Judge Roy Moore's Gubernatorial Bid Highlights Religious Liberty Theme

By Allie Martin
October 24, 2005

(AgapePress) - Judge Roy Moore, former chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, has announced his candidacy for governor of that state. However, the official who was removed from office two years ago for refusing to obey a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's judicial building says he will not make the public display of the biblical laws a centerpiece of his campaign.

According to Moore, obeying the federal judge's order requiring the removal of the Alabama Ten Commandments monument from public display in the government building would have been in violation of his oath of office, which requires acknowledgment of God. And, even though he says he has no plans to move the granite monument back to Montgomery now that he has announced his gubernatorial bid, he maintains his position on his constitutional duty.

Commenting on his candidacy during a recent Cable News Network (CNN) appearance, the Alabama leader noted, "I do support the acknowledgment of God, and I would support and defend any person's right to acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government simply because that is the foundation of our law, the foundation of our country."

Such acknowledgment of God, Moore insists, is "part of the organic law according to the United States Code Annotated," as well as "part of every constitution in every state." Hence the controversial judge, who claims to have widespread grassroots support in his own state, maintains in no uncertain terms that "what I did in Alabama by displaying a monument did not violate the First Amendment."

The former chief justice of Alabama's highest court has been an outspoken critic of what he describes as an activist federal judiciary and the encroachments of liberal activist judges on citizens' religious liberty and constitutional rights. He says if elected governor, he would represent the people -- not special interests or some radical activist agenda.

"My lambasting, if you will, of federal courts is simply because they've intruded into our lives," Moore says. "When a court starts telling you how to worship and that you can't worship a God upon which this nation was founded, they're wrong -- they violate the Tenth Amendment and the First Amendment. When judges start making law as opposed to interpreting law, they can't fulfill their oath of office."

Alabama's gubernatorial elections take place next year. Earlier this month a Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll addressing primary favorites showed incumbent GOP Governor Bob Riley leading Moore 44 percent to 25 percent among Republican voters.