The term Ayatollah is a loathsome word to most Americans. Older citizens probably think immediately of the Ayatollah Khomeini who became notorious for being Iran’s supreme leader after overthrowing the Shah. He supported those who took Americans hostage in Iran and issued a fatwa for the death of Salman Rushdie for his publication of The Satanic Verses, thus showing zero tolerance for anyone who disagrees with or criticizes the Muslim religion. Even former pop star turned Muslim, Cat Stevens, who had once encouraged everyone to jump on the “Peace Train,” would not be critical of Khomeini’s intention that Rushdie be killed. Khomeini also referred to the United States as “the Great Satan.”
Therefore, to accuse someone of being an Ayatollah is not a kindly remark when it was given to Judge Roy Moore by a “civil rights” group. According to the Orlando Sentinel of January 17, 2016, Moore has received a great deal of unfavorable publicity, even though he is the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (A16). He has been excoriated by the daughter of former Alabama governor George Wallace as being “more combative” than her father. She claimed he was worse than her father who opposed efforts to desegregate because a judge must be held to a higher code of ethics.
“He believes he is a law unto himself,” opined Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center. What could the judge have done to have so much abuse heaped upon him? He is opposed to homosexual marriage. And he argues that the Supreme Court’s recent decision only applied to the four states involved in the case; Alabama was not one of those. He claims that he is not defying the Supreme Court, but that a legal precedent in Alabama was not overturned by the Supreme Court. Previously, in 2000, Moore installed a 2 ½ ton granite monument to the Ten Commandments. He did defy at the time a federal order to remove it. (Was there a federal order to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court building?) He was then removed from office but then won election as Chief Justice in 2012.
He has been criticized for saying that homosexuality is “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God.” Perhaps those who disagree with this definition could tell us what standards they are using; the judge is using God’s (Gen. 18:20; Lev. 20:13; Jude 6). He also said that same sex marriage would prove to be “the ultimate destruction of our country because it destroys the very foundation upon which this nation is based.” Time will tell.