In fact, Moore's monument parallels moves under way by a group called Faith and Action, which has had about 400 marble slabs and carved tables installed in public places political offices. Lawsuits, of course, have followed, and in most cases, courts have ruled against the displays.
Experts warn the issue itself - stone tablets in public - is narrow and perishable. To compare Moore's stand on the courthouse steps to a historical moment such as Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door before thousands is "ludicrous," says Dean Culpepper Clark of the University of Alabama College of Communication, author of a book on Wallace. "Judge Moore claims to represent people who are in no way oppressed," Mr. Clark says.
Most educated Alabamians consider Moore a zealot out of touch with mainstream Christianity, says Clark, who suspects they'll abandon Moore as he flouts the system and defies judges.
Still, he adds, the galvanization of the Christian right "could ripple out a good bit."
[...]
The crowd's devotion, says Clark, is somewhat baffling: Moore's followers have braved the heat on marble stairs, even slept there for several nights, when conservative Christian Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, the Alabama governor's mansion, the state Legislature, and the state Supreme Court. But many of the faithful feel besieged all the same - in part by rulings such as the Texas sodomy case. That unease helps make this a galvanizing time for the Christian right.
