Gay bans and praise for Putin: the world according to Senate hopeful Roy Moore
The Alabama primary victor has called for a ban on homosexual acts and appeared to call Native Americans and Asian Americans ‘reds and yellows’
Judge Roy Moore’s victory in the Republican Senate primary in Alabama means one of the most controversial figures in American politics is poised to become a United States senator. These are some of the most inflammatory comments from the man who was twice removed from his former position as chief justice of the Alabama supreme court and revved up a supportive crowd on the eve of the election by brandishing a gun on stage at a rally.
Homosexuality should be illegal
In 2005, Moore said: “Homosexual conduct should be illegal.” In an interview televised on C-Span, Moore added: “It is immoral. It is defined by the law as detestable.” During a debate last week, he went out of his way to bemoan the fact that “sodomy [and] sexual perversion sweep the land”.
September 11 attacks as divine punishment
In a speech in February, Moore appeared to suggest that the terrorist attacks of September 11 were the result of divine retribution against the United States and prophesied in the Book of Isaiah. In comments first reported by CNN, Moore quoted Isaiah 30:12-13, saying: “Because you have despised His word and trust in perverseness and oppression, and say thereon … therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall, swell out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instance.” Moore then noted: “Sounds a little bit like the Pentagon, whose breaking came suddenly at an instance, doesn’t it?” He added: “If you think that’s coincidence, if you go to verse 25: ‘There should be up on every high mountain and upon every hill, rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers will fall.’”
Praise for Putin
In an interview with the Guardian in August, Moore praised Putin for his views on gay rights. “Maybe Putin is right,” said Moore, who added of the Russian autocrat: “Maybe he’s more akin to me than I know.” The comments came after Moore suggested the United States could be described as “the focus of evil in the world” because “we promote a lot of bad things”. Moore specifically named gay marriage as one of those “bad things”.
‘Reds and yellows’
At a rally earlier in September, Moore talked about “reds and yellows fighting” while discussing racial division in the United States. Referring to Native Americans as having red skin or Asian Americans as having yellow skin is considered deeply offensive. Moore justified this on Twitter by citing lyrics from the song Jesus Loves the Little Children. He wrote “Red, yellow, black and white they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. This is the Gospel.”
Tracking livestock is communism
In 2006, Moore condemned a proposal for a national ID system for animals as “more identifiable with communism than free enterprise”. The proposal received attention after a cow in Alabama had been diagnosed with mad cow disease. Moore, who was then running for governor, was skeptical that the outbreak was real. “I’m doubting that this story is true,” he said at the time. Instead, Moore suggested it was a ruse intended to promote the tracking system.
