Politics & Power Quote by Adam Rickitt

There’s a quietly canny double move here: defend secular governance while ring-fencing religion’s right to argue with itself. As an actor-turned-public-figure, Rickitt isn’t building a constitutional theory so much as drafting a truce in the culture wars. “Entirely separate at all costs” is absolutist language meant to signal moral clarity, not legal nuance; it’s the kind of line designed to shut down the predictable “but faith matters” rebuttal before it starts. The phrase plays well in a media ecosystem that rewards certainty.

The second clause is where the politics really happen. By shifting “religious marriage” to “each faith,” he reframes a hot-button public fight (often about recognition, legitimacy, and rights) into an internal theological process. That’s a strategic narrowing: the state shouldn’t dictate doctrine, but the state does regulate civil marriage. Rickitt’s wording tries to keep those spheres cleanly divided, implicitly endorsing a model where civil marriage is a neutral legal contract while religious marriage is symbolic, communal, and voluntary.

“Free of political influence” is the most revealing tell. It positions political advocacy as contamination, as if public debate inevitably bullies belief. Subtext: let the law protect equal status, but don’t force churches to perform ceremonies they don’t affirm. It’s an appeal to pluralism that also functions as a pressure-release valve: respect for conscience offered in exchange for secular legitimacy. The intent is de-escalation - a way to sound progressive on separation while granting traditional institutions space to dissent without being cast as the villain.