I forgot to mention, in regards to the sincerety of the protestors, that the state of Alabama has the worst education system in the US. It comes in at 50. As its Southern neighbors have grown and prospered, Alabama has lagged behind, especially in educational achievement. Education there is chronically underfunded, due to it's feudal tax laws. In 1990, The Birmingham News, the state's largest newspaper, wrote an excellent series of editorials advocating tax reform. The series won the Pulitzer Prize but failed to sway the Legislature.

The state's tax code is firmly rooted in the 19th century, when the canon of white supremacy governed politics and agrarian interests controlled the economy. Determined to protect the interests of wealthy property owners, Alabama lawmakers -- many of whom were wealthy property owners -- enshrined much of the tax code in the state constitution, written in 1901. As a result, taxes are not only among the lowest in the nation, but the tax code is also among the least progressive, hoisting a staggering load onto the backs of the poor while sparing the wealthy much of a burden.

Enter the scene, one Susan Pace Hamill, a University of Alabama tax law professor. While studying theology during a sabbatical, she wrote an essay criticizing the Alabama tax code, which imposes an effective tax rate of 12 percent on the poorest and 3 percent on the wealthiest taxpayers, as lacking Christian charity. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a conservative Republican and evangelical Christian who has long opposed tax hikes, agreed with Ms Pace Hamill, and got a tax reform referendum on the ballot for Sept 9th, to raise his state's total taxes by more than a billion dollars, by raising taxes on the wealthy while also lowering taxes for the poor.

The United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Alabama Southern Baptist Convention, among others, have joined with Riley and support his tax reform proposal. But since the culture of Southern right wingers and Christian conservatives believe that ANY tax increases are sinful, there is a backlash campaign against the proposal from the Republican and Christian right, both in Alabama and nationally. Even though the national Christian Coalition president Roberta Combs has praised Riley's tax reform plan, the Christian Coalition of Alabama opposes it. Several national conservative groups, including Americans for Tax Reform, have pledged to work against the proposal.

Considering that context and background to the 10 commandments controversy, is it any wonder that these poorly educated evangelists believe that the 10 commandments are the foundation upon which the American judicial system was built?

Let us not confuse exploitation and manipulation of the poorly educated, brainwashed Southern evangelical cult by the rich and poltically powerful, with sincere belief in "the cause of Christian martydom". These people have been brainwashed into believing themselves to be victims. That is the way they are most useful to right wing Republicans, who need to keep them stupid and gullible, so they'll vote the way they want them to. You can bet they don't want better educated Alabamans, any more than they want to see tax reforms.



bais leading a revolutionary campaign to raise his state's total taxes by more than a billion dollars while also lowering taxes for the poor.