"But separation of church and state was never meant to separate God and government"
About this Quote
Moore’s line is engineered to sound like common sense while quietly redefining the argument he’s supposedly clarifying. “Church and state” is the constitutional phrase, a practical boundary meant to stop religious institutions from wielding governmental power and to keep government from policing belief. By swapping in “God and government,” Moore turns a legal guardrail into a cosmic impossibility. Who, exactly, is going to “separate” an omnipresent deity from anything? The move is rhetorically clever: it paints secular governance as not just mistaken but unnatural, even arrogant.
The intent is less about theology than about permission. If “God” is always already inside the state, then public policy can be framed as moral obedience rather than contested civic choice. That widens the lane for explicitly Christian-coded legislation while making opponents sound like they’re trying to exile faith itself. It’s a strategic conflation: treating institutional neutrality as hostility toward religion, and treating the majority’s religion as synonymous with God.
The subtext is a familiar American culture-war bargain: government should acknowledge “God,” but “God” tends to arrive with a very particular set of doctrines, symbols, and preferred constituencies. That’s why Moore’s career matters to the context. As a judge known for high-profile fights over Ten Commandments displays, he’s not theorizing abstractly; he’s defending a courtroom-and-capitol aesthetic where Christianity functions as civic wallpaper. The quote works because it reframes a constitutional debate into a loyalty test: are you for God, or for “separation”? That’s not constitutional reasoning; it’s branding.
The intent is less about theology than about permission. If “God” is always already inside the state, then public policy can be framed as moral obedience rather than contested civic choice. That widens the lane for explicitly Christian-coded legislation while making opponents sound like they’re trying to exile faith itself. It’s a strategic conflation: treating institutional neutrality as hostility toward religion, and treating the majority’s religion as synonymous with God.
The subtext is a familiar American culture-war bargain: government should acknowledge “God,” but “God” tends to arrive with a very particular set of doctrines, symbols, and preferred constituencies. That’s why Moore’s career matters to the context. As a judge known for high-profile fights over Ten Commandments displays, he’s not theorizing abstractly; he’s defending a courtroom-and-capitol aesthetic where Christianity functions as civic wallpaper. The quote works because it reframes a constitutional debate into a loyalty test: are you for God, or for “separation”? That’s not constitutional reasoning; it’s branding.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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