No, folks. No.

If it was said once this week outside the trial of suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, I swear it was said a dozen times.

"If it's not God's law, it's not law," Moore's disciples said.

No, folks. No.

Not unless you live in the United States of Falwell. Or the Islamic State.

There's no law but god's law in those places, I'll grant you. Whether you believe in that god or not.

But alas for those folks in Montgomery -- one guy said he'd picked up a couple of law books so he knew those trying to oust Moore were wrong -- this is not the USF.

Or ISIS.

It remains a country founded on the principle of freedom, a place where my god can be a whole lot more tolerant than the damning deity depicted on signs in front of the Alabama Judicial Building.

If you want to believe in a god who sits in the sky waiting to rain down fire and brimstone - cool. If you think god is love -- awesome. If you want to believe in a being that shows its approval through cash payouts or tax breaks, well that's your call, too. And if you want to believe absolutely nothing at all, that's absolutely OK.

It's just part of the bargain of being American. It's part of the promise that made this a melting pot. It's in the DNA of the USA. Worship whoever or whatever moves your spirit, or scoff at those who do. The First Amendment guarantees it, so a thousand sects and denominations and religions find space in this land.

Which is why "God's law" is not The Law. We can't, and never could, agree what god or what interpretation of the same god laid down the law.

We don't all believe like Roy Moore.

We don't all believe like me.

And we don't all believe like you.

Good O'l J.D. Crowe

Which is why -- despite what Roy Moore and his most virulent supporters claim -- the law that must matter most in the courts and the halls of government is The Law, the statutes hewn in the legislative branches of government and interpreted by the courts.

The Law, which Roy Moore swore an oath to uphold.

In America, the rule of law is the Great Commandment. Without it we are lost, a lawless land controlled by the tribe with the biggest band and the biggest stick. That's not America. It's ISIS.

Moore's supporters on Wednesday said they couldn't understand why the chief justice was even on trial before the court of the judiciary. They argued that a charge against Moore is an attack on god and an assault on religion itself.

Which is as absurd. It is a protection of religion.

Moore, the top judge on the highest court in all of Alabama, was on trial for flouting the Rule of Law, for putting his own beliefs - again - above the decisions of the United States Supreme Court.

Moore was accused of ordering Alabama probate judges to deny marriage licenses to gay couples, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that essentially made gay marriage legal in all states. Moore argued Wednesday his order was just a suggestion - even if it did say "ordered and directed" right there before his signature.

"I would not defy a federal court order," Moore testified - even though he was kicked out of the same office in 2003 for defying a federal court order. His follow-up was closer to the truth.

"I don't defy federal court orders when they are within the law," he said.

Within his version of the law.

The Court of the Judiciary stood for the Rule of Law this week, unanimously finding that Moore should be suspended without pay for the rest of his term for putting himself before his duty.

It had little choice.

Because Moore, again, put his own beliefs and his own flavor of religion above his duty, his country and his oath. He violated the one thing he was sworn to uphold.

The Law.