Justice & Law Quote by Jeff Miller

A politician’s favorite tightrope walk is pretending to defend pluralism while quietly smuggling in a preferred moral order. Jeff Miller’s line opens with a constitutional reassurance - “We establish no religion” - then pivots to a warning that effectively makes religion the price of civic health. It’s a neat piece of rhetorical jiu-jitsu: affirm the First Amendment to sound moderate, then frame secularization as social “poison” and “corruption,” terms calibrated to trigger fear rather than invite debate.

The intent is less about theology than authority. By calling religious belief “theological underpinnings,” Miller casts faith as infrastructure: invisible when it works, catastrophic when removed. That metaphor does cultural work. It turns religion from a private commitment into a public utility, and it recodes nonreligious citizens not as equals in a plural society but as risk factors in a moral ecosystem.

The subtext is also a rebuttal to a modern American reality: religious diversity, rising non-affiliation, and culture-war battles over education, sexuality, and public life. Miller’s formulation offers an explanation for unease - social disorder isn’t economic or institutional; it’s spiritual vacancy. That’s politically useful because it proposes a solution that’s vague enough to unite a coalition (“belief”) while implicitly privileging the majority’s tradition.

Contextually, it sits in the long tradition of American “civil religion,” where leaders avoid naming a denomination yet insist the nation requires God-talk to stay virtuous. The genius - and the danger - is the insinuation that neutrality is impossible: if the state doesn’t sponsor religion, society will rot. That’s not constitutional argument; it’s moral leverage.