I don't understand Justice Moore. What's wrong with me?

Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, defies the legal decisions in favor of gay marriage, claiming that he is not bound by them, telling local judges to ignore them. This is the same judge who some years ago refused orders to remove Biblical tablets from the courthouse.

What’s wrong with him? Is he evil, or just an idiot? The law is clear – he may disagree with the Federal decisions, but he and the probate judges are bound by them. More importantly, the vast majority of the country (according to polls) accepts gay marriage, sees it as something personal, not something the courts and the police should get involved with. I don’t get what he’s trying to do.

On the other hand, what’s wrong with me? I believe we should strive to understand people who are different from us. I seem to be failing at that with Justice Moore.

Come to think of it, he's probably neither evil nor an idiot. There’s absolutely no evidence that he’s corrupt, and he’s not trying to harm anyone. He’s not even intolerant: he’s not advocating arrests or suppression of gays. He just wants them to stay out of his face.

Maybe he’s just trying to protect a good society, as he sees it, one where everyone is secure, where you know what to expect, where everyone knows the right thing to do and acts together in harmony. He’s defending it against people who want to disrupt, to sow discord, to plant foreign ideas, and thus to undermine the solid foundations of community and identity. They threaten his world, and he knows no good can come of it. And the people around him agree: they re-elected him to the state Supreme Court after he had been removed from it over the tablets battle.

Moore might say, with Shakespeare: 

The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre

Observe degree, priority and place,

… but when the planets

In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!

What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!

Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors…[1]

For Moore, gay marriage is a threat not only to who he is, but to the identities of everyone he knows, and their relations, and their hopes for the future. "Frights, changes, horrors..." No wonder he fights so hard.

At least I think that’s what he thinks. But until we have a different kind of conversation, we won’t really know, will we?

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[1] Troilus and Cressida