This could be debated back and forth right up until the very day we stand in the throne room of God and ask Him ourselves.

I’ve got some strong opinions on it, myself, but you just don’t expect to hear a politician being so forthright, when it comes to making such bold proclamations of God’s judgment on our nation.

I’m speaking of Judge Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate, who apparently said last month that America asked for all the shootings and killings we’re now seeing, after “taking 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.”

He’s not wrong.

When prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance were the start of every American school day, the nightly news was quite different.

Is that proof that God is punishing America?

I’ll let you seek discernment in that area through prayer and careful study of the Scriptures.

He has previously mused that 9/11 may have been God’s judgment on a sinful, unrepentant nation.

Judge Moore has a reputation for bucking the system, when it comes to religious liberties.

Moore was elected as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001, but in 2003 was removed by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for refusing to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments, even after having been ordered to by a federal court.

He was elected to the Chief Justice position again in 2013, but was removed again in 2016 for directing probate judges to stick to the state’s ban on gay marriage, even after it had been overturned.

He’s now running against Luther Strange, who is the establishment pick (as well as Trump’s pick), for the Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions.

Moore bested Strange (and everybody else) in the state’s primary last month, but neither got enough for a clear win, requiring a runoff between he and Strange.