Roy Moore, the failed Senate candidate and twice-removed former Alabama chief justice, is telling pastors that it is their “duty” to continue church assemblies in spite of public health officials’ social-distancing guideline, the Alabama Political Reporter noted Wednesday.

“I am writing a letter to pastors on the duty to continue church assemblies, even in the midst of these trying times,” Moore said. “Our faith requires it, our duty demands it, and no law or government can prohibit it.”

On Twitter and Facebook, Moore has declared, “When 10 people can’t assemble in church or business then healthy people are being quarantined, our Constitution & faith in God is under attack, & Tyranny triumphs when fear reigns.”

“Businesses are closed, our economy is destroyed and churches are closed by tyrants who pander fear in the place of faith in God and our U.S. Constitution,” Moore said in another tweet.

Moore is a long-time favorite of religious-right advocates for his defiance of federal court orders on church-state and LGBTQ-equality issues. Many religious-right leaders rallied unsuccessfully to save his 2017 Senate election bid after he was accused of sexual misconduct with minors when he was in his 30s. He lost the Republican primary for U.S. Senate earlier this year.