Stop confusing the revered with the sacred. The Capitol is not “sacred.”

Representative Liz Cheney, in her childishly petulant justification of supporting impeachment of a president who is out of office in a week anyway, says the Executive deserves this rare legislative attack because Trump “lit the fire” of a protest in which a few didn’t treat the Capitol building as if it were a sacred holy space.

It is no exaggeration; Liz Cheney herself called the Capitol building space “the most sacred space in our Republic.” Others who seem to worship our secular government have done the same, often.

That is as deeply offensive to respect for a Republic as are those who, in practice, treat their church building as the object of worship more than God and His Word. As Christ’s confessing followers are the Church, not buildings, relics or idols, a Republic is the body of sovereign citizens not the buildings or institutions they create to facilitate their sovereign rule.

As conservatives we have a sense of reverence for our institutions, including grand buildings, that recognizes that such are symbols of, not the power, but the justice and rightness of our Republic. But there is also something that differentiates a Republic from other governments such as the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom where a monarch is head of church as well as state.

While we believe our Republic to be inspired and blessed by God, we do not confuse our Republic with God. We do not consider the secular and often profane, and that certainly includes Congress, with the sacred. It is that idea which anchors the concept of separation of church and state. State is of men and thus ultimately profane while church is sacred and ultimately perfectible through Christ and his Second Coming to man.

Be smarter than these folk unwittingly, or in many cases purposefully, confusing things to be revered with things held as sacred. Doing so is an insult to the sacred and an undue promotion to that which is held in reverence only.