I firmly believe in the separation of
church and state for the protection of the church! I think there is a
Biblical and historical basis for it that we should adopt.
Jesus did not get involved in the state
in His day. He was involved in religious politics, constantly dealing
with religious leaders of the time, but that was the heart of His
mission. He was sent to change our ideas of faith. It was a religious
revolution of God incarnate, but not a state upheaval. Mark 12:17 is
good evidence that Jesus believed there was a separation between the
law of God and the law of the state. But Jesus' overall disregard to
the importance of the state is a better example of how we should
live. Jesus did not focus on elections or even speak about the
governor or the empire. As religious leaders of our time we must
concern ourselves with the hearts and faith of the people, not get
distracted by state politics. The reason many Jews did not think
Jesus was the Messiah in the first place was because they thought
their Messiah would be a king and lead Israel to political
independence. If Jesus wasn't worried about overthrowing the Romans,
should we really be worried about taking back the American
government?
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 lays the
foundation for how Christians are supposed to act towards people who
do not hold our same beliefs. Paul calls for the church in Corinth to
stop associating with the sexually immoral. So they stopped
associating with everybody! Paul corrects their error and clarifies
that he was specifically speaking about the sexually immoral in the
church. And that we are only to judge fellow Christians in the
church. I know that sounds bad but he is saying that we shouldn't let
our fellow Christians stay in their sin, we should confront them.
However, those outside the church we are not to judge. We are to hold
them to a different standard. A standard of love and acceptance
because they did not sign up for the same moral code that we did.
Judging is not the way that Jesus approached us and changed our
hearts, so we should not judge them. Extrapolating this idea, I do
not think it is right for Christians to try to change the state law
and conform it to Christian morals. That would be holding non
Christians accountable to the morals of Christians, just indirectly,
through the use of the state.
Finally, if you look at history, when
the church and state unify it turns out poorly for both. People are
abused under church and state law. The state's lust for power nearly
always corrupts theology, causes violence, and brings along false
converts. It devalues the faith of the true believers. Religious
leaders become state appointed officials and are chosen for political
reasons instead of religious ones. And it leads people to think that
the whole faith is fraudulent, that everyone in church is there
because the state says they have to be.
I think taking back the country for
Jesus is a bad plan. We should instead celebrate the separation of
the church and state because religious freedom means that we are free
to worship God as we please, and that is a beautiful thing.
