Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Chief Justice who lost his job from defending a display of the Ten Commandments, was reunited with the monument at a speaking engagement last week after not seeing it for over a year.
Hundreds of members from the Indianapolis Baptist Temple gathered last Wednesday in a cafeteria hall in Greenwood, Indiana to hear from Moore, who was invited as a guest speaker.
"Americans don't know what it means to be an American anymore," Moore told the crowd. "It's not about the Ten Commandments, it's about the acknowledgement of the God who gave us the Ten Commandments. That's what the Ten Commandments actually represent, that there is a specific God that gave us laws upon which this country and our nation was founded."
On Oct. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases involving the display of Ten Commandments in Kentucky and Texas, breaking a nearly 25-year silence on the issue.
However, earlier in the month, the Supreme Court denied an appeal from Moore seeking to reclaim the office he lost after defying federal orders to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
The same monument is now on a nationwide tour sponsored by a group called American Veterans Standing for God and Country.
Opponents of displays of the Ten Commandments in public places argue they amount to a governmental endorsement of religion.
"They don't understand Church and state separation,” said Moore. “If they did, they would realize the acknowledgment of God doesn't violate the separation between Church and state.”
The Indianapolis Star reported that federal courts have prevented the display of Ten Commandment monuments or ruled that they be removed from government property in Richmond, Indianapolis, Bedford and Elkhart.
