"The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government"
About this Quote
The rhetorical trick is “recognition.” Moore doesn’t argue that the Ten Commandments should govern; he suggests the Constitution merely “reflects” what Scripture already “recognized.” That’s a soft verb doing hard work: it implies continuity, inevitability, even fidelity. In that telling, religious liberty isn’t primarily a shield for diverse beliefs; it’s a Christian principle the state is obligated to honor because it precedes the state.
The subtext is that the Establishment Clause becomes secondary, maybe even suspect. By rooting First Amendment meaning in a specific religious text, Moore invites a narrowing of whose “duties” count as properly religious and whose practices look like errors the public square needn’t accommodate.
Context matters: Moore’s public career is tied to fights over Ten Commandments displays and a broader culture-war project that treats “separation of church and state” as a secular overreach. So the sentence reads less like constitutional interpretation and more like narrative control: if America’s founding freedom is actually a biblical inheritance, then public religious symbols aren’t establishment; they’re restoration.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Moore, Roy. (2026, January 17). The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-first-amendment-to-the-constitution-reflects-71940/
Chicago Style
Moore, Roy. "The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-first-amendment-to-the-constitution-reflects-71940/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-first-amendment-to-the-constitution-reflects-71940/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.


