The Montgomery based Foundation for Moral Law released a statement Monday encouraging the Morgan County Schools to go forward with their plans for an elective Bible course and offered the foundation’s support if the course is challenged in court.
During the 2019 legislative session, the Alabama Legislature passed SB14, which allows elective courses on the study of the Bible. The Morgan County Schools announced plans to implement the new Bible course in partnership with Piedmont International University.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has protested the course, saying it violates the First Amendment and infringes upon the rights of non-Christian students.
Foundation for Moral Law President Kayla Moore disagreed with the FFRF.
“This course doesn’t violate anyone’s rights,” Moore said in a statement. “It’s an elective. Anyone who is offended by the Bible doesn’t have to take the course.”
Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe added, “In 1963 the Supreme Court recognized in Abington Township v. Schempp that religion has been closely identified with our history and government and that without a knowledge of the Bible, one’s education would be incomplete. We applaud Morgan County’s determination to give their students a complete education and trust they will not cave in to the FFRF’s demands for censorship.”
Eidsmoe wrote a letter encouraging Morgan County School Superintendent Bill Hopkins Jr.
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“We hope you will not be intimidated by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based anti-Christian organization,” Eidsmoe wrote. “The FFRF frequently sends letters to school districts and other local government officials threatening dire consequences if they do not remove religion from the public arena. Their letters frequently contain misinformation and/or misstatements of the law, they seldom follow through with legal action if they are unable to cow officials into submission, and on the rare occasions when they do go to court, they frequently lose.”
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The Foundation for Moral Law is an Alabama-based legal organization dedicated to religious liberty and the strict interpretation of the Constitution as intended by its framers. The foundation was founded by retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore. Moore is currently a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama. President Kayla Moore is married to Chief Justice Moore.
SB14 was part of a much larger effort to reform Alabama’s poor performing public schools.
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