Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in an August speech said the U.S. asked for "shootings and killings" because the country has "taken God out of everything."

In an Aug. 24 speech to Citizen Impact USA, a Christian conservative group, Moore also lamented the lack of prayer in public schools and city council meetings.

"You wonder why we're having shootings, and killings here in 2017? Because we've asked for it," he said. "We've taken God out of everything. We've taken prayer out of school, we've taken prayer out of council meetings."

The video of Moore's speech was posted to YouTube on Aug. 25 by Studio 25 Productions. CNN first reported the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice's comments.

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The August remarks were not Moore's first suggesting that secularism is responsible for tragedies and violence in the U.S.

During a speech to a church congregation in February, Moore suggested that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have been a punishment from God for what Moore said is a nationwide movement away from religion.

Moore, a staunch conservative, is set to face Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeSessions hits back at Trump days ahead of Alabama Senate runoff The biggest political upsets of the decade State 'certificate of need' laws need to go MORE (R-Ala.) in the state's Republican Senate runoff on Sept. 26.

He topped Strange in the state's primary last month, but neither candidate won a majority of the vote, prompting a runoff election. Strange is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Trump expects to nominate woman to replace Ginsburg next week Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral MORE (R-Ky.), as well as President Trump.

Trump's former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, however, is supporting Moore in the race.