Blogging Against Theocracy Silliness
In "honor" of "Blogging Against Theocracy," a.k.a. "Marginalizing Christianity on its Most Sacred Holiday", a post on "Does Religion Belong in Politics?" This is reprinted from my editiorial in the October 2005 issue of Dakota Voice.
The newly formed South Dakota Mainstream coalition has garnered a lot of discussion throughout the state in recent months, and stoked the passionate fires of many.
The first stated purpose of the group, according to their website, is “to preserve the traditional American values of separation of church and state,” and this revisionist objective always seems to come up during interviews with coalition members.
There are a number of things about the SD Mainstream Coalition which should concern conservatives and cheer liberals, but this primary value held by the group is the one most relevant to people of faith.
People who don’t want to share their deepest faith and values with others—and don’t want anyone else to, either—often cite the Biblical reference from Matthew 6:5, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.” This passage is also cited to oppose prayer in schools and any other public acknowledgement of religious belief.
Yet those who quote this passage as a baseball bat to whack people of faith completely miss the context. Christ was telling his disciples not to do their acts of faith for the acclaim of other men, as the Pharisees were doing. If he had meant what the church/state-ers thought, Jesus would never have prayed aloud before raising Lazarus from the dead—heaven forbid the Savior might offend anyone else’s religious beliefs!
Church/state-ers somehow never seem to remember that other quote from Christ in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Christ also said we were to render unto Caesar what is owed, and to God what God is owed. He was addressing whether it was right to pay taxes, but application does not end there.
In the United States, we have a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Our government allows for and by implication requires citizens to be informed and to take part in their government. We are to be informed on the issues, on the candidates’ stand on the issues, and we are to vote accordingly.
The founding fathers and early custodians of our republic never for the briefest millisecond believed there should be a separation between faith and law, or God and government. They recognized that the institution of the church should not run the government, and just as equally that the government was not to dictate or limit religious freedom and expression.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson
"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained." - George Washington
"I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it.' I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel." - Benjamin Franklin
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty...of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." - John Jay, First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
"In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their Christian duties, is a community on the rapid down-grade." - Theodore Roosevelt
"The more profoundly one is concerned about heaven, the more deeply one cares about God's will being done on earth." - J.I. Packer
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports...It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government...Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?" - George Washington
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridles by morality and religion...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
"The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom and open-mindedness. Question: Isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives." - Ronald Reagan
“[N]o amount of repetition of historical errors in judicial opinions can make the errors true. The `wall of separation between church and state' is a metaphor based on bad history. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. “ - Chief Justice William Rehnquist
So you see, the so-called “traditional American value of separation of church and state” is a farce, and a revision of actual history. It has no basis whatsoever in fact.
The reformer Martin Luther once said, “"If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved."
Christians cannot sit on the sidelines of the battle for public morality and remain faithful soldiers for their Lord. They also cannot fulfill their obligations as citizens of a free republic given to them by God.
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