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"In God We Trust” that there will be a separation of church and state. This seemingly inextricable contradiction has become the loophole through which the American people feel justified in spreading the image of God within our secular government.

Just last week, a monument displaying the Ten Commandments was ordered to be removed from the Alabama Supreme Court building. And of course, the command was followed by the usual “pro-God” frenzy of protesters, hell-bent on glorifying the name of God at the cost of justice.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has come out as the main proponent for the statue. He defends it by claiming it is merely an acknowledgement of the moral foundation of America’s legal system and a right, under the First Amendment. His defiance of the federal court order to remove the monument has resulted in his suspension. In fact, it was Moore who had the tribute installed in the courthouse in 2001 in the first place, without the consent of the other justices.

First off, Moore fails to mention that America’s legal system was as much influenced by Moses as it was by other less statue-worthy candidates such as Confucius and Hammurabi. The Supreme Court even recognizes this fact by depicting the figures of Moses, Confucius and Solon in sculpture-form, floating together in harmony, thereby removing religious connotation.

This subtle distinction is what Justice Moore has failed to grasp. There is no room for an unquestionably Judeo-Christian monument to be placed in the middle of a public courthouse and no secular justification for it when it has etched on it the holiest of decrees from God.

Moore’s Judeo-Christian bias bleeds through, and it is exactly this partiality the writers of the Constitution sought to avoid. He gives himself away when he says he would be against a monument for the Koran, another important religious document, granted, from a less-accepted religion. Moore seems to be all for religious expression, but only if it’s of the right kind.

Under Moore’s rationale, a Koran monument should also be protected on First Amendment grounds and be allowed in city hall as a social reminder of all the Koran means to America. Doing him one better, I suppose a Mormon monument depicting polygamy would be fine too.

The reason any particular religious monument is not allowed has nothing to do with the 99 people who will not have a problem with it, but the one person who might. If people feel the government places more importance on a particular religion (perhaps by installing a 5,300-pound monument), they are stripped of their own security. The mere fact the statue was there suggested a governmental authorization for it, and it empowered some at the expense of others.

On an even more fundamental level, the whole issue seems to face squarely against Christian beliefs. The monument, being placed in an open space, seeking out attention, brings no glory to God. God emphasizes a quiet, humble spiritual relationship, saying “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen (Matthew 6:5).” Unseen, in this sense, seems closer to a private room in Moore’s home than the rotunda of Alabama’s Supreme Court building. If Moore is trying to make this a battle between God and the heathen government, he has already lost. Religious conviction is not the issue here. Freely living in a country where we recognize the Court’s supreme decrees over constitutionality, Moore had no right to disobey the direct order to remove the monument. Give to the Courts (or Caesar) what belongs to the Courts and give to God what is God’s. This is perhaps as clean of a separation as our government can allot.

Although hard to tell, I am a Christian, and I have never understood the insistence of extremists to do wrong to make right. Modern hypocrisy has always been a stumbling block for would-be followers and should be an embarrassment for those who would tout conviction instead of humility. Treading ever so lightly, this is the same kind of lawless fanaticism being displayed in bus explosions as well as peaceful protests. What should be private is made public with little regard for the consequences.

Judeo-Christianity is obviously the most popular belief system in America. But what made the United States different was the freedom to freely reject it. This means not having to look at a massive memorial for God every time you get a parking ticket, whether you wish to or not.

Moon is a second-year business economics student.