social witness

Alabama UU protests monument

Alabama Unitarian Universalist Tim Hall went home sick on August 21, but what he saw on his television made him sicker. It was Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore fighting to keep a Ten Commandments monument in the state judicial building.

Hall, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery, decided he wasn’t too sick to take action. First he bought foam-core boards and markers, and then he spent much of the next few days occupying a street corner across from the justice building, where he held up messages about separation of church and state.

Hall was joined at various times by his wife, Amina Kilgore Hall, and his two 15-year-old sons, Philip and Justin, as well as other members of the Montgomery fellowship.

“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” said Hall, who has a carpet cleaning and apartment restoration business. “I had to go down and make it known that most people in Alabama feel differently than the way the media was presenting our state to the world.”

Hall said his group was interviewed by more than thirty television and newspaper reporters. “The scene in front of the judicial building was wild,” he said.

“The Christian Right was there. People were screaming at us with bullhorns. Someone threw an AA battery at me. We had to have the police remove several people from our corner.

“But there were others who we were able to have healthy discussions with, people who really wanted to hear what we had to say.”

Hall, membership chair and choir director of the 125-member fellowship, said a Baptist deacon also stood with his group. “His belief was that the commandments should be in our hearts, not in the building.”

The Ten Commandments monument was removed from public view in late August and Judge Moore was suspended.

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