Take it off, Alabama. Take it aaaaall off. You're naked as the day you were born, naked as porn, clothed in the manner of the emperor.

In nothing but audacity and deceit. And hypocrisy.

Buck naked. Or as they say down in Sipsey, butt nekkid.

You've shown the world the stuff you used to have enough decency to conceal. You've shown even to yourself that what you say is a lie and what you believe is as flexible as the moment demands.

You're a poser, Alabama. And the Bible Belt is down around your knees. You stamp yourself with the label of God and good and morality, and it means nothing to you.

Not more than politics. Or ideology. Or your own lack of shame.

Remember when the good grandpa governor Robert Bentley held all the credibility he needed to win the state over? He was a Baptist deacon, a vocal Christian who spoke of high moral ground like he lived there.

Until he was caught talking dirty to a lady who worked for him. Until we found he wanted to do things in the office that would make his secretary Wanda blush. Then you cared, Alabama.

People like State Auditor Jim Zeigler made it their life's ambition to punish his iniquity and his waste. People like Rep. Ed Henry zeroed in on his sins, launching investigations and searching for clues - seeking the infamous "Wanda's Desk," which bore witness to unspeakable things.

Oh, that desks could speak.

But now, now you can see it.

Jim Zeigler is naked. Ed Henry too. You can see them laid bare. Sorry if you can't unsee them.

Because neither one of those guys had the decency to question whether reports that Senate candidate Roy Moore hit on teenage girls when he was in his 30s were true. That didn't seem to matter. Neither one had the propriety to want to know more, or rebuke it - even in the safe, milquetoast manner of so many others - with the caveat if it is true.

Roy Moore, Jim Zeigler and Ed Henry.

Zeigler invoked God when he said there's nothing wrong with hitting on the youngsters. It was fine when old man Joseph hooked up with teenaged Mary, he told a reporter. The result was ... Jesus!

Jesus.

That blew the top off Christianity Today writer Ed Stetzer, who stripped Zeigler bare.

"Bringing Joseph and Mary into a modern-day molestation accusation, where a 32-year-old prosecutor is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl, is simultaneously ridiculous and blasphemous," Stetzer wrote.

"So, let's be clear. No. Normal. Evangelical. Believes. This. About. The. Bible," he went on. "As Christians, this should provoke anger."

But in Alabama it provoked anger at the press that reported it, and at the women themselves.

Henry went so far as to say Moore's accusers - four women were named in the Post story and 30 other sources were used - should be prosecuted for lying or interfering or ... something. He said the women are, because of their long silences, accomplices to any crimes that may have been committed.

To the victims goes the blame.

This is a guy who began impeachment proceedings against Bentley for issues of "moral turpitude," among other things.

He's willing to look the other way rather than entertain the possibility - the possibility - that Moore was an assistant district attorney who stripped with a little girl. As for Moore, he told Sean Hannity he didn't "generally" pursue underage girls, and never dated teenagers unless their mothers knew.

Ew.

Naked.

And so is all of Alabama. And all who base their morality on party, and persuasion, and political convenience.

We like to think we are clothed in the finery of God. But everybody knows the truth.

We stand naked before the world, the Bible Belt around our ankles and our sizable hypocrisy on display for all to see.

John Archibald's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.