Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy
S. Moore on Friday said that presidential candidates who don't oppose
marriage equality should “not be considered.”
Moore, an outspoken opponent of
marriage equality, attempted to block a federal judge's ruling
declaring unconstitutional Alabama's ban on gay marriage by ordering
probate judges to ignore the ruling. A majority of judges initially
followed Moore's directions but most later reversed course. Moore
has also said that he would not follow a Supreme Court order
invalidating restrictive state marriage bans.
(Related: Roy
Moore says he won't follow a Supreme Court order invalidating state
gay marriage bans.)
The issue in Alabama became
increasingly confusing last week when the Alabama Supreme Court
ordered probate judges to stop
issuing such licenses.
Appearing Friday at the Family Research
Council's (FRC) Faith and Family Summit, Moore said that a Supreme
Court ruling striking down bans would pave the way for the government
to “take your children.”
“[T]hey're going to be taking your
children simply by the same logic they're following,” he
said. “They're going to define who your children can be and
who they answer to. People will say, 'Oh, we couldn't go there.'
Well, we're going somewhere else right now that we didn't think we
would be going.”
Christians, Moore said, “need to
stand up and do their duty to God” and fight gay rights.
“This is the most critical issue that
faces this country,” Moore told FRC President Tony Perkins. “And
I want to disagree a little bit with what I've heard about asking our
presidential candidates [about marriage rights]. We should not have
to ask them, Tony. If they haven't come up and said it, [then] they
should not even be considered.”
If the Supreme Court invalidates such
bans, “then we've ruined the definition of the family and we'll go
to parent-and-child [marriage] next,” he added.