“What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.” -- The Art of War

Anyone who believes that the ongoing fiasco at the Alabama Judicial Building is about a two-ton rock hasn’t been paying enough attention.  State supreme court chief justice Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments monument is merely the latest battlefield in an ongoing fight over God’s place in United States society.

It’s not about the U.S. Constitution.  Even the most liberal reading of the document -- including the First Amendment -- would fail to produce any real justification for forcing the monument’s removal.  No laws have been enacted in Alabama to force acceptance of a religion, and there is no legal punishment allotted for those who choose to reject (most) of the statements on the statue.

It’s not about the Alabama Constitution, which explicitly acknowledges the existence of God and his authority.  To suggest that Moore has violated the spirit or letter of his state’s legal foundation would nullify its entire premise.

It even goes beyond the “separation of church and state.”  Justice Moore is hardly advocating a theocracy by providing a visible tribute to the Ten Commandments in his courthouse.  American history, from the Declaration of Independence on, is filled with allusions to God and Scripture even less subtle than the Decalogue etched in stone in Alabama.

The Pledge of Allegiance declares “one nation under God.”

The U.S. national anthem admonishes the citizenry to “praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.”

U.S. currency is stamped with the motto, “In God We Trust.”

The obvious question should be: How does a state’s decision to display the Ten Commandments constitute more of a federal religious endorsement than more than two centuries of American acknowledgement of the God of the Bible?

It is difficult to believe that groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State truly believe that they are upholding the U.S. Constitution with lawsuits over prayer in schools, plaques with Scripture hanging in the Grand Canyon or monuments depicting the Divine.

Anyone threatened by Moore’s monument would feel most uncomfortable reading the words of our Founding Fathers or walking through the government buildings and memorials in Washington.  And though some people would no doubt claim to be offended by being presented with God’s commands, that’s not enough to make it illegal to display them.

Yet the issue isn’t about the Ten Commandments, which have long since been trampled upon and degraded.  We can’t even get past the first one -- “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  And lying?  Idolatry?  Adultery?  Covetousness?  Heck, these are the threads by which American pop culture is weaved.  If you don’t believe it, just tune in to five minutes of the latest reality show (or CNN, for that matter).

Last year’s 9th Circuit decision to take the Pledge of Allegiance out of public schools should have been a wake-up call that the very foundations of our national heritage are on the debate table.  The real battle is to determine the worldview that will form the basis of American culture for the future.

At stake are personal freedoms and a set of moral values that have been at the core of our nation since it was born.  It’s no secret that these are under attack.  A redefinition of cultural traditions and values is being attempted.  The battlefields are plentiful within the courts, in the media, in academia and in the church.

That’s why the confrontation in Alabama matters.  The monument itself is largely irrelevant, but the tug-of-war over it is reflective of the larger war over God’s place in our society.  Those on the far left merely want to make sure that it’s their religion that gets to be accepted by the state.  And chipping away the foundations of Judeo-Christian beliefs is an effective strategy to use, starting with the removal of a pesky reminder of God’s high standards.