The American Split of Church and State

The otherwise boring profile of Tyler Brule/Monocle from The New York Times features this quote about the magazine’s unconventional approach to advertising:

“Rather than some boozy lunch with editors and sponsored parties, we cut right to the chase. We have editorial integrity, we don’t accept freebies and we make the final decision about what is worthy,” he said. “But as publisher and editor, I’m part of the religious and secular worlds, and I make the decision. No offense, but I think the whole church-and-state thing is a very tired, U.S. concept.”

As blasphemous as Brule’s approach to magazines is, I think he’s on to something (though I’m not entirely sure how it scales up). It’s not new, however, Heavy.com did all their own creative from the beginning. With that said, I find it quite interesting that Brule took it out of just the media world and questioned the general American concept of church and state, I can’t say I’d ever though of it quite that way (church and state being an American concept), but it is and it’s something that bleeds through all culture for better (and occasionally worse). (Just to be clear, I’m in no way suggesting abolishing church and state when it comes to politics, I believe religion has no place there.)

August 24, 2009