Alabama Chief Justice: I Didn’t Mean That First Amendment Protects Only Christians

Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court addresses a Pro-Life Mississippi and a Pastors for Life pastors luncheon in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Jan. 17, 2014. Moore told the attendees that he cannot separate... Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court addresses a Pro-Life Mississippi and a Pastors for Life pastors luncheon in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Jan. 17, 2014. Moore told the attendees that he cannot separate his faith from his job as chief justice and continues to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) MORE LESS
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The Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, who implied in a January speech that the First Amendment only applied to Christian faiths, said on Monday that he was talking about the biblical foundations in the United States, not the application of the law.

“It applies to the rights God gave us to be free in our modes of thinking, and as far as religious liberty to all people, regardless of what they believe,” Justice Roy Moore said about the First Amendment in an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser.

The Advertiser said that Moore “strongly denied” that the First Amendment excludes non-Christian religions.

In a video recorded at a Pastors for Life event in Mississippi posted by Raw Story last week, Moore spoke about the American government’s interpretation of the word “religion.”

“Everybody, to include the United States Supreme Court, has been deceived as to one little word in the First Amendment called religion. They can’t define it,” he said during his speech.

“Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures. They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”

Moore was removed from his position as chief justice 2003 after he refused to follow a federal court order demanding that a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the state judicial building. Since he was removed, he has been known as the “Ted Commandments Judge.” He was re-elected to the state Supreme Court in 2012.

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