By focusing on a largely symbolic controversy, both the sheriff's defenders and detractors are ignoring a more tangible threat – the sheriff's insistence, typical of his profession, that citizens render immediate, unconditional obedience to law enforcement officers as duly appointed ministers of violence on behalf of the divine State.

"Where's our patriotism?" Sheriff Rader theatrically protested during a recent interview on Fox News. "Anytime anybody wants to be patriotic and make a symbol nowadays, they're attacked…. We've come so far from 9/11, it just saddens me."

Rader is correct in pointing out that many other law enforcement agencies display the phrase – which is the official national motto – on their vehicles. As legal commentator and retired Judge Andrew Napolitano points out, this practice is in compliance with Supreme Court precedents, even though it does prompt objections from proponents of strict separation of church and state (including some believers offended by the profanation of faith through association with the monstrosity called the state).

A more troublesome expression of the worldview that governs Sheriff Rader's department is found on its official website. Prominently displayed on the introductory page is an inventive paraphrase of the familiar (and widely misapplied) verse from chapter 13 of the New Testament's Book of Romans: