10 years ago: Roy Moore and Nehushtan

November 16, 2003, here on slacktivist: Roy Moore and Nehushtan

But here’s the part that struck me and reminded me of Roy Moore:

He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

Like the Ten Commandments, the bronze serpent was a gift from God and from the hand of Moses himself. But what began as a symbol and means of salvation for the people itself became an idol.

Moore and his supporters have repeatedly spoken of the removal of Moore’s graven image of the Ten Commandments as taking “God” out of the courtroom. We saw people prostrating themselves before the monument. We even saw a red-faced Alabaman screaming “Take your hands off our God!”

But the monument isn’t God, and for Moore and his followers, it doesn’t even represent God. It is Nehushtan. It should be broken in pieces.