Blog Against Theocracy Weekend is underway! While I intend to have an original post up this weekend, please enjoy this bonus repost (with minimal editing) from the the 2007 Blog Against Theocracy Weekend. It was originally titled Church | <====> | State. I am especially pleased that I managed to make a Biblical argument for separation of church and state!
A Special Item for the Blog Against Theocracy Weekend
I have been asked to say a few words on Separation of Church and State this weekend. If I may, I’d like to point out a couple of very good items I read earlier this week: “A look at the Christian Right’s legal muscle leading the fight to end the separation of church and state”; from CNN we have the very provocatively titled What Would Jesus Really Do?. This item is so full of wonderful quotes that I wouldn’t blame any preacher who stood up and read the whole thing Sunday morning as part of the sermon, but this is my favorite passage:
An African-American pastor I know in the Midwest was asked by a group of mostly white clergy to march in an anti-abortion rally. He was fine with that, but then asked the clergy if they would work with him to fight crack houses in predominantly black neighborhoods.
“That’s really your problem,” he was told.
They saw abortion as a moral imperative, but not a community ravaged by crack.
If you don’t mind, I am limiting the discussion on the religious side to Christianity, because many believe this nation is and was founded as a “Christian Nation.” There is no credible movement in this country to have a theocracy based on Jewish or Moslem or Hindu or Buddhist scriptures, but there is a movement to make our government more closely aligned with a rather narrowly defined Christian ideology.
Let’s begin with the Biblical reasons that Christians should support Separation of Church and State. I’ll begin In the Old Testament with Samuel 8:1-22. Something like the following conversation occurred with the Prophet/Judge Samuel as intermediary:
Israelites: GOD! All the other nations have kings and we don’t!
God: Um yeah, and you know what else they have that you don’t? Idols and high taxes and drafts of military aged men and corrupt government officials. And you know what they don’t have? A sovereign omnipotent God!
Israelites: But God!!! We want a King like all the other nations!
God: If all the other nations jumped off a bridge would you?? Fine, have your King, but don’t come crying to me if it doesn’t work out the way you’d like!
Samuel of course then sought out a king, and found Saul. Who of course didn’t turn out to be all that. Saul had to choose between doing what God said and what the People Who Wanted A King In The First Place wanted (I Sam:15:24). And then he tried to kill a political adversary (I Sam 19:11). Even a government appointed by God was corrupt. But how do the people challenge a divinely ordained government?
The next King was really only marginally better. He had a civil war to deal with (II Sam 3:1), and his very own sex scandal (II Sam 11:2-12:23) — quite a feat when you already have a harem — and even a traitorous son (II Sam 13-18). And this was the King everybody says was so Godly.
If you don’t like the Old Testament, let’s go to the New Testament. Even Jesus himself thought Church and State should be kept separate, most succinctly put in Matthew 22:21, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. and to God the things that are God’s.” This caused the listeners to “marvel.” Frankly, by this standard even Christians should object to “In God We Trust” being on coins. What Would Jesus Do indeed.
Just in case you don’t think Jesus meant we should extend this thought to mean Christians should follow all the laws of God in addition to all the laws of the State — and that there would be minimal overlap — the Apostle Paul spells it out nicely in Romans 13:1-10, which begins “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.”
Let’s follow up with the reasons every American should support Separation of Church and State. I will set aside my Bible (RSV if anybody cares) and get out the Constitution. As I have pointed out before, it was written by men who knew a thing or two about history.
They knew that many of their forbears had come to this land seeking religious freedom, including freedom from the Government-sponsored Church of England.
They knew there had already been religious persecution in the colonies.
They knew what happened in Salem.
Extremely well read gentlemen like Thomas Jefferson had a basic familiarity with world religions; Mr Jefferson even owned a copy of the Quran.
For these men to have turned around and written “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” means they thought Government and Religion should keep a respectful distance of one another.
People who think our Government needs more Old Time Religion need to turn around, and clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the sick in their own communities (Matt 25:31-46).