Who needs religion when you've got Government?

Jonah Goldberg in National Review takes a hard look at the competition between church and state in the eyes of the liberal left. Again, they don't so much want to maintain a wall between religion and government - that would suggest they participate in religion and 'believe' - as they would be happy to see religion replaced. We no longer need to believe in a God because we have governments to look toward for guidance and belonging:

"But what offends them so much about religion is that it is a source of authority outside - and prior to - politics. What has offended the Left since Marx, and American liberalism since Dewey, is the notion that moral authority should be derived from anyplace other than the state or 'the people' (conveniently defined as citizens who vote liberal). Voting on values not sanctified by secular priests is how they define 'ignorance.' This was the real goal of Hillary Clinton's 'politics of meaning' - to replace traditional religion with a secular one that derived its authority not from ancient texts and 'superstitions' but from the good intentions of an activist state and its anointed priests."