Bible-thumping Alabama chief justice attacks 'foolish' city for allowing non-Christian prayers

The Christian Postreports that Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore called Huntsville's decision to allow secular invocations at city council meetings "foolish."

"We're having prayers [by] atheists? We're having Wiccans say prayers? How foolish can we be?" he asked members of the Madison County Republican Men's Club.

"I'll say this in Huntsville because I think it needs to be said in Huntsville," Moore continued. "There is one God and it's the God on which this nation was founded. And it's the God of the Scriptures. I don't need applause for that. It's a truth in history and it's a truth in law."

Moore -- who is colloquially known as "The Ten Commandments" judge for erecting a monument to them in the state courthouse -- has a long history of making statements about the divine origin of the United States.

In June, he claimed that "[w]ithout God there would be no nation. Without God there would be no freedom to believe what you want. That goes all the way back to people like Thomas Jefferson in his bill for religious freedom. He knew what it meant. He knew the limits of civil government, and he knew who gave us that freedom to believe what we want about God, but it comes from God."

Moore's specific complaint was in reference to Huntsville's decision to allow North Alabama Freethought Association board member Kelly McCauley to open a city council meeting with a secular invocation.

In the past, Moore has linked secularism to Islamic Sharia law, claiming that "a government that is denying God" is one that would allow the strict Muslim judicial code to take hold.