Render Unto Caesar

Bill Pryor responds to criticisms of his role in the removal of the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama.

Now that the monument has been removed, the media and demonstrators have returned home, and the shouting has subsided, I want to state a respectful and complete response to these arguments. I believe I had a moral duty, as a Christian, to obey the federal injunction. There was no moral justification for civil disobedience.

My oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, sworn to God with my hand on the Bible, required me, as attorney general of Alabama, to obey the injunction without regard to whether I agreed with the basis for that injunction. My moral duty was not in conflict nor even in tension with my legal duty. My Christian duty instead provided the foundation for my public duty.