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Alabama Governor Labeled 'Terrorist' for Bible Study

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley seen in his Capitol office in Montgomery, Ala., in this Feb. 7, 2003, file photo. Riley and his staff have begun weekly Bible studies in his Capitol office, a move critics decry as a troubling display of religion in the halls of state power. Riley, a Southern Baptist, has a Bible study with Cabinet members and his senior staff each Tuesday morning. Other staffers attend a Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 morning session. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, FIle)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Gov. Bob Riley and his staff have begun weekly Bible studies in his Capitol office, a move critics decry as a troubling display of religion in the halls of state power.

Riley, a Southern Baptist, holds Bible study classes with Cabinet members and his senior staff each Tuesday morning. Other staffers attend a Wednesday morning session.

Riley's chief of staff, Toby Roth, said no state business is discussed during the classes, and he makes sure Cabinet members have plenty of other meetings with the governor so that they don't feel the need to attend simply to have a word with the boss.

But Larry Darby, Alabama director for American Atheists, said there is no way the classes can be truly voluntary as long as the governor is involved.

"It's a form of Christian terrorism," Darby said.

Riley said he attended various Bible studies at the U.S. Capitol while serving in Congress for six years and he wanted to do the same thing in Montgomery.

"This is not coercion. This is just something we wanted to do to come together," he said Wednesday. "It's voluntary. Anyone that wants to come is more than welcome."

In 2001, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore raised a firestorm of criticism when he placed a Ten Commandments monument in the lobby of the state Judicial Building. A federal judge recently ordered the monument removed, but allowed it to remain while Moore appeals.

Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of several groups suing over the monument, said there is nothing illegal about the Bible classes.

The ministers invited to speak so far have been Protestant and Roman Catholic, but deputy press secretary Pepper Bryars, who organizes the Wednesday events, said he plans to have speakers from other faiths.

Steve Glassroth of Montgomery, another plaintiff in the Ten Commandments lawsuit, said he doesn't have a problem with Bible studies at the Capitol as long as they are voluntary.

"This is not one of those in-your-face public things," he said.

Of Riley's 55 regular staff members, 11 attended Wednesday's program - proof, participants say, that no one feels pressured to attend.

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