T

here it was, in one not-so-brief and not-so-shining moment, a summation of all the reasons Alabama can’t solve its weightier problems.

AL.com reporter

documented the event last week – the

over a constitutional amendment to allow display of the Ten Commandments in public places.



Whoop, whoop, whoop! Nyuk, nyuk nyuk!

Right.

It was funny, sure. Like it’s funny watching a guy on America’s Funniest Videos swing for the piñata and hit himself in the groin instead.

To hear how Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, talked about the bill he sponsored was like one of

. Remember when Leno asked a woman on the street to name one of the Ten Commandments, and she said … Freedom of Speech.

Bridges listed “love thy neighbor” as one. No. it is not one of the Ten. But hey, just consider it one of Jesus’ amendments.

Funny stuff. A lot of people – me including – got a good laugh.

Except nothing I’ve seen since

on the Senate floor sums up Alabama’s political futility better than that Ten Commandments exchange.

Not because it's another example of political pandering, which it is. Not because it is likely meaningless, since

would prohibit the state from spending public money to defend its actions, which it would certainly have to do.

And not even because our good representatives should be debating prison reform or meaningful constitutional reform instead, not because they ought to be figuring out what to do about crime, or ethics, or anything that might make this a better, more livable, more equitable and honorable state.

Because after hearing this “debate,” after reading how legislators butchered a subject so clearly close to their hearts and their campaign promises, Alabama should want these guys as far away from important issues as possible.

We ought to file a restraining order just to keep the Alabama House from coming within 200 yards of anything that matters.

I mean come on. Rep. Bridges presumably goes to Sunday School every week. He was raised a Christian and campaigned as a Christian and thinks enough of his religion to post his proud Assembly of God membership on his short bio.

Yet when he comes to argue

his

point on

his

bill in the House, he speaks as if Moses brought a copy of Gideon’s New Testament down Mount Cheaha.

And it’s not just Bridges. The whole debate devolved into arguments about race and street corner theology, even over the meaning of adultery. Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, at one point defined adultery as “having sex with someone you hadn’t got any business having sex with.”

OK.

And the House, of course, voted 77-19 to pass it on through, moving it to the Alabama Senate. If it passes there it will need voter approval to become law. Which of course it will get, because Alabama voters aren’t likely to cast a ballot against God.

But we really ought to stop here and have a moment of silence. For what took place in Montgomery, and just what it means.

Dear God – and I say that as a prayerful plea, and not in vain – please keep these men and women away from our children and our healthcare, away from justice and punishment and the general welfare, away from our wallets and our pursuits of happiness.

It is clear now. They know not what they do.



John Archibald is a columnist for Alabama Media Group. Jarchibald@al.com