In Defense of the Seperation of Church and State

One of the major talking points for the religious right has always been the idea of the "seperation of church and state." The ideas discussed range from perceived discrimination to traditional values to, in some cases, a desire for something tantamount to theocracy. To be quite honest, I think much of the desire to tear down church-state seperation is idiotic.

If anything, I wish that the American church would further distance itself from ties to the national government. The bible is clear that our "citizenship is in heaven," and that while we owe submission to the ruling authorities of the world, our allegiance lies ultimately with God and His kingdom. Indeed, I think that in forgetting this the American church has been guilty in the past of bowing down to the nation as an idol and adopting its ideals as Christendom's. Democracy is not Christian. Neither is capitalism, imperialism or American history. Indeed, we have crippled our interactions with Christians in the rest of the world because we cannot grasp that we are their fellow countrymen before our American peers.

We have profoundly misunderstood God's covenants in the Old Testament because of this. The honest truth is that, unless you are Israel, there is no grounds for taking any biblical promises and applying them to a nation, regardless of your theological bent. God is not obligated to honor a nation because it has a lot of moral people. Heck, as a Christian I would say God is not even going to honor people for being moral, unless they follow him. Sure, I think that there is a benefit to people if they live within the moral grounds set forth in Scripture. But there is no promise that a nation will be blessed because of it. What's more, even these benefits should not be our aim as Christians in the world. Our calling is to make disciples, not heterosexual monogamous pro-life Republican pagans.

Case in point: the ten commandments being posted in courthouses. First of all, claiming that these are the moral rules used to govern our nation is silly. Nations don't forbid murder or theft because God told them to, but because it protects their citizens. This is why essentially the same laws govern lots of different countries with lots of different religious heritages. Its just the way God has designed government to run. Besides which, I don't see (or want to see!) any laws about coveting or keeping the sabbath passed by our nation, and as for bowing down to graven images, Christians get awfully fiesty at the thought of a piece of cloth they swear allegiance to every day in grade school being lit on fire.

However, this is only the surface. The root of the problem is that, in fighting about the public posting of the ten commandments, Christians have only perpetuated misconceptions about what we're about. When the rich young ruler tells Christ he has kept all of these commands, his answer is not "What a great Roman you are," but "go, sell everything to the poor and follow me." By hanging these commandments in the public view as the heart of what we Christians will defend, we are not fighting for the gospel but for moralism.

Another case in point: marriage. I'm not just talking about the gay marriage controversy, although that's the latest manifestation. The church has done itself immeasurable harm by linking the state and religious institutions of marriage. By equating them, we have allowed things like no-fault divorce to creep into the church. The problem is not that the state lets people get divorced, its that we tell people that the state's standards of marriage and divorce are God's. While I have issues with how the Catholic church issues annulments (read: their frequency), they at least have the right idea. Marriage in the state's eyes is a legal status. Marriage in the church's is a union of two people before God. We need to sharply fight to keep them different, rather than let them fuse.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point (and probably several people rather angry). A few caveats before I go. I do think that Christians should be involved in our nation. However, it is not because we owe it our service, but because we are commanded to love our fellow man. It is a worthy calling to pursue justice, care for the downtrodden, and defend the helpless in the halls of government. I also think that, because of the way God has designed the world, a just and equitable state will function better than and injust or corrupt one. However, since the world is fallen, no nation will last forever, no matter the intentions of its founders.

This being said, however, I think that Christianity needs to support a right view of church/state seperation. In the words of Isaac Backus, a Baptist minister in New England in 1773, "[When] church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued." Tear the flags off the walls and "God Bless America" from the hymnal and pursue the kingdom of God, rather than that of the United States.