You wouldn’t believe the kind of things Roy Moore, Alabama’s Supreme Court Chief Justice, said at a Pastor for Life Luncheon this week. (Well, maybe you would, but that doesn’t make it any better.) A video of Moore’s speech on Raw Story shows the Chief Justice declaring the Christian faith the one true religion, while simultaneously belittling other faiths.
“Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures,” Moore said. “They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship. Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”
Furthermore, Moore – the highest judge in the state, mind you — derided “secular law” and said that the United States “lost its way” when it started removing God from governmental decisions and stopping prayer in schools and during political meetings. “You can’t be happy unless you follow God’s law,” Moore told the crowd.
How can a man who only respects his own religion be expected to protect the religious rights of others in his state? Similarly, how can a man who admittedly puts his faith above the nation’s laws be expected to interpret the law correctly?
Since it was an anti-abortion gathering, Moore shared plenty of controversial views on reproductive rights. Though same-sex marriage wasn’t the crux of his speech, Moore bemoaned the idea of two men marrying in a chapel, too.
This speech is hardly the first time Chief Justice Moore has shared these types of outspoken views. In February, he made headlines for writing letters to all 50 U.S. governors, begging them to implement a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Alas, his requests seemed to largely fall on deaf ears.
Back in 2000, Moore was in the news for erecting a monument of the Ten Commandments inside the state judicial building. When a federal judge declared that it must be taken out, Moore refused to comply and state courts removed him from office for disobeying a higher court’s verdict. After nearly a decade hiatus, however, Moore ran for judge again in 2012 and won re-election thanks to Alabama’s conservative voter base. Thus far, he has not attempted to reinstall the Ten Commandments in his place of work.
Alabama residents who don’t prescribe to a strict Christian lifestyle best hope they don’t find themselves in front of the Supreme Court because Moore is admittedly biased. It’s a wonder how such a high-ranking judge could mistake Freedom of Religion for forcing everyone to live by the rules of his own religion.
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