says Alabama must vote yes on Amendment No. 2 to show the world just how strong pro-life values are in Alabama.

“Alabamians should wholeheartedly support this amendment because we, as a state, overwhelmingly believe in the sanctity of life,” Richardson said in an API statement. “For many of us, this belief stems from our Christian values. King David reminds us in Psalm 139 that God knits each of us together in the womb. We are unable to ignore that reality. We also acknowledge the truth described in Genesis, that humans bear the imago Dei — the image of God — and are worthy of dignity and respect.”

For those who are pro-life because of a non-religious understanding of the value of life, the proposed amendment increases not only protection of the unborn but also “those recently born, children and individuals with disabilities — because of their humanity,” Richardson said.

Thanks to pro-life groups in Alabama, “a significant number of regulations have been passed that reduce the number of abortions and protect women’s health care, as much as legally permitted, from the substandard care they receive in abortion clinics,” Johnston said.

Strategic move

Amending the Alabama Constitution will not undo Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Johnston said. But it is a “very good strategic move in the fight to protect unborn life.”

Richardson also noted that while the proposed Amendment No. 2 will not ban abortion in Alabama, “its unqualified passage will signal to the nation and the wider world that abortion is unacceptable, morally repugnant, and, as many like to say, on the wrong side of history.”